curl Cheat Sheet — HTTP Requests & API Testing Commands

Complete curl command reference for API testing, file downloads, headers, authentication, and more. Interactive curl cheat sheet with copy-ready examples. Free.

Basic Requests

GET request (default)

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

POST request (empty body)

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users

PUT request

curl -X PUT https://api.example.com/users/1

DELETE request

curl -X DELETE https://api.example.com/users/1

PATCH request

curl -X PATCH https://api.example.com/users/1

HEAD request — fetch headers only

curl -I https://example.com

Show response headers + body

curl -i https://example.com

Silent mode, pipe to jq for JSON formatting

curl -s https://api.example.com/data | jq .

Headers & Auth

Bearer token auth

curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' https://api.example.com

API key header

curl -H 'X-API-Key: mykey' https://api.example.com

Set Content-Type header

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://api.example.com

Multiple headers

curl -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'X-Custom: value' https://api.example.com

HTTP Basic Auth

curl -u username:password https://api.example.com

OAuth2 Bearer token

curl --oauth2-bearer TOKEN https://api.example.com

Manual Basic Auth base64

curl -H 'Authorization: Basic $(echo -n user:pass | base64)' https://api.example.com

Dump response headers to file

curl -D headers.txt https://example.com

Data & JSON Body

POST JSON body

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

POST JSON from file (@filename)

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d @payload.json https://api.example.com

POST form data (URL-encoded)

curl -X POST -d 'name=Alice&age=30' https://example.com/form

URL-encode data automatically

curl -X POST --data-urlencode 'message=Hello World' https://example.com

PATCH with JSON body

curl -X PATCH -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"status":"active"}' https://api.example.com/users/1

GET with query parameters

curl -G -d 'q=linux&limit=10' https://api.example.com/search

GET with query string in URL

curl 'https://api.example.com/search?q=curl&limit=5'

File Upload

Upload file (multipart/form-data)

curl -F '[email protected]' https://api.example.com/upload

Upload file + form field

curl -F '[email protected]' -F 'name=photo' https://api.example.com/upload

Upload with explicit MIME type

curl -F '[email protected];type=text/csv' https://api.example.com/import

Upload to FTP server

curl -T localfile.txt ftp://ftp.example.com/upload/

Binary file upload via PUT

curl -X PUT -H 'Content-Type: image/jpeg' --data-binary @photo.jpg https://api.example.com/photo

Multiple file upload

curl -F 'files[][email protected]' -F 'files[][email protected]' https://api.example.com/upload

Output & Verbose

Save response to file

curl -o output.html https://example.com

Save with remote filename

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

Verbose — show request/response details

curl -v https://example.com

Trace to file (very detailed)

curl --trace-ascii trace.log https://example.com

Print only HTTP status code

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' https://example.com

Print total request time

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{time_total}\n' https://example.com

Custom output format from file

curl -w '@format.txt' -o /dev/null -s https://example.com

Suppress progress but show errors

curl --silent --show-error https://example.com

Progress bar while downloading

curl -# -O https://example.com/large.iso

Resume interrupted download

curl -C - -O https://example.com/large.iso

TLS / SSL

Skip SSL certificate verification (insecure)

curl -k https://self-signed.example.com

Use custom CA certificate

curl --cacert ca.crt https://example.com

Client certificate authentication

curl --cert client.crt --key client.key https://example.com

Force TLS 1.2 minimum

curl --tlsv1.2 https://example.com

Force TLS 1.3

curl --tlsv1.3 https://example.com

Cookies

Send cookie in request

curl -b 'session=abc123' https://example.com

Save received cookies to file

curl -c cookies.txt https://example.com

Send cookies from file

curl -b cookies.txt https://example.com

Load and save cookies (session)

curl -b cookies.txt -c cookies.txt https://example.com/login

Redirect & Timeout

Follow redirects

curl -L https://bit.ly/example

Follow up to 5 redirects

curl -L --max-redirs 5 https://example.com

Connection timeout in seconds

curl --connect-timeout 10 https://example.com

Maximum transfer time in seconds

curl --max-time 30 https://example.com

Retry 3 times with 2s delay

curl --retry 3 --retry-delay 2 https://example.com

Retry on any error

curl --retry 3 --retry-all-errors https://api.example.com

Use HTTP proxy

curl -x http://proxy:8080 https://example.com

Use SOCKS5 proxy (e.g. Tor)

curl --socks5 localhost:9050 https://example.com

Help Us Improve

Be the first to rate!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make a POST request with curl?

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/endpoint -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"key":"value"}'

Is curl Cheat Sheet free?

Yes, curl Cheat Sheet on ToolPix is 100% free with no signup or installation required.

Is my data safe?

This is a static reference tool. No data is entered or transmitted.

How do I add an Authorization header with curl?

curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN' https://api.example.com — or use -H 'x-api-key: KEY' for API key auth.

How do I download a file with curl?

curl -O https://example.com/file.zip downloads to the current directory with the original filename. Use -o myname.zip to specify the output filename.

Related Tools

CSS Minifier

Minify and compress CSS code. Remove comments, whitespa…

JWT Decoder

Decode and inspect JWT tokens. View header, payload, an…

Regex Tester

Test and debug regular expressions with real-time match…

Diff Checker

Compare two texts side by side. Highlight additions, de…

Cron Expression Generator

Build cron expressions visually with a point-and-click …