diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b519e4e..dbe28d2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ To install from source, [read the docs](https://macrel.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
 > COMMAND specifying which components of the pipeline you want to use.
 
 To run these examples, first download the example sequences from
-[github](https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/tree/master/example_seqs), or
+[github](https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/tree/main/example_seqs), or
 by running:
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/docs/usage.md b/docs/usage.md
index 3dab8c3..9bd0405 100644
--- a/docs/usage.md
+++ b/docs/usage.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ Also, `macrel --version` will show the version of macrel installed.
 ### Examples
 
 To run these examples, first download the example sequences from
-[github](https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/tree/master/example_seqs), or
+[github](https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/tree/main/example_seqs), or
 by running:
 
 ```bash
diff --git a/macrel/main.py b/macrel/main.py
index ad4970f..9df0da2 100644
--- a/macrel/main.py
+++ b/macrel/main.py
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ def do_get_examples(args):
         'R2.fq.gz',
         'ref.faa.gz',
         ]
-    BASEURL = 'https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/raw/master/example_seqs/'
+    BASEURL = 'https://github.com/BigDataBiology/macrel/raw/main/example_seqs/'
     if path.exists('example_seqs') and not args.force:
         error_exit(args, 'example_seqs/ directory already exists')
     makedirs('example_seqs', exist_ok=True)