Obtain a single file instead of a full clone with deploy token

My deploy token is set up so I can do the following…

GIT_USER="my-username"
GIT_TOKEN="MyT0k3n"

git clone "https://${GIT_USER}:${GIT_TOKEN}@gitlab.com/MyProject/MyRepoName"

However, I am confused why I can’t reuse the token as follows:

curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: ${GIT_TOKEN}" "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/"

Am I missing something as the second yields {"message":"401 Unauthorized"}

See Deploy tokens | GitLab