[Blog](https://scrapfly.io/blog)   /  [curl](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/curl)   /  [How to Use cURL For Web Scraping](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-use-curl-for-web-scraping)   # How to Use cURL For Web Scraping

 by [Mazen Ramadan](https://scrapfly.io/blog/author/mazen) Apr 18, 2026 11 min read [\#curl](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/curl) [\#http](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/http) [\#tools](https://scrapfly.io/blog/tag/tools) 

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cURL is one of the oldest tools used for sending HTTP requests. Yet, it's still a great asset for the web scraping toolbox.

In this article, we'll go over a step-by-step guide on sending and configuring HTTP requests with cURL. We'll also explore advanced usages of cURL for web scraping, such as scraping dynamic pages and avoiding getting blocked. Let's get started!

## Key Takeaways

Master curl headers and HTTP request configuration for web scraping, learning advanced techniques for authentication, anti-blocking, and dynamic content handling.

- Use cURL for fast and efficient HTTP requests with comprehensive configuration options for web scraping
- Configure custom headers, cookies, and user agents to mimic real browser behavior and avoid detection
- Handle different HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT) and authentication schemes for accessing protected content
- Implement proxy support and connection management for large-scale scraping operations
- Extract and parse response data using cURL's output options and data handling capabilities
- Apply advanced cURL features like redirects, timeouts, and retry logic for robust scraping workflows

**Get web scraping tips in your inbox**Trusted by 100K+ developers and 30K+ enterprises. Unsubscribe anytime.







## What is cURL and Why Use It?

cURL, standing for "client for URL", is an **open-source command-line tool used for transferring data with URLs**. It's built on the top of the [libcurl](https://curl.se/libcurl/) C library. It supports the different types of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, etc.) with various HTTP protocols, including HTTP and HTTPS.

cURL isn't only super-fast and straightforward, but it provides a comprehensive request configuration, including:

- Adding custom headers and cookies.
- Enabling or disabling request redirects.
- Downloading binary files.

This makes using cURL for web scraping a viable tool for debugging and developing scraping scripts or even extracting small data portions.



## How To Install cURL?

Before we start web scraping with cURL, we must install it. cURL comes pre-installed in almost all operating systems. However, run the below commands to upgrade or install it if it isn't found.

#### Linux

shell```shell
$ apt-get install curl
```



#### Mac

shell```shell
$ brew install curl
```



#### Windows

shell```shell
$ choco install curl
```



To verify your installation, simply run the following command. You should receive the cURL version details:

shell```shell
$ curl --version
# curl 8.4.0 (Windows) libcurl/8.4.0 Schannel WinIDN
# Release-Date: 2023-10-11
```





## How To Use cURL?

In this section, we'll explore the basics of cURL and how to navigate it to send different request types. Let's start with the most basic cURL usage: sending GET requests.



### Sending GET Requests

cURL follows the below syntax for all the request types:

shell```shell
curl [OPTIONS] URL
```



- **OPTIONS**Represents the request option, which are configurations that can be passed to the request to specify headers, cookies, proxies, request type and so on. **To list the commonly used options**, use the `curl -h` command. **To view all the available ones**, use the `curl -h all` command.
- **URL**The actual URL to request.

To send a GET request with cURL, all we have to do is specify the URL to request, as it uses the `GET` method by default:

shell```shell
curl https://httpbin.dev/get
```



The above command will request the `httpbin.dev/get` endpoint and return the request details:

json```json
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Accept-Encoding": [
      "gzip"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "httpbin.dev"
    ],
    "User-Agent": [
      "curl/8.4.0"
    ]
  },
  "url": "https://httpbin.dev/get"
}
```



We can see that the request has been sent successfully with the default cURL header configurations. Let's have a look at modifying them.



### Adding Headers

To add headers with cURL, we can use the `-H` option for each header. For example, here is how we can send a cURL with [How to Effectively Use User Agents for Web Scraping](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/user-agent-header-in-web-scraping) and Accept headers:

shell```shell
curl -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/113.0" -H "Accept: application/json" https://httpbin.dev/headers
```



In the above cURL request, we override the cURL User-Agent and Accept headers with custom ones. The response will include the newly configured headers:

json```json
{
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "application/json"
    ],
    "Accept-Encoding": [
      "gzip"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "httpbin.dev"
    ],
    "User-Agent": [
      "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/113.0"
    ]
  }
}
```



Alternatively, we can change the cURL User-Agent header through the `-A` option:

shell```shell
curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/113.0" https://httpbin.dev/headers
```



[How Headers Are Used to Block Web Scrapers and How to Fix ItIntroduction to web scraping headers - what do they mean, how to configure them in web scrapers and how to avoid being blocked.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-avoid-web-scraping-blocking-headers)



