---
page_title: terraform state pull command reference
description: >-
  The `terraform state pull` command downloads and outputs state information from a remote state or local state.
---

#  `terraform state pull` command

The `terraform state pull` downloads and outputs state information from a [remote state](/terraform/language/state/remote) or local state.

## Usage

Usage: `terraform state pull`

This command downloads the state from its current location, upgrades the
local copy to the latest state file version that is compatible with
locally-installed Terraform, and outputs the raw format to stdout.

This is useful for reading values out of state (potentially pairing this
command with something like [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/)). It is
also useful if you need to make manual modifications to state.

You cannot use this command to inspect the Terraform version of
the remote state, as it will always be converted to the current Terraform
version before output.

-> **Note:** Terraform state files must be in UTF-8 format without a byte order mark (BOM). For PowerShell on Windows, use `Set-Content` to automatically encode files in UTF-8 format. For example, run `terraform state pull | sc terraform.tfstate`.
