How to send HEAD requests with cURL

Use a HEAD request when the status and headers matter but the response body does not. It fits endpoint checks, redirect checks, cache validation, and content metadata checks where downloading the page or API payload would add noise.

In cURL, --head or -I switches the HTTP transfer to HEAD and prints the response headers to standard output. A HEAD response should match the headers from a comparable GET request without sending the response body, so Content-Length can still appear even when no payload bytes are downloaded.

HEAD support is endpoint behavior, not a guarantee. Some applications reject it with 405 Method Not Allowed or return a smaller header set than GET, especially behind gateways. Use --location when redirect hops matter, and use --head instead of --request HEAD because --request changes only the method word and does not make curl treat the transfer as bodyless.

1. Send a basic HEAD request with --head to print the status line and response headers without the body.

   $ curl --head --silent https://api.example.net/health
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT
   Content-Type: application/json
   Content-Length: 28
   Cache-Control: no-store
   X-Guide-State: ready
   ##### snipped #####

   -I is the short form of --head. A HEAD response may still show fields such as Content-Length because those describe the matching GET response, not downloaded body bytes.

2. Add --location when the first URL can redirect before the final resource.

   $ curl --head --silent --location https://api.example.net/redirect
   HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
   Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT
   Location: /health
   Content-Length: 0
   ##### snipped #####
   
   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT
   Content-Type: application/json
   Content-Length: 28
   Cache-Control: no-store
   X-Guide-State: ready
   ##### snipped #####

   Each response block stays visible, so the last status line and header set show the final resource that curl reached.

   Related: How to follow HTTP redirects with cURL

3. Print only the values a script needs with --output /dev/null and --write-out.

   $ curl --head --silent --output /dev/null --write-out 'status=%{response_code}\nheaders=%{size_header}\nbody=%{size_download}\n' https://api.example.net/health
   status=200
   headers=196
   body=0

   body=0 confirms that no response payload bytes were transferred, while headers gives a compact size check for alerting or regression tests.

4. Treat a 405 Method Not Allowed response as proof that the endpoint rejected HEAD.

   $ curl --head --silent https://api.example.net/post-only
   HTTP/1.1 405 Method Not Allowed
   Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT
   Allow: POST, OPTIONS
   Content-Length: 0
   ##### snipped #####

   Use a normal GET request only when the application actually expects GET semantics. curl's own documentation warns against replacing --head with --request HEAD, because --request changes only the method token and not the rest of curl's transfer behavior.

   Related: How to specify the HTTP method in cURL