### Adding Cookies

Next, let's set cookies with cURL. For this, we can use the cURL `-b` option:

shell```shell
curl -b "cookie1=value1; cookie2=value2" https://httpbin.dev/cookies
```



The above command will set two cookie values with the cURL request sent:

json```json
{
  "cookie1": "value1",
  "cookie2": "value2"
}
```



Alternatively, we can **treat the cookies as regular cURL headers** and pass them through the `cookie` header:

shell```shell
curl -H "cookie: cookie1=value1; cookie2=value2" https://httpbin.dev/cookies
```



[How to Handle Cookies in Web ScrapingIntroduction to cookies in web scraping. What are they and how to take advantage of cookie process to authenticate or set website preferences.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-handle-cookies-in-web-scraping)



### Sending Post Requests

In the previous sections, we have sent `GET` requests with cURL. In this one, we'll explain sending `POST` requests. To send POST requests with cURL, we can utilize the `-X` option, which determines the request HTTP method:

shell```shell
curl -X POST https://httpbin.dev/post
```



Thhe above cURL command will send a `POST` request and return the request details:

json```json
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": [
      "*/*"
    ],
    "Accept-Encoding": [
      "gzip"
    ],
    "Content-Length": [
      "0"
    ],
    "Host": [
      "httpbin.dev"
    ],
    "User-Agent": [
      "curl/8.4.0"
    ]
  },
  "url": "https://httpbin.dev/post",
  "data": "",
  "files": null,
  "form": null,
  "json": null
}
```



In most cases, `POST` requests require a body. So, let's take a look at adding a request body with cURL requests.



### Adding Request Body

To add a request body with cURL, we can use the `-d` cURL option and pass the body as an object:

bash```bash
curl -X POST -d '{"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}' https://httpbin.dev/post
```



If we observe the response, we'll find the body passed to the request present:

json```json
{
  ....
  ""data": "{\"key1\": \"value1\", \"key2\": \"value2\"}",
}
```



Note that on Windows, you need to escape the body with backslashes:

shell```shell
curl -X POST -d "{\"key1\": \"value1\", \"key2\": \"value2\"}" https://httpbin.dev/post
```





Scrapfly

#### Scale your web scraping effortlessly

Scrapfly handles proxies, browsers, and anti-bot bypass — so you can focus on data.

[Try Free →](https://scrapfly.io/register)## Web Scraping With cURL

The standard web scraping process requires HTML parsing, crawling, processing and saving the extracted. Therefore, **cURL itself isn't suitable for these extensive scraping tasks**. However, it can be a great asset for debugging and development purposes. Accordingly, we'll explore using cURL for common web scraping tips and tricks.



### Scraping Dynamic pages With cURL

Data on dynamic websites are usually loaded through [background XHR calls](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/web-scraping-background-requests-with-headless-browsers-and-python). These API calls can be captured on the [browser developer tools](https://scrapfly.io/blog/answers/browser-developer-tools-in-web-scraping) and exported as cURL requests for web scraping.

For example, the review data on [web-scraping.dev](https://web-scraping.dev/testimonials) is loaded through background API requests:



Reviews on web-scraping.devFirst, let's capture the API calls on the above web page using the following steps:

- Open the browser developer tools by pressing the `F12` key.
- Select the `network` tab and filter by `Fetch/XHR` calls.
- Scroll down the page to load more review data.

After following the above steps, you will find the outgoing API calls recorded on the browser:



Background API calls on web-scraping.devNext, copy the cURL representation of the request. Right-click on the request, hover on the copy menu and select copy as cURL (bash) if you are on Mac or Linux and (cmd) for Windows.



Copy the request as cURLThe copied cURL command should look this:

bash```bash
curl 'https://web-scraping.dev/api/testimonials?page=2' \
  -H 'authority: web-scraping.dev' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'accept-language: en-US,en;q=0.9' \
  -H 'cookie: cookiesAccepted=true' \
  -H 'hx-current-url: https://web-scraping.dev/testimonials' \
  -H 'hx-request: true' \
  -H 'referer: https://web-scraping.dev/testimonials' \
  -H 'sec-ch-ua: "Chromium";v="122", "Not(A:Brand";v="24", "Microsoft Edge";v="122"' \
  -H 'sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0' \
  -H 'sec-ch-ua-platform: "Windows"' \
  -H 'sec-fetch-dest: empty' \
  -H 'sec-fetch-mode: cors' \
  -H 'sec-fetch-site: same-origin' \
  -H 'user-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/122.0.0.0' \
  -H 'x-secret-token: secret123'
```



We can see the headers, cookies and parameters used with the cURL request. Executing it will return the HTML data found on the browser:

html```html
<div class="testimonial">
    <identicon-svg username="testimonial-11"></identicon-svg>
    <div>
        <span class="rating"></span>
        <p class="text">The features are great but it took me a while to understand how to use them.</p>
    </div>
</div>


<div class="testimonial">
    <identicon-svg username="testimonial-12"></identicon-svg>
    <div>
        <span class="rating"></span>
        <p class="text">Love the simplicity and effectiveness of this app.</p>
    </div>
</div>
```



