Invoke-RestMethod

Sends an HTTP or HTTPS request to a RESTful web service.

Syntax

Invoke-RestMethod
      [-FollowRelLink]
      [-MaximumFollowRelLink <Int32>]
      [-ResponseHeadersVariable <String>]
      [-StatusCodeVariable <String>]
      [-UseBasicParsing]
      [-Uri] <Uri>
      [-HttpVersion <Version>]
      [-WebSession <WebRequestSession>]
      [-SessionVariable <String>]
      [-AllowUnencryptedAuthentication]
      [-Authentication <WebAuthenticationType>]
      [-Credential <PSCredential>]
      [-UseDefaultCredentials]
      [-CertificateThumbprint <String>]
      [-Certificate <X509Certificate>]
      [-SkipCertificateCheck]
      [-SslProtocol <WebSslProtocol>]
      [-Token <SecureString>]
      [-UserAgent <String>]
      [-DisableKeepAlive]
      [-ConnectionTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-Headers <IDictionary>]
      [-SkipHeaderValidation]
      [-AllowInsecureRedirect]
      [-MaximumRedirection <Int32>]
      [-MaximumRetryCount <Int32>]
      [-PreserveAuthorizationOnRedirect]
      [-RetryIntervalSec <Int32>]
      [-Method <WebRequestMethod>]
      [-PreserveHttpMethodOnRedirect]
      [-UnixSocket <UnixDomainSocketEndPoint>]
      [-Proxy <Uri>]
      [-ProxyCredential <PSCredential>]
      [-ProxyUseDefaultCredentials]
      [-Body <Object>]
      [-Form <IDictionary>]
      [-ContentType <String>]
      [-TransferEncoding <String>]
      [-InFile <String>]
      [-OutFile <String>]
      [-PassThru]
      [-Resume]
      [-SkipHttpErrorCheck]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-RestMethod
      [-FollowRelLink]
      [-MaximumFollowRelLink <Int32>]
      [-ResponseHeadersVariable <String>]
      [-StatusCodeVariable <String>]
      [-UseBasicParsing]
      [-Uri] <Uri>
      [-HttpVersion <Version>]
      [-WebSession <WebRequestSession>]
      [-SessionVariable <String>]
      [-AllowUnencryptedAuthentication]
      [-Authentication <WebAuthenticationType>]
      [-Credential <PSCredential>]
      [-UseDefaultCredentials]
      [-CertificateThumbprint <String>]
      [-Certificate <X509Certificate>]
      [-SkipCertificateCheck]
      [-SslProtocol <WebSslProtocol>]
      [-Token <SecureString>]
      [-UserAgent <String>]
      [-DisableKeepAlive]
      [-ConnectionTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-Headers <IDictionary>]
      [-SkipHeaderValidation]
      [-AllowInsecureRedirect]
      [-MaximumRedirection <Int32>]
      [-MaximumRetryCount <Int32>]
      [-PreserveAuthorizationOnRedirect]
      [-RetryIntervalSec <Int32>]
      [-Method <WebRequestMethod>]
      [-PreserveHttpMethodOnRedirect]
      [-UnixSocket <UnixDomainSocketEndPoint>]
      [-NoProxy]
      [-Body <Object>]
      [-Form <IDictionary>]
      [-ContentType <String>]
      [-TransferEncoding <String>]
      [-InFile <String>]
      [-OutFile <String>]
      [-PassThru]
      [-Resume]
      [-SkipHttpErrorCheck]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-RestMethod
      [-FollowRelLink]
      [-MaximumFollowRelLink <Int32>]
      [-ResponseHeadersVariable <String>]
      [-StatusCodeVariable <String>]
      [-UseBasicParsing]
      [-Uri] <Uri>
      [-HttpVersion <Version>]
      [-WebSession <WebRequestSession>]
      [-SessionVariable <String>]
      [-AllowUnencryptedAuthentication]
      [-Authentication <WebAuthenticationType>]
      [-Credential <PSCredential>]
      [-UseDefaultCredentials]
      [-CertificateThumbprint <String>]
      [-Certificate <X509Certificate>]
      [-SkipCertificateCheck]
      [-SslProtocol <WebSslProtocol>]
      [-Token <SecureString>]
      [-UserAgent <String>]
      [-DisableKeepAlive]
      [-ConnectionTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-Headers <IDictionary>]
      [-SkipHeaderValidation]
      [-AllowInsecureRedirect]
      [-MaximumRedirection <Int32>]
      [-MaximumRetryCount <Int32>]
      [-PreserveAuthorizationOnRedirect]
      [-RetryIntervalSec <Int32>]
      -CustomMethod <String>
      [-PreserveHttpMethodOnRedirect]
      [-UnixSocket <UnixDomainSocketEndPoint>]
      [-Proxy <Uri>]
      [-ProxyCredential <PSCredential>]
      [-ProxyUseDefaultCredentials]
      [-Body <Object>]
      [-Form <IDictionary>]
      [-ContentType <String>]
      [-TransferEncoding <String>]
      [-InFile <String>]
      [-OutFile <String>]
      [-PassThru]
      [-Resume]
      [-SkipHttpErrorCheck]
      [<CommonParameters>]
Invoke-RestMethod
      [-FollowRelLink]
      [-MaximumFollowRelLink <Int32>]
      [-ResponseHeadersVariable <String>]
      [-StatusCodeVariable <String>]
      [-UseBasicParsing]
      [-Uri] <Uri>
      [-HttpVersion <Version>]
      [-WebSession <WebRequestSession>]
      [-SessionVariable <String>]
      [-AllowUnencryptedAuthentication]
      [-Authentication <WebAuthenticationType>]
      [-Credential <PSCredential>]
      [-UseDefaultCredentials]
      [-CertificateThumbprint <String>]
      [-Certificate <X509Certificate>]
      [-SkipCertificateCheck]
      [-SslProtocol <WebSslProtocol>]
      [-Token <SecureString>]
      [-UserAgent <String>]
      [-DisableKeepAlive]
      [-ConnectionTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-OperationTimeoutSeconds <Int32>]
      [-Headers <IDictionary>]
      [-SkipHeaderValidation]
      [-AllowInsecureRedirect]
      [-MaximumRedirection <Int32>]
      [-MaximumRetryCount <Int32>]
      [-PreserveAuthorizationOnRedirect]
      [-RetryIntervalSec <Int32>]
      -CustomMethod <String>
      [-PreserveHttpMethodOnRedirect]
      [-UnixSocket <UnixDomainSocketEndPoint>]
      [-NoProxy]
      [-Body <Object>]
      [-Form <IDictionary>]
      [-ContentType <String>]
      [-TransferEncoding <String>]
      [-InFile <String>]
      [-OutFile <String>]
      [-PassThru]
      [-Resume]
      [-SkipHttpErrorCheck]
      [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet sends HTTP and HTTPS requests to Representational State Transfer (REST) web services that return richly structured data.

