diff --git a/piptools/scripts/options.py b/piptools/scripts/options.py
index d3e82533..8f97fd8f 100644
--- a/piptools/scripts/options.py
+++ b/piptools/scripts/options.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 from piptools.locations import CACHE_DIR, DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE_NAMES
 from piptools.utils import UNSAFE_PACKAGES, override_defaults_from_config_file
 
+from .types import EnhancedPath
+
 BuildTargetT = Literal["sdist", "wheel", "editable"]
 ALL_BUILD_TARGETS: tuple[BuildTargetT, ...] = (
     "editable",
@@ -337,7 +339,7 @@ def _get_default_option(option_name: str) -> Any:
 constraint = click.option(
     "-c",
     "--constraint",
-    type=click.Path(
+    type=EnhancedPath(
         exists=True,
         file_okay=True,
         dir_okay=False,
diff --git a/piptools/scripts/types.py b/piptools/scripts/types.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4a8e041e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/piptools/scripts/types.py
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import typing
+from gettext import gettext
+from typing import Any, Union
+
+import click
+
+
+class EnhancedPath(click.Path):
+    """The ``EnhancedPath`` type extends the built-in ``click.Path`` type, to
+    also support URLs, for example HTTP(S). Note that ``file://`` support
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, **kwargs: Any):
+        super().__init__(**kwargs)
+
+    def convert(
+        self,
+        value: str | os.PathLike[str],
+        param: click.Parameter | None,
+        ctx: click.Context | None,
+    ) -> str | bytes | os.PathLike[str]:
+        if isinstance(value, os.PathLike) or not EnhancedPath.is_url(value):
+            return typing.cast(
+                Union[str, bytes, "os.PathLike[str]"],
+                super().convert(value, param, ctx),
+            )
+
+        if EnhancedPath.is_file_scheme(value):
+            super().convert(EnhancedPath.file_url_to_path(value), param, ctx)
+            return value
+
+        from urllib.error import HTTPError, URLError
+        from urllib.request import urlopen
+
+        def handle_http_error(
+            http_error: HTTPError,
+        ) -> None:
+            if http_error.code == 404 and self.exists:
+                self.fail(
+                    gettext("{name} {filename!r} does not exist.").format(
+                        name=self.name.title(), filename=value
+                    ),
+                    param,
+                    ctx,
+                )
+
+            if http_error.code == 403 and self.readable:
+                self.fail(
+                    gettext("{name} {filename!r} is not readable.").format(
+                        name=self.name.title(), filename=value
+                    ),
+                    param,
+                    ctx,
+                )
+            self.fail(
+                gettext(
+                    "failed checking {name} {filename!r} with error code {code}."
+                ).format(
+                    name=self.name.title(),
+                    filename=value,
+                    code=http_error.code,
+                ),
+                param,
+                ctx,
+            )
+
+        try:
+            urlopen(value)  # nosec
+            return value
+        except URLError as e:
+            if isinstance(e, HTTPError):
+                handle_http_error(e)
+
+            self.fail(
+                gettext("failed checking {name} {filename!r}.").format(
+                    name=self.name.title(),
+                    filename=value,
+                ),
+                param,
+                ctx,
+            )
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_url(value: str) -> bool:
+        return True if "://" in value else False
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_file_scheme(url: str) -> bool:
+        from urllib.parse import urlparse
+
+        return urlparse(url).scheme == "file"
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def file_url_to_path(url: str) -> str:
+        from urllib.parse import unquote_plus, urlparse
+
+        return unquote_plus(urlparse(url).path)