How to make a GET request using curl

By Thomas Taylor | | 1 minutes
Linux

For more information about curl, checkout the “What is curl” article. This article will discuss how to interact with an API using GET requests through curl.

Make a simple GET request

The basic syntax for sending a GET request using curl is:

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curl https://example.com

OR

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curl -X GET https://example.com

NOTE: The -X flag is a shorthand for --request. It’s not required because the default value is GET.

Make a GET request for JSON data

If the server responds differently per the Accept header, users can specify for it to accept JSON data.

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curl \
	-H "Accept: application/json" \
	https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1

In the example above, a GET request is sent to the JSONPlaceholder API to fetch a post with an id of 1 with an Accept header of application/json.

The -H flag accepts a Key: value string that represents a header.

NOTE: The -H flag is a shorthand for --header. Either can be used.

This same technique may be used for other mime types:

  • application/xml
  • text/html
  • img/png
  • etc.