wget on a Mac: install it, or use curl
Type wget on a new Mac and you get “command not found”, because macOS includes curl instead. You can install wget with one Homebrew command, or use curl, which does the same for single files.
The Lynx team Checked 4 min read
The short version
- Install it:
brew install wget(needs Homebrew). - Or use curl:
curl -L -O "URL"does whatwget URLdoes. - Resume:
wget -c URL=curl -L -O -C - URL.
Why a Mac says “command not found: wget”
wget is a GNU tool, and macOS doesn’t include it. We checked on macOS 27 (4 October 2026): wget answers zsh: command not found: wget, while curl is built in (version 8.7.1). Nothing is broken. Install wget, or use curl.
Install wget with Homebrew
- If you don’t have Homebrew, install it with the one-line command on brew.sh.
- Then in Terminal:
brew install wget - Check it:
wget --version. Homebrew had wget 1.25.0 on 4 October 2026.
Still “command not found” after installing? Close Terminal and open it again so it picks up Homebrew’s folder, or run the line Homebrew printed at the end of its own install (it adds /opt/homebrew/bin to your PATH on Apple silicon).
Prefer MacPorts? sudo port install wget works too.
Or use curl, which every Mac has
For downloading files, curl does everything most people use wget for. The one difference that trips people up: curl prints the file to the screen unless you tell it to save, so always add -O (or -o name), and -L to follow redirects:
cd ~/Downloads
curl -L -O "https://example.com/file.zip"It resumes too: we stopped a 100 MB download at 3.1 MB and curl -L -O -C - finished it at exactly 104,857,600 bytes.
wget commands and their curl equivalents
| To… | wget | curl (built in) |
|---|---|---|
| Download a file | wget URL | curl -L -O URL |
| Save under another name | wget -O name.zip URL | curl -L -o name.zip URL |
| Resume a stopped download | wget -c URL | curl -L -O -C - URL |
| Retry on failure | wget --tries=10 URL | curl -L -O --retry 10 URL |
| Download a list of links | wget -i links.txt | xargs -n 1 curl -L -O < links.txt |
| Limit the speed | wget --limit-rate=1m URL | curl -L -O --limit-rate 1M URL |
| Mirror a whole site | wget --mirror URL | no equivalent (use wget) |
Put links in quotes whenever they contain ? or &. wget is the better tool for recursive downloads and mirroring sites; for single files and lists, curl is enough.
Without Terminal
A download manager takes the same links without Terminal: paste one or a whole list. Lynx, our download manager for Mac, splits each file across up to 32 connections (16 by default), retries and resumes after a drop, and downloads a pasted list as a batch. More ways to save a link: download a file from a URL on a Mac; many at once: download multiple files on a Mac.
Questions
Is wget available on Mac?
wget answers “zsh: command not found: wget”. Install it with Homebrew (brew install wget), or use curl, which does the same for single files.How do I install wget on a Mac?
brew install wget in Terminal. Check it with wget --version. Homebrew had wget 1.25.0 on October 4, 2026.What is the wget equivalent on Mac?
curl -L -O URL downloads a file the way wget URL does: -L follows redirects and -O keeps the file’s own name. Add -C - to resume, like wget’s -c.Can I install wget on a Mac without Homebrew?
sudo port install wget), and you can build it from source. For most people Homebrew is the simplest, and for one-off downloads curl means installing nothing.Is wget or curl better on a Mac?
--mirror) and retries by default; curl talks more protocols and is built into macOS.Sources
Checked on October 4, 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us.
- Homebrew: wget: version 1.25.0, GPL-3.0-or-later (checked Oct 4, 2026)
- Homebrew: install
- GNU Wget manual: -c, -O, -i, --tries, --limit-rate, --mirror
- curl: manual page: -L, -O, -o, --continue-at, --retry, --limit-rate
- MacPorts: wget