How to download an image using Node.js
New Courses Coming Soon
Join the waiting lists
How do you download a file?
I asked myself this question when I had to download a file from a server, programmatically.
I had to connect to a server, download a file, and store it locally.
This is the code I used:
const fs = require('fs')
const request = require('request')
const download = (url, path, callback) => {
request.head(url, (err, res, body) => {
request(url)
.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(path))
.on('close', callback)
})
}
const url = 'https://…'
const path = './images/image.png'
download(url, path, () => {
console.log('✅ Done!')
})
The code uses the fs
built-in module and the request
module.
request
must be installed:
npm install request
Note that the request
module was recently deprecated, which means it’s “complete” and no new changes will be applied to it. Only fixes. It doesn’t mean it will stop working and it does not mean we should stop using it.
→ Get my Node.js Handbook
→ Read my
Node.js Tutorial
on The Valley of Code
Here is how can I help you:
- COURSES where I teach everything I know
- CODING BOOTCAMP cohort course - next edition in 2025
- BOOKS 16 coding ebooks you can download for free on JS Python C PHP and lots more
- Follow me on X