diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 51f56b75d..80676838a 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 * `pr_pull()`, `pr_push()` and friends now give more informative errors if usethis can't retrieve details about a remote (#1929, #2229).
 * `pr_resume()` (without a specific `branch`) and `pr_fetch()` (without a specific `number`) no longer error when a branch name contains curly braces (#2107, @jonthegeek).
 * `use_claude_code()` is an experimental helper to set up Claude Code in an R package in the same way as the tidyverse team (#2195).
+* `use_course()`, `use_zip()`, and `use_github_action()` no longer emit download or pagination progress when the `usethis.quiet` option is `TRUE`.
 * `use_import_from()` works in packages using `roxygen2` 8.0.0 (#2226, report by @jonthegeek; fix by @JesseAlderliesten in #2234).
 * `use_pipe()` is now deprecated (@math-mcshane, #2124).
 * `use_readme_qmd()` creates a starter `README.qmd` with Quarto-flavored YAML frontmatter, analogous to `use_readme_rmd()` (#1671). Thanks @VisruthSK for getting the ball rolling.
diff --git a/R/course.R b/R/course.R
index 26083b7a4..ebe52d66a 100644
--- a/R/course.R
+++ b/R/course.R
@@ -260,7 +260,9 @@ tidy_download <- function(url, destdir = getwd()) {
   tmp <- file_temp("tidy-download-")
 
   h <- download_url(url, destfile = tmp)
-  cli::cat_line()
+  if (!is_quiet()) {
+    cli::cat_line()
+  }
 
   cd <- content_disposition(h)
   base_name <- make_filename(cd, fallback = path_file(url))
@@ -286,8 +288,10 @@ download_url <- function(
   n_tries = 3,
   retry_connecttimeout = 40L
 ) {
-  handle_options <- list(noprogress = FALSE, progressfunction = progress_fun)
-  curl::handle_setopt(handle, .list = handle_options)
+  if (!is_quiet()) {
+    handle_options <- list(noprogress = FALSE, progressfunction = progress_fun)
+    curl::handle_setopt(handle, .list = handle_options)
+  }
 
   we_should_retry <- function(i, n_tries, status) {
     if (i >= n_tries) {
@@ -346,7 +350,13 @@ download_url <- function(
   invisible(handle)
 }
 
-try_download <- function(url, destfile, quiet = FALSE, mode = "wb", handle) {
+try_download <- function(
+  url,
+  destfile,
+  quiet = is_quiet(),
+  mode = "wb",
+  handle
+) {
   tryCatch(
     curl::curl_download(
       url = url,
diff --git a/R/github-actions.R b/R/github-actions.R
index f5bd064a1..b1b206ebe 100644
--- a/R/github-actions.R
+++ b/R/github-actions.R
@@ -306,7 +306,8 @@ latest_release <- function(repo_spec = "https://github.com/r-lib/actions") {
     owner = spec_owner(parsed$repo_spec),
     repo = spec_repo(parsed$repo_spec),
     .api_url = parsed$host,
-    .limit = Inf
+    .limit = Inf,
+    .progress = !is_quiet()
   )
   tag_names <- purrr::discard(
     map_chr(raw_releases, "tag_name"),
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-badge.R b/tests/testthat/test-badge.R
index cfd8d7ba2..c917dadae 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-badge.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-badge.R
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ test_that("use_binder_badge() needs a github repository", {
 test_that("use_r_universe_badge() needs to know the owner", {
   skip_if_no_git_user()
   local_interactive(FALSE)
-  withr::local_options(usethis.quiet = FALSE)
   create_local_package()
+  withr::local_options(usethis.quiet = FALSE)
 
   expect_snapshot(
     error = TRUE,
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ test_that("use_r_universe_badge() needs to know the owner", {
     transform = scrub_testpkg
   )
 
-  use_git()
+  ui_silence(use_git())
   use_git_remote("origin", "https://github.com/OWNER_ORIGIN/SCRUBBED.git")
   expect_snapshot(
     use_r_universe_badge(),
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-course.R b/tests/testthat/test-course.R
index 3a91e1ebf..ec02ff2da 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-course.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-course.R
@@ -71,9 +71,7 @@ test_that("tidy_download() works", {
   gh_url <- "https://github.com/r-lib/rematch2/archive/main.zip"
   expected <- fs::path(tmp, "rematch2-main.zip")
 
-  capture.output(
-    out <- tidy_download(gh_url, destdir = tmp)
-  )
+  out <- tidy_download(gh_url, destdir = tmp)
   expect_true(fs::file_exists(expected))
   expect_identical(out, expected, ignore_attr = TRUE)
   expect_identical(attr(out, "content-type"), "application/zip")