PowerShell formats the response based to the data type. For an RSS or ATOM feed, PowerShell returns the Item or Entry XML nodes. For JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) or XML, PowerShell converts, or deserializes, the content into [PSCustomObject] objects.

Note

When the REST endpoint returns multiple objects, the objects are received as an array. If you pipe the output from Invoke-RestMethod to another command, it is sent as a single [Object[]] object. The contents of that array are not enumerated for the next command on the pipeline.

This cmdlet is introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

Beginning in PowerShell 7.0, Invoke-RestMethod supports proxy configuration defined by environment variables. See the Notes section of this article.

Beginning in PowerShell 7.4, character encoding for requests defaults to UTF-8 instead of ASCII. If you need a different encoding, you must set the charset attribute in the Content-Type header.

Examples

Example 1: Get the PowerShell RSS feed

This example uses the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet to get information from the PowerShell Blog RSS feed. The command uses the Format-Table cmdlet to display the values of the Title and pubDate properties of each blog in a table.

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/feed/ |
  Format-Table -Property Title, pubDate

Title                                                                pubDate
-----                                                                -------
Join the PowerShell 10th Anniversary Celebration!                    Tue, 08 Nov 2016 23:00:04 +0000
DSC Resource Kit November 2016 Release                               Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:19:07 +0000
PSScriptAnalyzer Community Call - Oct 18, 2016                       Thu, 13 Oct 2016 17:52:35 +0000
New Home for In-Box DSC Resources                                    Sat, 08 Oct 2016 07:13:10 +0000
New Social Features on Gallery                                       Fri, 30 Sep 2016 23:04:34 +0000
PowerShellGet and PackageManagement in PowerShell Gallery and GitHub Thu, 29 Sep 2016 22:21:42 +0000
PowerShell Security at DerbyCon                                      Wed, 28 Sep 2016 01:13:19 +0000
DSC Resource Kit September Release                                   Thu, 22 Sep 2016 00:25:37 +0000
PowerShell DSC and implicit remoting broken in KB3176934             Tue, 23 Aug 2016 15:07:50 +0000
PowerShell on Linux and Open Source!                                 Thu, 18 Aug 2016 15:32:02 +0000

Example 2: Run a POST request

In this example, a user runs Invoke-RestMethod to do a POST request on an intranet website in the user's organization.

