How to show download progress in wget

Visible transfer progress makes it easier to spot stalled or slow downloads when wget is running with reduced status output. --show-progress keeps the progress indicator on screen without switching back to full verbose logging.

In current GNU wget releases, a real terminal uses the bar gauge by default, while non-interactive output falls back to dots. --show-progress keeps that gauge visible with --no-verbose or --quiet, and --progress=bar:force:noscroll forces the bar when terminal detection would otherwise choose dot mode.

The option changes display only. It does not change the destination file, retry behavior, or success criteria, so quiet jobs still need a file or exit-status check when the transfer finishes.

Related: How to log wget output to a file
Related: How to configure default options in ~/.wgetrc

Steps to show download progress in wget:

  1. Add --show-progress to a quieter download so the live bar remains visible on the terminal. 
    $ wget --show-progress --no-verbose https://downloads.example.net/releases/release-2026.04.tar.gz
release-2026.04.tar   1%[                    ] 128.00K   503KB/s
##### snipped #####
release-2026.04.tar 100%[===================>]   8.00M   512KB/s    in 16s

2026-04-22 07:18:01 URL:https://downloads.example.net/releases/release-2026.04.tar.gz [8388608/8388608] -> "release-2026.04.tar.gz" [1]

    --show-progress matters most with --no-verbose or --quiet because verbose mode already prints normal transfer status.

  2. Send the normal transfer log to a file while leaving the live progress gauge on the screen. 
    $ wget --show-progress --quiet --output-file=wget-transfer.log https://downloads.example.net/releases/release-2026.04.tar.gz
release-2026.04.tar   1%[                    ] 128.00K   503KB/s
##### snipped #####
release-2026.04.tar 100%[===================>]   8.00M   512KB/s    in 16s

    With --output-file, --show-progress prints the progress gauge to stderr while request and save messages go to /wget-transfer.log.

  3. Force bar output when terminal detection would otherwise fall back to dot mode. 
    $ wget --show-progress --progress=bar:force:noscroll --quiet https://downloads.example.net/releases/release-2026.04.tar.gz
release-2026.04.tar   1%[                    ] 128.00K   503KB/s
##### snipped #####
release-2026.04.tar 100%[===================>]   8.00M   512KB/s    in 16s

    bar:force overrides the normal non-TTY fallback to dots, and noscroll keeps long filenames from sliding across the bar while it redraws.