# How to download a file from a server using the terminal

> Learn how to download a file from a remote server using the terminal with the scp command, passing your SSH key and the path to copy it to your machine.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2021-11-07 | Topics: [CLI](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/cli/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/download-file-scp/

I've had the need to transfer a file I had on a server.

I was connected through SSH and I didn't want to setup the SFTP connection (and I didn't know if the SFTP connection was allowed), so I opened another terminal window and used the command `scp`.

Here's the syntax:

```sh
scp -i /.ssh/yourkey USER@SERVER:/path-to-file/on/server.txt ./ 
```

Swap USER and SERVER with your server details, and also `/path-to-file/on/server.txt` with the path of the file. And use your SSH key path.

This will download the file in the same folder you are in, because I specified `./`. You can change it to any folder on your computer.

If you're SSHing into servers regularly, I built a free [SSH hardening checklist](https://flaviocopes.com/tools/ssh-hardening/) that helps you lock down `sshd_config`.