$Cred = Get-Credential
$Url = "https://server.contoso.com:8089/services/search/jobs/export"
$Body = @{
    search = "search index=_internal | reverse | table index,host,source,sourcetype,_raw"
    output_mode = "csv"
    earliest_time = "-2d@d"
    latest_time = "-1d@d"
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Method 'Post' -Uri $url -Credential $Cred -Body $body -OutFile output.csv

The credentials are prompted for and then stored in $Cred and the URL that will be access is defined in $Url.

The $Body variable describes the search criteria, specifies CSV as the output mode, and specifies a time period for returned data that starts two days ago and ends one day ago. The body variable specifies values for parameters that apply to the particular REST API with which Invoke-RestMethod is communicating.

The Invoke-RestMethod command is run with all variables in place, specifying a path and file name for the resulting CSV output file.

Some REST APIs support pagination via Relation Links per RFC5988. Instead of parsing the header to get the URL for the next page, you can have the cmdlet do this for you. This example returns the first two pages of issues from the PowerShell GitHub repository.

$url = 'https://api.github.com/repos/powershell/powershell/issues'
Invoke-RestMethod $url -FollowRelLink -MaximumFollowRelLink 2

Example 4: Simplified Multipart/Form-Data Submission

Some APIs require multipart/form-data submissions to upload files and mixed content. This example demonstrates how to update a user's profile.

$Uri = 'https://api.contoso.com/v2/profile'
$Form = @{
    firstName  = 'John'
    lastName   = 'Doe'
    email      = 'john.doe@contoso.com'
    avatar     = Get-Item -Path 'c:\Pictures\jdoe.png'
    birthday   = '1980-10-15'
    hobbies    = 'Hiking','Fishing','Jogging'
}
$Result = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri -Method Post -Form $Form

The profile form requires these fields: firstName, lastName, email, avatar, birthday, and hobbies. The API is expecting an image for the user profile pic to be supplied in the avatar field. The API will also accept multiple hobbies entries to be submitted in the same form.

When creating the $Form HashTable, the key names are used as form field names. By default, the values of the HashTable will be converted to strings. If a System.IO.FileInfo value is present, the file contents will be submitted. If a collection such as arrays or lists are present, the form field will be submitted multiple times.

By using Get-Item on the avatar key, the FileInfo object will be set as the value. The result is that the image data for jdoe.png will be submitted.

By supplying a list to the hobbies key, the hobbies field will be present in the submissions once for each list item.

Example 5: Pass multiple headers

APIs often require passed headers for authentication or validation. This example demonstrates, how to pass multiple headers from a hash-table to a REST API.

$headers = @{
    'userId' = 'UserIDValue'
    'token' = 'TokenValue'
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Method Post -Headers $headers -Body $body

Example 6: Enumerate returned items on the pipeline

GitHub returns multiple objects an array. If you pipe the output to another command, it is sent as a single [Object[]]object.

To enumerate the objects into the pipeline, pipe the results to Write-Output or wrap the cmdlet in parentheses. The following example counts the number of objects returned by GitHub. Then counts the number of objects enumerated to the pipeline.

$uri = 'https://api.github.com/repos/microsoftdocs/powershell-docs/issues'
$x = 0
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri | ForEach-Object { $x++ }
$x
1

$x = 0
(Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri) | ForEach-Object { $x++ }
$x
30

$x = 0
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri | Write-Output | ForEach-Object { $x++ }
$x
30

Example 7: Skipping Header Validation

By default, the Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet validates the values of well-known headers that have a standardards-defined value format. The following example shows how this validation can raise an error and how you can use the SkipHeaderValidation parameter to avoid validating values for endpoints that tolerate invalidly formatted values.

$Uri = 'https://httpbin.org/headers'
$InvalidHeaders = @{
    'If-Match' = '12345'
}

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri -Headers $InvalidHeaders

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $Uri -Headers $InvalidHeaders -SkipHeaderValidation |
    Format-List

Invoke-RestMethod: The format of value '12345' is invalid.

headers : @{Host=httpbin.org; If-Match=12345; User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Microsoft Windows
          10.0.19044; en-US) PowerShell/7.2.5;  X-Amzn-Trace-Id=Root=1-62f150a6-27754fd4226f31b43a3d2874}

httpbin.org is a service that returns information about web requests and responses for troubleshooting. The $Uri variable is assigned to the /headers endpoint of the service, which returns a request's headers as the content in its response.

