How to make a POST request using curl

By Thomas Taylor | | 2 minutes
Linux

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

Make a simple POST request

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

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curl -X POST https://example.com

The -X argument accepts an HTTP method for interacting with the server. For HTTP, valid values include: GET (default), POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.

NOTE: The -X flag is a shorthand for --request. Either can be used.

Make a POST request with data

Users can send data along with a POST request.

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curl -X POST -d "title=foo&body=test" \
	https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts

In the example above, a POST request is sent to the JSONPlaceholder API to create a new post with a title of foo and a body of test.

The default Content-Type is application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

NOTE: The -d flag is a shorthand for --data. Either can be used.

Make a POST request with JSON body

Users may optionally send JSON data in their request payloads.

Making a POST request with JSON

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curl -X POST \
	-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
	-d '{"title":"foo","body":"bar"}' \
	https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts

In the example above, a POST request is sent to the JSONPlaceholder API to create a new post with a title of foo and a body of bar.

The -H flag accepts a Key: value string that represents a header. In the above case, it sets the content type: Content-Type: application/json.

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

Making a POST request with a JSON file

In addition to text, the -d parameter accepts a file using the syntax @filename.

If a file is named post.json

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{ 
	"title": "foo",
	"body": "test"
}

then curl can pass on its contents:

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curl -X POST \
	-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
	-d @post.json \
	https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts