Working with REST APIs in PowerShell

Interacting with REST APIs is a core capability of PowerShell, allowing you to automate services like GitHub, Azure, AWS, and many others.

Parent Topic: PowerShell Scripting and Programming Related: PowerShell Comprehensive Guide

1. The Cmdlets: Invoke-RestMethod vs. Invoke-WebRequest

Invoke-RestMethod (IRM): The go-to cmdlet for REST APIs. It automatically parses JSON or XML responses into PowerShell objects.
Invoke-WebRequest (IWR): Returns the raw HTTP response (headers, status code, raw content). Use this if you need to inspect headers or scrape HTML.

2. Basic GET Requests

Fetching data is straightforward.

# Get public data
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"

# Access properties directly
Write-Host "User: $($response.login)"
Write-Host "Bio: $($response.bio)"

3. POST Requests (Sending Data)

To create or update resources, you typically use POST or PUT methods and send a JSON body.

$body = @{
    title = "My New Issue"
    body  = "This is a test issue created via PowerShell."
} | ConvertTo-Json

$params = @{
    Uri         = "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/repo/issues"
    Method      = "Post"
    Body        = $body
    ContentType = "application/json"
    Headers     = @{ Authorization = "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }
}

# Splatting makes the command cleaner
Invoke-RestMethod @params

4. Authentication

Most APIs require authentication headers.

Bearer Token (OAuth/JWT)

$headers = @{
    Authorization = "Bearer eyJhbGciOi..."
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Headers $headers

Basic Authentication

# Automatic encoding
$credential = Get-Credential
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Credential $credential -Authentication Basic

5. Handling Errors

API calls can fail (404, 500, etc.). Use try-catch to handle them gracefully.

try {
    Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/missing" -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch {
    # The exception object contains the response details
    $statusCode = $_.Exception.Response.StatusCode.value__

    # Reading the error body stream
    $errorBody = $_.Exception.Response.GetResponseStream()
    $reader = [System.IO.StreamReader]::new($errorBody)
    $details = $reader.ReadToEnd()

    Write-Error "API Call Failed [$statusCode]: $details"
}

Return to PowerShell Scripting and Programming

Created: March 17, 2026 • Last Modified: February 23, 2026

Docs Login