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Learn to transfer files to and from Runpod.

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Prerequisites

  • If you intend to use runpodctl, make sure it’s installed on your machine, see install runpodctl
  • If you intend to use scp, make sure your Pod is configured to use real SSH. For more information, see use SSH.
  • If you intend to use rsync, make sure it’s installed on both your local machine and your Pod with apt install rsync.
  • Note the public IP address and external port from the SSH over exposed TCP command (you’ll need these for the SCP/rsync commands).

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Transferring with runpodctl

The Runpod CLI (runpodctl) provides simple commands for transferring data between your machine and Runpod. It’s preinstalled on all Runpod Pods and uses one-time codes for secure authentication, so no API keys are required.

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Sending a File

To send a file from source machine:
Example output:

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Receiving a File

To receive a file on destination machine:
Example output:

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Transferring with SCP

The general syntax for sending files to a Pod with SCP is as follows (execute this on your local machine, and replace the x’s with your Pod’s external TCP port and IP; for this example, they are 43201 and 194.26.196.6, respectively):
If your private key file is in a location other than ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 or you’re using the Windows Command Prompt, make sure you update this path accordingly in your command.
Example of sending a file to a Pod:
If you want to receive a file from your Pod, switch the source and destination arguments:
If you need to transfer a directory, use the -r flag to recursively copy files and subdirectories (this will follow any symbolic links encountered as well):

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Transferring with rsync

Your local machine must be running Linux or a WSL instance in order to use rsync.
The general syntax for sending files to a Pod with rsync is as follows (execute this on your local machine, and replace the x’s with your Pod’s external TCP port and IP):
Some helpful flags include:
  • -a/--archive - archive mode (ensures that permissions, timestamps, and other attributes are preserved during the transfer; use this when transferring directories or their contents)
  • -d/--delete - deletes files in the destination directory that are not present in the source
  • -p/--progress - displays file transfer progress
  • -v/--verbose - verbose output
  • -z/--compress - compresses data as it’s being sent and uncompresses as it’s received (heavier on your CPU, but easier on your network connection)
Example of sending a file to a Pod using rsync:
If you want to receive a file from your Pod, switch the source and destination arguments:
To transfer the contents of a directory (without transferring the directory itself), use a trailing slash in the file path:
Without a trailing slash, the directory itself is transferred:
An advantage of rsync is that files that already exist at the destination aren’t transferred again if you attempt to copy them twice (note the minimal data transfer after the second execution):

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Sync a volume to a cloud provider

You can sync your volume to a cloud provider by clicking the Cloud Sync option under your My Pods page, For detailed instructions on connecting to AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Backblaze, Dropbox, and configuring these services, please refer to this configuration guide.