The If-Match request header is defined in RFC-7232 section 3.1 and requires the value for that header to be defined with surrounding quotes. The $InvalidHeaders variable is assigned a hash table where the value of If-Match is invalid because it's defined as 12345 instead of "12345".

Calling Invoke-RestMethod with the invalid headers returns an error reporting that the formatted value is invalid. The request is not sent to the endpoint.

Calling Invoke-RestMethod with the SkipHeaderValidation parameter ignores the validation failure and sends the request to the endpoint. Because the endpoint tolerates non-compliant header values, the cmdlet returns the response object without error.

Example 8: Send a request using HTTP 2.0

This example queries for GitHub issue using the HTTP 2.0 protocol.

$uri = 'https://api.github.com/repos/microsoftdocs/powershell-docs/issues'
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -HttpVersion 2.0 -SkipCertificateCheck

Example 9: Send a request to a Unix socket application

Some applications, such as Docker, expose a Unix socket for communication. This example queries for a list of Docker images using the Docker API. The cmdlet connects to the Docker daemon using the Unix socket.

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost/v1.40/images/json/" -UnixSocket "/var/run/docker.sock"

Parameters

-AllowInsecureRedirect

Allows redirecting from HTTPS to HTTP. By default, any request that is redirected from HTTPS to HTTP results in an error and the request is aborted to prevent unintentionally communicating in plain text over unencrypted connections. To override this behavior at your own risk, use the AllowInsecureRedirect parameter.

This parameter was added in PowerShell 7.4.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-AllowUnencryptedAuthentication

Allows sending of credentials and secrets over unencrypted connections. By default, supplying Credential or any Authentication option with a Uri that does not begin with https:// will result in an error and the request will abort to prevent unintentionally communicating secrets in plain text over unencrypted connections. To override this behavior at your own risk, supply the AllowUnencryptedAuthentication parameter.

Warning

Using this parameter is not secure and is not recommended. It is provided only for compatibility with legacy systems that cannot provide encrypted connections. Use at your own risk.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Authentication

Specifies the explicit authentication type to use for the request. The default is None. The Authentication parameter can't be used with the UseDefaultCredentials parameter.

Available Authentication Options:

  • None: This is the default option when Authentication is not supplied. No explicit authentication will be used.
  • Basic: Requires Credential. The credentials will be used to send an RFC 7617 Basic Authentication Authorization: Basic header in the format of base64(user:password).
  • Bearer: Requires the Token parameter. Sends an RFC 6750 Authorization: Bearer header with the supplied token.
  • OAuth: Requires the Token parameter. Sends an RFC 6750 Authorization: Bearer header with the supplied token.

Supplying Authentication overrides any Authorization headers supplied to Headers or included in WebSession.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:WebAuthenticationType
Accepted values:None, Basic, Bearer, OAuth
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Body

Specifies the body of the request. The body is the content of the request that follows the headers. You can also pipe a body value to Invoke-RestMethod.

The Body parameter can be used to specify a list of query parameters or specify the content of the response.

When the input is a POST request and the body is a String, the value to the left of the first equals sign (=) is set as a key in the form data and the remaining text is set as the value. To specify multiple keys, use an IDictionary object, such as a hash table, for the Body.

When the input is a GET request and the body is an IDictionary (typically, a hash table), the body is added to the URI as query parameters. For other request types (such as PATCH), the body is set as the value of the request body in the standard name=value format with the values URL-encoded.

When the input is a System.Xml.XmlNode object and the XML declaration specifies an encoding, that encoding is used for the data in the request unless overridden by the ContentType parameter.

When the body is a form, or it's the output of another Invoke-WebRequest call, PowerShell sets the request content to the form fields.

The Body parameter may also accept a System.Net.Http.MultipartFormDataContent object. This will facilitate multipart/form-data requests. When a MultipartFormDataContent object is supplied for Body, any content related headers supplied to the ContentType, Headers, or WebSession parameters will be overridden by the content headers of the MultipartFormDataContent object. This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:Object
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Certificate

Specifies the client certificate that is used for a secure web request. Enter a variable that contains a certificate or a command or expression that gets the certificate.

To find a certificate, use Get-PfxCertificate or use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet in the Certificate (Cert:) drive. If the certificate isn't valid or doesn't have sufficient authority, the command fails.

