Toolpaper

Send form-urlencoded with cURL in Go

Paste a curl command that sends form-urlencoded and get idiomatic Go code. We pick the right serialization for net/http and set the correct Content-Type.

Quick answer

To convert a cURL command to Go, paste it into the Toolpaper workbench below. It parses the command in your browser and emits idiomatic Go code — headers, query string, request body, authentication (Bearer, Basic, API key), and cookies are all wired up automatically. No data is uploaded; conversion is fully client-side.

Prefer a different target? See the full cURL to Go reference, or jump to the same guide in JavaScript, Node.js, or Python.

InputcURL command
MethodPOST·Headers1·Body30 B· Chars 139
OutputGo · net/http(stdlib)
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
    "strings"
)

func main() {
    client := &http.Client{CheckRedirect: func(req *http.Request, via []*http.Request) error { return http.ErrUseLastResponse }}
    body := strings.NewReader("username=ada&password=lovelace")
    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.example.com/login", body)
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil { panic(err) }
    defer resp.Body.Close()
    out, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(out))
}
Inspect

Example

A representative curl command for this scenario. Paste your own above to convert an exact match.

curl input
curl -X POST https://api.example.com/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "username=ada&password=lovelace"

Implementation notes

  • Content-Type is detected from -H headers first, then inferred from the body shape when the header is missing.
  • application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies are decoded into structured pairs so net/http owns the encoding — you never double-encode a value.
  • Charset directives on Content-Type (e.g. application/json; charset=utf-8) survive the round trip.

Common mistakes

  • Setting Content-Type manually and then also using net/http's helper — you end up with duplicate headers or the wrong one wins.
  • Mixing form encoding with JSON headers — the server rejects with 400 and it's easy to miss in code review.
  • Trusting the browser DevTools "Copy as cURL" to preserve charset — it often drops it. Clean panel restores common defaults.

Common questions

How is form-urlencoded encoded in the generated Go?
application/x-www-form-urlencoded bodies map to the right primitive in each language — data= in Python, url.Values in Go, FormUrlEncodedContent in C#.
Does it preserve Content-Type?
Yes. The Content-Type header is honored and matched against the body so serialization stays consistent.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Parsing and generation happen entirely in your browser.

More payload types in Go

Go hub →

JSON in Go

/how-to/send-json-with-curl-in-go

multipart form-data in Go

/how-to/send-multipart-with-curl-in-go

XML in Go

/how-to/send-xml-with-curl-in-go

GraphQL in Go

/how-to/send-graphql-with-curl-in-go

The same guide in other languages

All guides →

In JavaScript

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-javascript

In Node.js

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-node

In Python

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-python

In PHP

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-php

In Ruby

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-ruby

In Rust

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-rust

In Java

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-java

In Kotlin

/how-to/send-form-with-curl-in-kotlin

Full Go reference on the cURL to Go hub, or open the main converter for all 18 targets.