Convert curl to PowerShell

Converting curl to PowerShell

PowerShell provides two cmdlets for HTTP requests: Invoke-WebRequest (full response with headers) and Invoke-RestMethod (auto-parsed response body). Both serve as PowerShell equivalents to curl.

GET Request

curl:

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

PowerShell:

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/users"
# $response is already parsed as a PowerShell object

POST with JSON

curl:

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

PowerShell:

$body = @{ name = "Alice" } | ConvertTo-Json
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/users" `
  -Method POST `
  -ContentType "application/json" `
  -Body $body

Custom Headers

curl:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" \
  -H "X-Custom: value" \
  https://api.example.com/me

PowerShell:

$headers = @{
    "Authorization" = "Bearer token123"
    "X-Custom"      = "value"
}
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/me" -Headers $headers

Basic Authentication

curl:

curl -u user:pass https://api.example.com/data

PowerShell:

$cred = [PSCredential]::new("user", (ConvertTo-SecureString "pass" -AsPlainText -Force))
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/data" -Credential $cred

File Download

curl:

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

PowerShell:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://example.com/file.zip" -OutFile "file.zip"

Key Mapping

curl flag	PowerShell parameter
-X METHOD	-Method METHOD
-H	-Headers @{}
-d	-Body
-u	-Credential
-o	-OutFile
-k	-SkipCertificateCheck
-L	-MaximumRedirection (default: 5)

Note on PowerShell curl Alias

In PowerShell 5.x, curl is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest. To use actual curl, call curl.exe explicitly. PowerShell 7+ removed this alias to avoid confusion.