Type:X509Certificate
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-CertificateThumbprint

Specifies the digital public key certificate (X509) of a user account that has permission to send the request. Enter the certificate thumbprint of the certificate.

Certificates are used in client certificate-based authentication. Certificates can only be mapped only to local user accounts, not domain accounts.

To see the certificate thumbprint, use the Get-Item or Get-ChildItem command to find the certficate in Cert:\CurrentUser\My.

Note

This feature is currently only supported on Windows OS platforms.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ConnectionTimeoutSeconds

Specifies how long the request can be pending before it times out. Enter a value in seconds. The default value, 0, specifies an indefinite time-out.

A Domain Name System (DNS) query can take up to 15 seconds to return or time out. If your request contains a host name that requires resolution, and you set ConnectionTimeoutSeconds to a value greater than zero, but less than 15 seconds, it can take 15 seconds or more before a WebException is thrown, and your request times out.

This parameter replaced the TimeoutSec parameter in PowerShell 7.4. You can use TimeoutSec as an alias for ConnectionTimeoutSeconds.

Type:Int32
Aliases:TimeoutSec
Position:Named
Default value:0
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ContentType

Specifies the content type of the web request.

If the value for ContentType contains the encoding format (as charset), the cmdlet uses that format to encode the body of the web request. If the ContentType doesn't specify an encoding format, the default encoding format is used instead. An example of a ContentType with an encoding format is text/plain; charset=iso-8859-5, which specifies the Latin/Cyrillic alphabet.

If this parameter is omitted and the request method is POST, Invoke-RestMethod sets the content type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Otherwise, the content type isn't specified in the call.

ContentType will be overridden when a MultipartFormDataContent object is supplied for Body.

Starting in PowerShell 7.4, if you use this both this parameter and the Headers parameter to define the Content-Type header, the value specified in the ContentType parameter is used.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Credential

Specifies a user account that has permission to send the request. The default is the current user.

Type a user name, such as User01 or Domain01\User01, or enter a PSCredential object generated by the Get-Credential cmdlet.

Credential can be used alone or in conjunction with certain Authentication parameter options. When used alone, it will only supply credentials to the remote server if the remote server sends an authentication challenge request. When used with Authentication options, the credentials will be explicitly sent.

Credentials are stored in a PSCredential object and the password is stored as a SecureString.

Note

For more information about SecureString data protection, see How secure is SecureString?.

Type:PSCredential
Position:Named
Default value:Current user
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-CustomMethod

Specifies custom method used for the web request. This can be used with the Request Method required by the endpoint is not an available option on the Method. Method and CustomMethod cannot be used together.

Example:

Invoke-RestMethod -uri 'https://api.contoso.com/widget/' -CustomMethod 'TEST'

This makes a TEST HTTP request to the API.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:String
Aliases:CM
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-DisableKeepAlive

Indicates that the cmdlet sets the KeepAlive value in the HTTP header to False. By default, KeepAlive is True. KeepAlive establishes a persistent connection to the server to facilitate subsequent requests.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Indicates the cmdlet should follow relation links.

Some REST APIs support pagination via Relation Links per RFC5988. Instead of parsing the header to get the URL for the next page, you can have the cmdlet do this for you. To set how many times to follow relation links, use the MaximumFollowRelLink parameter.

When using this switch, the cmdlet returns a collection of pages of results. Each page of results may contain multiple result items.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Aliases:FL
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Form

Converts a dictionary to a multipart/form-data submission. Form may not be used with Body. If ContentType will be ignored.

The keys of the dictionary will be used as the form field names. By default, form values will be converted to string values.

If the value is a System.IO.FileInfo object, then the binary file contents will be submitted. The name of the file will be submitted as the filename. The MIME will be set as application/octet-stream. Get-Item can be used to simplify supplying the System.IO.FileInfo object.

$Form = @{ resume = Get-Item 'c:\Users\jdoe\Documents\John Doe.pdf' }

If the value is a collection type, such as an Array or List, the for field will be submitted multiple times. The values of the list will be treated as strings by default. If the value is a System.IO.FileInfo object, then the binary file contents will be submitted. Nested collections aren't supported.

$Form = @{ tags = 'Vacation', 'Italy', '2017' pictures = Get-ChildItem 'c:\Users\jdoe\Pictures\2017-Italy' }

In the above example, the tags field will be supplied three times in the form, once for each of Vacation, Italy, and 2017. The pictures field will also be submitted once for each file in the 2017-Italy folder. The binary contents of the files in that folder will be submitted as the values.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.1.0.

