GitHub Release Download Stats

GitHub counts every time someone downloads a release asset — but it never shows you the total, and it never shows you how downloads change over time. This guide covers both: how to read the raw download counts from the GitHub API, and how to turn them into download stats you can track by the hour, day, week and month.

Does GitHub show release download counts?

Not in the web interface. Open any repository's Releases page and you'll see tags, notes and assets — but no download numbers. GitHub does record them, though: each release asset carries a download_count field that's only exposed through the REST API. There is no total across releases and no historical series anywhere — just a per-asset, point-in-time number.

See download counts with the GitHub API

The quickest way to read the count for a single repository is to call the releases endpoint and pull out download_count for each asset:

# Download count for every asset in the latest release
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/releases/latest \
  | grep -o '"download_count":[0-9]*'

# Total downloads across all (recent) releases, using jq
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/releases \
  | jq '[.[].assets[].download_count] | add'

Replace OWNER/REPO with the repository (for example cli/cli). The API is paginated at 100 releases per page and unauthenticated requests are rate-limited to 60 per hour, so for anything beyond a quick check you'll want a token. Either way, the result is a single snapshot: run it again tomorrow and you get a new total, with no record of what changed in between.

Tracking GitHub downloads over time

The interesting questions aren't answered by a single total. Is the new version actually being adopted? Which binary do people pick — the .exe, the .dmg, the .zip? Did that Hacker News post move the needle? Answering them needs a time series: the download count sampled repeatedly and stored, so you can chart the deltas.

That's exactly what Release Monitor does. It polls the GitHub Releases API every 15 minutes for the repos you add, records download_count for every asset in every tracked release, and charts how it grows — by hour, day, week or month. Bars are stacked per release and per asset, so a new version taking off and an old one still trickling are both visible at once. It's the part the API and most lookup tools leave out.

Ways to get GitHub download stats, compared

• GitHub web UI — shows releases, but no download counts at all.
• GitHub REST API — exact per-asset download_count; point-in-time only, no totals or history, rate-limited.
• Lookup tools / badges — convenient way to read the current count for any public repo without writing code; still a single snapshot.
• Release Monitor — snapshots every 15 minutes and stores the history, so you get download stats over time with hourly, daily, weekly and monthly charts, broken down per release and per asset.

Track your repo's download stats

Release Monitor is free. Sign in with GitHub (it asks for the public_repo scope only), paste an owner/repo name, and it starts charting that repository's release downloads over time — first numbers appear within about an hour.

Sign in with GitHub   or see a live demo →

Frequently asked questions

How do I see how many times a GitHub release was downloaded?

Every asset in a GitHub release has a download_count field in the GitHub Releases API, but GitHub's web interface doesn't display it. Call the releases API for a repository and read download_count for each asset, or use a tool that surfaces it for you.

Does GitHub show total download counts for a repository?

No. GitHub doesn't show a running total or a history of release-asset downloads anywhere in the web UI. The numbers only exist per asset in the API response, as a single point-in-time count — to get a total you sum download_count across releases yourself.

Can I track GitHub release downloads over time?

The GitHub API only returns the current total, with no history. To see downloads over time you have to snapshot the count repeatedly and store it. Release Monitor does this automatically every 15 minutes and charts the result by hour, day, week and month.

Is there a free tool for GitHub download stats?

Yes. Release Monitor is free: sign in with GitHub (public_repo scope only), add any public repository, and it tracks the download stats of every release and asset over time.