curl get only the HTTP status code: curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}'

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' URL prints only the three-digit HTTP status code of the response, for example 200 or 404. -o /dev/null discards the body, -s hides the progress meter, and -w (write-out) prints a variable after the transfer finishes. It is the usual way to check an endpoint from a shell script, a health check or a CI job.

Example against a local server

cat > server.js <<'EOF'
const http = require("http");
http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (req.url === "/missing") { res.writeHead(404); return res.end("not found\n"); }
  if (req.url === "/old") { res.writeHead(301, { Location: "/" }); return res.end(); }
  res.end("ok\n");
}).listen(5205, "127.0.0.1");
setTimeout(() => process.exit(0), 10000);
EOF
node server.js &
sleep 1
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' http://127.0.0.1:5205/
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' http://127.0.0.1:5205/missing
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' http://127.0.0.1:5205/old
curl -sL -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} after %{num_redirects} redirect(s)\n' http://127.0.0.1:5205/old
wait

200
404
301
200 after 1 redirect(s)

Without -L, curl reports the redirect itself (301); with -L it follows the Location header and reports the status of the last response.

Use it in a script

code=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --max-time 10 https://api.example.com/health)
if [ "$code" != "200" ]; then
  echo "health check failed: HTTP $code" >&2
  exit 1
fi

--max-time 10 stops a hanging server from blocking the script. Quote the format string: in some shells % and {} have special meaning, and in Windows cmd.exe the % must be doubled (%%{http_code}).

Variants

%{response_code} is an alias of %{http_code}. On Windows PowerShell, /dev/null does not exist: use -o NUL with curl.exe, and call curl.exe explicitly because curl in Windows PowerShell 5.1 is an alias of Invoke-WebRequest.

Pitfalls

• A status of 000 is not an HTTP status: no response came back. curl's own exit code tells you why, for example 7 when the connection is refused (see connect ECONNREFUSED).
• -f alone hides the error body, which often explains a 4xx. Use --fail-with-body when you need both.
• Status codes are listed with their meaning in the HTTP status codes table; any value from 100 to 599 can appear.

FAQ