Now that we can execute a successful cURL request, we can import it to an HTTP client such as [Using API Clients For Web Scraping: Postman](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/using-api-clients-for-web-scraping-postman). This allows us to convert the cURL command into a programming language script like Python requests to continue the scraping process from there.

Moreover, this approach **allows our web scraping requests to be identical to those of normal users**, reducing our chances of getting blocked!

[How to Scrape Hidden APIsIn this tutorial we'll be taking a look at scraping hidden APIs which are becoming more and more common in modern dynamic websites - what's the best way to scrape them?](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-scrape-hidden-apis)



### Avoid cURL Scraping Blocking

cURL can be a viable tool for requesting and transferring data across web pages. However, websites use protection shields, such as [How to Bypass Cloudflare When Web Scraping in 2026](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-bypass-cloudflare-anti-scraping), to prevent automated requests like those of cURL from accessing the website.

[How to Bypass Anti-Bot Protection When Web ScrapingLearn how anti-bot systems detect scrapers and 5 universal bypass techniques including proxy rotation, fingerprinting, and fortified headless browsers.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-bypass-anti-bot-protection-when-web-scraping)

For example, let's attempt to request [How to Scrape G2 Company Data and Reviews](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-scrape-g2-company-data-and-reviews) with cURL. It's a popular website with Cloudflare protection:

shell```shell
curl https://www.g2.com/
```



The website greeted us with a Cloudflare challenge to solve:

html```html
<html lang="en-US"><head><title>Just a moment...</title>
```



To prevent cURL web scraping blocking, we can use [Curl Impersonate](https://github.com/lwthiker/curl-impersonate). A modified version of cURL that **simulates the [TLS fingerprint](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-avoid-web-scraping-blocking-tls) of normal web browsers**. It also **overrides the default cURL headers**, such as the User-Agent, with regular header values. This makes the cURL Impersonate requests look like those sent from the browsers, preventing the firewalls from detecting the usage of HTTP clients.

If we request G2 again with Curl Impersonate, we'll get the actual page HTML:

html```html
<h1 class="hero-unit__title" id="main">Where you go for software.</h1>
```



For more details on Curl Impersonate, including the installation and usage. Refer to our dedicated guide.

[Use Curl Impersonate to scrape as Chrome or FirefoxLearn how to prevent TLS fingerprinting by impersonating normal web browser configurations. We'll start by explaining what the Curl Impersonate is, how it works, how to install and use it. Finally, we'll explore using it with Python to avoid web scraping blocking.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/curl-impersonate-scrape-chrome-firefox-tls-http2-fingerprint)



### Adding proxies to cURL

In the previous section, we explored preventing the detection of the usage of cURL for web scraping by modifying the requests' configurations. However, websites use another trick to block requests: IP address.

[How to Avoid Web Scraper IP Blocking?How IP addresses are used in web scraping blocking. Understanding IP metadata and fingerprinting techniques to avoid web scraper blocks.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/how-to-avoid-web-scraping-blocking-ip-addresses)

Using proxies with cURL allows for **distributing the traffic load across multiple IP addresses**. This makes it harder for websites and firewalls to detect the origin of the IP address, leading to better chances of avoiding blocking.

To add proxies for cURL, we can use the `-x` or `--proxy` option followed by the proxy URL:

shell```shell
curl -x <protocol>://<proxy_host>:<proxy_port> <url>
```



