---
c: Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
Long: keepalive-time
Arg: <seconds>
Help: Interval time for keepalive probes
Added: 7.18.0
Category: connection
Multi: single
See-also:
  - no-keepalive
  - max-time
Example:
  - --keepalive-time 20 $URL
---

# `--keepalive-time`

Set the time a connection needs to remain idle before sending keepalive probes
and the time between individual keepalive probes. It is currently effective on
operating systems offering the `TCP_KEEPIDLE` and `TCP_KEEPINTVL` socket
options (meaning Linux, recent AIX, HP-UX and more). Keepalive is used by the
TCP stack to detect broken networks on idle connections. The number of missed
keepalive probes before declaring the connection down is OS dependent and is
commonly 9 or 10. This option has no effect if --no-keepalive is used.

If unspecified, the option defaults to 60 seconds.