---
c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: max-filesize
Arg: <bytes>
Help: Maximum file size to download
Protocols: FTP HTTP MQTT
Category: connection ftp http mqtt
Added: 7.10.8
Multi: single
See-also:
  - limit-rate
Example:
  - --max-filesize 100K $URL
  - --max-filesize 2.6M $URL
---

# `--max-filesize`

When set to a non-zero value, it specifies the maximum size (in bytes) of a
file to download. If the file requested is larger than this value, the
transfer does not start and curl returns with exit code 63.

Setting the maximum value to zero disables the limit.

A unit suffix letter can be used. Appending 'k' or 'K' counts the number as
kilobytes, 'm' or 'M' makes it megabytes etc. The supported suffixes (k, M, G,
T, P) are 1024-based. Examples: 200K, 3m and 1G. (Added in 7.58.0)

**NOTE**: before curl 8.4.0, when the file size is not known prior to
download, for such files this option has no effect even if the file transfer
ends up being larger than this given limit.

Starting with curl 8.4.0, this option aborts the transfer if it reaches the
threshold during transfer.

Starting in curl 8.19.0, the maximum size can be specified using a fraction as
in `2.5M` for two and a half megabytes. It only works with a period (`.`)
delimiter, independent of what your locale might prefer.

Since 8.20.0, this option also stops ongoing transfers that would reach this
threshold due to automatic decompression using --compressed.