Type:IDictionary
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Headers

Specifies the headers of the web request. Enter a hash table or dictionary.

Content related headers, such as Content-Type are overridden when a MultipartFormDataContent object is supplied for Body.

Starting in PowerShell 7.4, if you use this parameter to define the Content-Type header and use ContentType parameter, the value specified in the ContentType parameter is used.

Type:IDictionary
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-HttpVersion

Specifies the HTTP version used for the request. The default is 1.1.

Valid values are:

  • 1.0
  • 1.1
  • 2.0
  • 3.0
Type:Version
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-InFile

Gets the content of the web request from a file.

Enter a path and file name. If you omit the path, the default is the current location.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Specifies how many times to follow relation links if FollowRelLink is used. A smaller value may be needed if the REST api throttles due to too many requests. The default value is [Int32]::MaxValue. A value of 0 (zero) prevents following relation links.

Type:Int32
Aliases:ML
Position:Named
Default value:Int32.MaxValue
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-MaximumRedirection

Specifies how many times PowerShell redirects a connection to an alternate Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) before the connection fails. The default value is 5. A value of 0 (zero) prevents all redirection.

Type:Int32
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-MaximumRetryCount

Specifies how many times PowerShell retries a connection when a failure code between 400 and 599, inclusive or 304 is received. Also, see the RetryIntervalSec parameter for specifying the number of seconds between retries.

Type:Int32
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Method

Specifies the method used for the web request. The acceptable values for this parameter are:

  • Default
  • Delete
  • Get
  • Head
  • Merge
  • Options
  • Patch
  • Post
  • Put
  • Trace

The CustomMethod parameter can be used for Request Methods not listed above.

Type:WebRequestMethod
Accepted values:Default, Get, Head, Post, Put, Delete, Trace, Options, Merge, Patch
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-NoProxy

Indicates that the cmdlet will not use a proxy to reach the destination.

When you need to bypass the proxy configured in Internet Explorer, or a proxy specified in the environment, use this switch.

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 6.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-OperationTimeoutSeconds

This timeout applies to data reads within a stream, not to the stream time as a whole. The default value, 0, specifies an indefinite timeout.

Setting the value to 30 seconds means that any delay of longer than 30 seconds between data in the stream terminates the request. A large file that takes several minutes to download won't terminate unless the stream stalls for more than 30 seconds.

Type:Int32
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-OutFile

Saves the response body in the specified output file. Enter a path and filename. If you omit the path, the default is the current location. The name is treated as a literal path. Names that contain brackets ([]) must be enclosed in single quotes (').

By default, Invoke-RestMethod returns the results to the pipeline.

Starting in PowerShell 7.4, you can specify a folder path without the filename. When you do, the file's name is the taken from the last segment of the resolved URI after any redirections. When you specify a folder path for OutFile, you can't use the Resume parameter.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PassThru

This parameter is valid only when the OutFile parameter is also used in the command. The intent is to have the results written to the file and to the pipeline.

Note

When you use the PassThru parameter, the output is written to the pipeline but the file is not created. For more information, see PowerShell Issue #15409.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:No output
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PreserveAuthorizationOnRedirect

Indicates the cmdlet should preserve the Authorization header, when present, across redirections.

By default, the cmdlet strips the Authorization header before redirecting. Specifying this parameter disables this logic for cases where the header needs to be sent to the redirection location.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PreserveHttpMethodOnRedirect

Indicates the cmdlet should preserve the method of the request across redirections.

By default, the cmdlet changes the method to GET when redirected. Specifying this parameter disables this logic to ensure that the intended method can be used with redirection.

This feature was added in PowerShell 7.4.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Proxy

Uses a proxy server for the request, rather than connecting directly to the internet resource. Enter the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of a network proxy server.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:Uri
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ProxyCredential

Specifies a user account that has permission to use the proxy server that is specified by the Proxy parameter. The default is the current user.

Type a user name, such as User01 or Domain01\User01, User@Domain.Com, or enter a PSCredential object, such as one generated by the Get-Credential cmdlet.

This parameter is valid only when the Proxy parameter is also used in the command. You can't use the ProxyCredential and ProxyUseDefaultCredentials parameters in the same command.

Type:PSCredential
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ProxyUseDefaultCredentials

Indicates that the cmdlet uses the credentials of the current user to access the proxy server that is specified by the Proxy parameter.

