How do I upload a file with the JS fetch API?

An important note for sending Files with Fetch API

One needs to omit content-type header for the Fetch request. Then the browser will automatically add the Content type header including the Form Boundary which looks like

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=—-WebKitFormBoundaryfgtsKTYLsT7PNUVD

Form boundary is the delimiter for the form data


This is a basic example with comments. The upload function is what you are looking for:

// Select your input type file and store it in a variable
const input = document.getElementById('fileinput');

// This will upload the file after having read it
const upload = (file) => {
  fetch('http://www.example.net', { // Your POST endpoint
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      // Content-Type may need to be completely **omitted**
      // or you may need something
      "Content-Type": "You will perhaps need to define a content-type here"
    },
    body: file // This is your file object
  }).then(
    response => response.json() // if the response is a JSON object
  ).then(
    success => console.log(success) // Handle the success response object
  ).catch(
    error => console.log(error) // Handle the error response object
  );
};

// Event handler executed when a file is selected
const onSelectFile = () => upload(input.files[0]);

// Add a listener on your input
// It will be triggered when a file will be selected
input.addEventListener('change', onSelectFile, false);

I've done it like this:

var input = document.querySelector('input[type="file"]')

var data = new FormData()
data.append('file', input.files[0])
data.append('user', 'hubot')

fetch('/avatars', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: data
})

If you want multiple files, you can use this

var input = document.querySelector('input[type="file"]')

var data = new FormData()
for (const file of input.files) {
  data.append('files',file,file.name)
}

fetch('/avatars', {
  method: 'POST',
  body: data
})