The above syntax is the unified syntax used to add proxies to cURL requests. In practice, this syntax can be used like this for different proxy types:

shell```shell
# HTTP
curl -x http://proxy_domain.com:8080 https://httpbin.dev/ip
# HTTPS
curl -x https://proxy_domain.com:8080 https://httpbin.dev/ip
# SOCKS5
curl -x socks5://proxy_domain.com:8080 https://httpbin.dev/ip
# Proxies with crednetials
curl -x https://username:password@proxy.proxy_domain.com:8080 https://httpbin.dev/ip
```



For more details on using proxies for web scraping, refer to our dedicated guide.

[The Complete Guide To Using Proxies For Web ScrapingIntroduction to proxy usage in web scraping. What types of proxies are there? How to evaluate proxy providers and avoid common issues.](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/introduction-to-proxies-in-web-scraping)



## Powering Up with ScrapFly

Curl is a powerful web scraping tool though to scale up web scraping operations we might need a bit more and this is where Scrapfly can lend a hand!



ScrapFly provides an [API player](https://scrapfly.io/dashboard/player) that allows for converting cURL commands into ScrapFly-powered web scraping requests:



Import cURL command into ScrapFly's API playerScrapFly also provides a [cURL to Python tool](https://scrapfly.io/web-scraping-tools/curl-python) that allows for converting cURL command into different Python HTTP clients, such as requests, aiohttp, httpx, and curl\_cfii:



Here is an example output of **importing a cURL request from the browser into the ScrapFly API player** to automatically add the request configuration. We'll also enable the `asp` parameter to bypass scraping blocking, select a proxy country and use the `render_js` feature to enable JavaScript:

python```python
from scrapfly import ScrapflyClient, ScrapeConfig, ScrapeApiResponse

scrapfly = ScrapflyClient(key="Your ScrapFly API key")

response: ScrapeApiResponse = scrapfly.scrape(ScrapeConfig(
    url="https://web-scraping.dev/api/testimonials?page=2",
    # enable anti scraping protection
    asp=True,
    # selector a proxy country
    country="us", 
    # enable JavaScript rendering, similat to headless browsers
    render_js=True,
    # headers assigned to the cURL request from the browser
    headers={ 
        "sec-ch-ua": "\"Chromium\";v=\"122\", \"Not(A:Brand\";v=\"24\", \"Google Chrome\";v=\"122\"",
        "x-secret-token": "secret123",
        "HX-Current-URL": "https://web-scraping.dev/testimonials",
        "sec-ch-ua-mobile": "?0",
        "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        "Referer": "https://web-scraping.dev/testimonials",
        "HX-Request": "true",
        "sec-ch-ua-platform": "\"Windows\""
    },
))

# get the HTML from the response
html = response.scrape_result['content']

# use the built-in Parsel selector
selector = response.selector
```





## FAQ

Can I use cURL for web scraping?Yes, but not in the traditional sense. cURL is an HTTP client that doesn't provide additional utilities for parsing or data processing. Therefore, web scraping with cURL is best suited for debugging and development purposes or extracting a narrow amount of data.







How do I handle SSL certificate errors when scraping with cURL?Use the `-k` or `--insecure` flag to bypass SSL verification temporarily. For a deeper understanding of SSL issues and their fixes, see our [guide to SSL errors](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/guide-to-ssl-error-meaning-and-fixes). For production scraping, consider using [Scrapfly's web scraping API](https://scrapfly.io/web-scraping-api) which handles SSL and anti-bot challenges automatically.







Are there alternatives for cURL?Yes, [curlie](https://github.com/rs/curlie) is a command-line HTTP client that uses the same cURL features with the [HTTPie](https://httpie.io/) interface. Another alternative to using cURL for web scraping is the Postman HTTP client. We have covered using [Using API Clients For Web Scraping: Postman](https://scrapfly.io/blog/posts/using-api-clients-for-web-scraping-postman) in a previous article.









## Summary

In this guide, we explained how to web scrape with cURL. We started by exploring different cURL commands for various actions, including:

- Sending GET requests.
- Managing and manipulating HTTP headers and cookies.
- Sending POST requests.

We have also explained common tips and tricks for web scraping with cURL, such as:

- Scraping dynamic web pages by replicating background XHR calls.
- Avoiding cURL scraping blocking using Curl Impersonate.
- Preventing IP address blocking with cURL by adding proxies.



 

    Table of Contents- [Key Takeaways](#key-takeaways)
- [What is cURL and Why Use It?](#what-is-curl-and-why-use-it)
- [How To Install cURL?](#how-to-install-curl)
- [How To Use cURL?](#how-to-use-curl)
- [Sending GET Requests](#sending-get-requests)
- [Adding Headers](#adding-headers)
- [Adding Cookies](#adding-cookies)
- [Sending Post Requests](#sending-post-requests)
- [Adding Request Body](#adding-request-body)
- [Web Scraping With cURL](#web-scraping-with-curl)
- [Scraping Dynamic pages With cURL](#scraping-dynamic-pages-with-curl)
- [Avoid cURL Scraping Blocking](#avoid-curl-scraping-blocking)
- [Adding proxies to cURL](#adding-proxies-to-curl)
- [Powering Up with ScrapFly](#powering-up-with-scrapfly)
- [FAQ](#faq)
- [Summary](#summary)
 
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