How to make a POST request using curl

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:

1curl -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.

1curl -X POST -d "title=foo&body=test" \
2	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

1curl -X POST \
2	-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
3	-d '{"title":"foo","body":"bar"}' \
4	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

1{ 
2	"title": "foo",
3	"body": "test"
4}

then curl can pass on its contents:

1curl -X POST \
2	-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
3	-d @post.json \
4	https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts