curl on Windows

curl is a command-line tool for transferring data to and from a server. It's included with Windows and supports a wide range of protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and SFTP, making it a convenient way to call REST APIs, download files, and test endpoints without installing extra tools.

The Windows version is built from the upstream curl project, so the same flags and behavior you know from Linux and macOS work the same way on Windows.

Note

Windows PowerShell 5.1 defines a built-in alias named curl that maps to Invoke-WebRequest, which shadows curl.exe and accepts different parameters. To use the real curl in Windows PowerShell 5.1, either remove the alias with Remove-Item Alias:curl or invoke it explicitly as curl.exe (for example, curl.exe -O https://example.com/file.zip). PowerShell 7+ does not define this alias.

Common commands

Download a file:

curl -O https://example.com/file.zip

Make a GET request and print the response:

curl https://api.example.com/data

Send a JSON POST request:

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/items `
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" `
    -d '{"name":"widget"}'

For the full list of options, run curl --help or see the official documentation.