diff --git a/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/commands/utility/WebCmdlet/CoreCLR/WebRequestPSCmdlet.CoreClr.cs b/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/commands/utility/WebCmdlet/CoreCLR/WebRequestPSCmdlet.CoreClr.cs
index 2797f92cc59..ca38c1ed3e6 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/commands/utility/WebCmdlet/CoreCLR/WebRequestPSCmdlet.CoreClr.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/commands/utility/WebCmdlet/CoreCLR/WebRequestPSCmdlet.CoreClr.cs
@@ -19,6 +19,27 @@
 
 namespace Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands
 {
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Exception class for webcmdlets to enable returning HTTP error response
+    /// </summary>    
+    public sealed class HttpResponseException : HttpRequestException
+    {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Constructor for HttpResponseException
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="message">Message for the exception</param>
+        /// <param name="response">Response from the HTTP server</param>
+        public HttpResponseException (string message, HttpResponseMessage response) : base(message)
+        {
+            Response = response;
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// HTTP error response
+        /// </summary>
+        public HttpResponseMessage Response { get; private set; }
+    }
+
     /// <summary>
     /// Base class for Invoke-RestMethod and Invoke-WebRequest commands.
     /// </summary>
@@ -347,7 +368,6 @@ protected override void ProcessRecord()
                         WriteVerbose(reqVerboseMsg);
 
                         HttpResponseMessage response = GetResponse(client, request);
-                        response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
 
                         string contentType = ContentHelper.GetContentType(response);
                         string respVerboseMsg = string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
@@ -355,6 +375,39 @@ protected override void ProcessRecord()
                             response.Content.Headers.ContentLength,
                             contentType);
                         WriteVerbose(respVerboseMsg);
+
+                        if (!response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
+                        {
+                            string message = String.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, WebCmdletStrings.ResponseStatusCodeFailure,
+                                (int)response.StatusCode, response.ReasonPhrase);
+                            HttpResponseException httpEx = new HttpResponseException(message, response);
+                            ErrorRecord er = new ErrorRecord(httpEx, "WebCmdletWebResponseException", ErrorCategory.InvalidOperation, request);
+                            string detailMsg = "";
+                            StreamReader reader = null;
+                            try
+                            {
+                                reader = new StreamReader(StreamHelper.GetResponseStream(response));
+                                // remove HTML tags making it easier to read
+                                detailMsg = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(reader.ReadToEnd(), "<[^>]*>","");
+                            }
+                            catch (Exception)
+                            {
+                                // catch all
+                            }
+                            finally
+                            {
+                                if (reader != null)
+                                {
+                                    reader.Dispose();
+                                }
+                            }
+                            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(detailMsg))
+                            {
+                                er.ErrorDetails = new ErrorDetails(detailMsg);
+                            }
+                            ThrowTerminatingError(er);
+                        }
+
                         ProcessResponse(response);
                         UpdateSession(response);
 
@@ -542,4 +595,4 @@ internal long SetRequestContent(HttpRequestMessage request, IDictionary content)
         #endregion Helper Methods
     }
 }
-#endif
\ No newline at end of file
+#endif
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/resources/WebCmdletStrings.resx b/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/resources/WebCmdletStrings.resx
index 368e34ad7be..b7256271e95 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/resources/WebCmdletStrings.resx
+++ b/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility/resources/WebCmdletStrings.resx
@@ -210,4 +210,7 @@
   <data name="JsonDeserializationFailed" xml:space="preserve">
     <value>Conversion from JSON failed with error: {0}</value>
   </data>
+  <data name="ResponseStatusCodeFailure" xml:space="preserve">
+    <value>Response status code does not indicate success: {0} ({1}).</value>
+  </data>
 </root>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/powershell/Modules/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/WebCmdlets.Tests.ps1 b/test/powershell/Modules/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/WebCmdlets.Tests.ps1
index 11529315a69..66d618ddc61 100644
--- a/test/powershell/Modules/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/WebCmdlets.Tests.ps1
+++ b/test/powershell/Modules/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/WebCmdlets.Tests.ps1
@@ -399,6 +399,19 @@ Describe "Invoke-WebRequest tests" -Tags "Feature" {
         $result = ExecuteWebCommand -command $command
         $result.Error | Should BeNullOrEmpty
     }
+
+    It "Validate Invoke-WebRequest returns HTTP errors in exception" {
+
+        $command = "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://httpbin.org/status/418"
+        $result = ExecuteWebCommand -command $command
+
+        $result.Error.ErrorDetails.Message | Should Match "\-=\[ teapot \]"
+        $result.Error.Exception | Should BeOfType Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.HttpResponseException
+        $result.Error.Exception.Response.StatusCode | Should Be 418
+        $result.Error.Exception.Response.ReasonPhrase | Should Be "I'm a teapot"
+        $result.Error.Exception.Message | Should Match ": 418 \(I'm a teapot\)\."
+        $result.Error.FullyQualifiedErrorId | Should Be "WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand"
+    }
 }
 
 Describe "Invoke-RestMethod tests" -Tags "Feature" {
@@ -642,6 +655,19 @@ Describe "Invoke-RestMethod tests" -Tags "Feature" {
         $result = ExecuteWebCommand -command $command
         $result.Error | Should BeNullOrEmpty
     }
+
+    It "Validate Invoke-RestMethod returns HTTP errors in exception" {
+
+        $command = "Invoke-RestMethod -Uri http://httpbin.org/status/418"
+        $result = ExecuteWebCommand -command $command
+
+        $result.Error.ErrorDetails.Message | Should Match "\-=\[ teapot \]"
+        $result.Error.Exception | Should BeOfType Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.HttpResponseException
+        $result.Error.Exception.Response.StatusCode | Should Be 418
+        $result.Error.Exception.Response.ReasonPhrase | Should Be "I'm a teapot"
+        $result.Error.Exception.Message | Should Match ": 418 \(I'm a teapot\)\."
+        $result.Error.FullyQualifiedErrorId | Should Be "WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeRestMethodCommand"
+    }
 }
 
 Describe "Validate Invoke-WebRequest and Invoke-RestMethod -InFile" -Tags "Feature" {