How do I kill the process currently using a port on localhost in Windows?

Step 1:

Open up cmd.exe (note: you may need to run it as an administrator, but this isn't always necessary), then run the below command:

netstat -ano | findstr :<PORT>

(Replace <PORT> with the port number you want, but keep the colon)

The area circled in red shows the PID (process identifier). Locate the PID of the process that's using the port you want.

Step 2:

Next, run the following command:

taskkill /PID <PID> /F

(No colon this time)

Lastly, you can check whether the operation succeeded or not by re-running the command in "Step 1". If it was successful you shouldn't see any more search results for that port number.


Step 1 (same is in accepted answer written by KavinduWije):

netstat -ano | findstr :yourPortNumber

Change in Step 2 to:

tskill typeyourPIDhere 

Note: taskkill is not working in some git bash terminal


I know that is really old question, but found pretty easy to remember, fast command to kill apps that are using port.

Requirements: [email protected]^ version

npx kill-port 8080

You can also read more about kill-port here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/kill-port