This parameter is valid only when the Proxy parameter is also used in the command. You can't use the ProxyCredential and ProxyUseDefaultCredentials parameters in the same command.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-ResponseHeadersVariable

Creates a variable containing a Response Headers Dictionary. Enter a variable name without the dollar sign ($) symbol. The keys of the dictionary contain the field names and values of the Response Header returned by the web server.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:String
Aliases:RHV
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Resume

Performs a best effort attempt to resume downloading a partial file. The Resume parameter requires the OutFile parameter.

Resume only operates on the size of the local file and remote file and performs no other validation that the local file and the remote file are the same.

If the local file size is smaller than the remote file size, then the cmdlet will attempt to resume downloading the file and append the remaining bytes to the end of the file.

If the local file size is the same as the remote file size, then no action is taken and the cmdlet assumes the download already completed.

If the local file size is larger than the remote file size, then the local file will be overwritten and the entire remote file will be completely re-downloaded. This behavior is the same as using OutFile without Resume.

If the remote server does not support download resuming, then the local file will be overwritten and the entire remote file will be completely re-downloaded. This behavior is the same as using OutFile without Resume.

If the local file doesn't exist, then the local file will be created and the entire remote file will be completely downloaded. This behavior is the same as using OutFile without Resume.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.1.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-RetryIntervalSec

Specifies the interval between retries for the connection when a failure code between 400 and 599, inclusive or 304 is received. The value must be between 1 and [int]::MaxValue. When the failure code is 429 and the response includes the Retry-After property in its headers, the cmdlet uses that value for the retry interval, even if this parameter is specified.

Also, see the MaximumRetryCount parameter for specifying number of retries.

Type:Int32
Position:Named
Default value:5
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SessionVariable

Creates a variable containing the web request session. Enter a variable name without the dollar sign ($) symbol.

When you specify a session variable, Invoke-RestMethod creates a web request session object and assigns it to a variable with the specified name in your PowerShell session. You can use the variable in your session as soon as the command completes.

Before PowerShell 7.4, the web request session isn't a persistent connection. It's an object that contains information about the connection and the request, including cookies, credentials, the maximum redirection value, and the user agent string. You can use it to share state and data among web requests.

Starting in PowerShell 7.4, the web request session is persistent as long as the properties of the session aren't overridden in a subsequent request. When they are, the cmdlet recreates the session with the new values. The persistent sessions reduce the overhead for repeated requests, making them much faster.

To use the web request session in subsequent web requests, specify the session variable in the value of the WebSession parameter. PowerShell uses the data in the web request session object when establishing the new connection. To override a value in the web request session, use a cmdlet parameter, such as UserAgent or Credential. Parameter values take precedence over values in the web request session.

You can't use the SessionVariable and WebSession parameters in the same command.

Type:String
Aliases:SV
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SkipCertificateCheck

Skips certificate validation checks that include all validations such as expiration, revocation, trusted root authority, etc.

Warning

Using this parameter is not secure and is not recommended. This switch is only intended to be used against known hosts using a self-signed certificate for testing purposes. Use at your own risk.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SkipHeaderValidation

Indicates the cmdlet should add headers to the request without validation.

This switch should be used for sites that require header values that do not conform to standards. Specifying this switch disables validation to allow the value to be passed unchecked. When specified, all headers are added without validation.

This will disable validation for values passed to the ContentType, Headers, and UserAgent parameters.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SkipHttpErrorCheck

This parameter causes the cmdlet to ignore HTTP error statuses and continue to process responses. The error responses are written to the pipeline just as if they were successful.

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 7.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SslProtocol

Sets the SSL/TLS protocols that are permissible for the web request. By default all, SSL/TLS protocols supported by the system are allowed. SslProtocol allows for limiting to specific protocols for compliance purposes.

These values are defined as a flag-based enumeration. You can combine multiple values together to set multiple flags using this parameter. The values can be passed to the SslProtocol parameter as an array of values or as a comma-separated string of those values. The cmdlet will combine the values using a binary-OR operation. Passing values as an array is the simplest option and also allows you to use tab-completion on the values. You may not be able to supply multiple values on all platforms.

Note

On non-Windows platforms it may not be possible to supply Tls or Tls12 as an option. Support for Tls13 is not available on all operating systems and will need to be verified on a per operating system basis.

This feature was added in PowerShell 6.0.0 and support for Tls13 was added in PowerShell 7.1.

Type:WebSslProtocol
Accepted values:Default, Tls, Tls11, Tls12, Tls13
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-StatusCodeVariable

Creates a variable containing a HTTP status code result of the request. Enter a variable name without the dollar sign ($) symbol.

The parameter can identify success messages or failure messages when used with the SkipHttpErrorCheck parameter.

Input the parameter's variable name as a string such as -StatusCodeVariable "scv".

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 7.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Token

The OAuth or Bearer token to include in the request. Token is required by certain Authentication options. It can't be used independently.

Token takes a SecureString that contains the token. To supply the token, manually use the following:

Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Authentication OAuth -Token (Read-Host -AsSecureString)

This parameter was introduced in PowerShell 6.0.

Type:SecureString
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-TransferEncoding

Specifies a value for the transfer-encoding HTTP response header. The acceptable values for this parameter are:

  • Chunked
  • Compress
  • Deflate
  • GZip
  • Identity
Type:String
Accepted values:chunked, compress, deflate, gzip, identity
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-UnixSocket

Specifies the name of the Unix socket to connect to. This parameter is supported on Unix-based systems and Windows version 1803 and later. For more information about Windows support of Unix sockets, see the Windows/WSL Interop with AF_UNIX blog post.

This parameter was added in PowerShell 7.4.

Type:UnixDomainSocketEndPoint
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Uri

Specifies the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the internet resource to which the web request is sent. This parameter supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and FILE values.

This parameter is required. The parameter name (Uri) is optional.

Type:Uri
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-UseBasicParsing

This parameter has been deprecated. Beginning with PowerShell 6.0.0, all Web requests use basic parsing only. This parameter is included for backwards compatibility only and any use of it will have no effect on the operation of the cmdlet.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-UseDefaultCredentials

Indicates that the cmdlet uses the credentials of the current user to send the web request. This can't be used with Authentication or Credential and may not be supported on all platforms.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:False
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-UserAgent

Specifies a user agent string for the web request.

The default user agent is similar to Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Microsoft Windows 10.0.15063; en-US) PowerShell/6.0.0 with slight variations for each operating system and platform.

To test a website with the standard user agent string that is used by most internet browsers, use the properties of the PSUserAgent class, such as Chrome, FireFox, InternetExplorer, Opera, and Safari.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-WebSession

Specifies a web request session. Enter the variable name, including the dollar sign ($).

To override a value in the web request session, use a cmdlet parameter, such as UserAgent or Credential. Parameter values take precedence over values in the web request session. Content related headers, such as Content-Type, will be also be overridden when a MultipartFormDataContent object is supplied for Body.

Unlike a remote session, the web request session isn't a persistent connection. It's an object that contains information about the connection and the request, including cookies, credentials, the maximum redirection value, and the user agent string. You can use it to share state and data among web requests.

To create a web request session, enter a variable name, without a dollar sign, in the value of the SessionVariable parameter of an Invoke-RestMethod command. Invoke-RestMethod creates the session and saves it in the variable. In subsequent commands, use the variable as the value of the WebSession parameter.

You can't use the SessionVariable and WebSession parameters in the same command.

Type:WebRequestSession
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

Object

You can pipe the body of a web request to this cmdlet.

Outputs

Int64

When the request returns an integer, this cmdlet returns that integer.

String

When the request returns a string, this cmdlet returns that string.

XmlDocument

When the request returns valid XML, this cmdlet returns it as an XmlDocument.

PSObject

When the request returns JSON strings, this cmdlet returns a PSObject representing the data.

Notes

PowerShell includes the following aliases for Invoke-RestMethod:

  • All platforms:
    • irm

Some features may not be available on all platforms.

Because of changes in .NET Core 3.1, PowerShell 7.0 and higher use the HttpClient.DefaultProxy property to determine the proxy configuration.

The value of this property is different rules depending on your platform:

  • For Windows: Reads proxy configuration from environment variables or, if those are not defined, from the user's proxy settings.
  • For macOS: Reads proxy configuration from environment variables or, if those are not defined, from the system's proxy settings.
  • For Linux: Reads proxy configuration from environment variables or, in case those are not defined, this property initializes a non-configured instance that bypasses all addresses.

The environment variables used for DefaultProxy initialization on Windows and Unix-based platforms are:

  • HTTP_PROXY: the hostname or IP address of the proxy server used on HTTP requests.
  • HTTPS_PROXY: the hostname or IP address of the proxy server used on HTTPS requests.
  • ALL_PROXY: the hostname or IP address of the proxy server used on HTTP and HTTPS requests in case HTTP_PROXY or HTTPS_PROXY are not defined.
  • NO_PROXY: a comma-separated list of hostnames that should be excluded from proxying.

PowerShell 7.4 added support for the Brotli compression algorithm.