diff --git a/fsspec/core.py b/fsspec/core.py
index 881b07db3..a512c7080 100644
--- a/fsspec/core.py
+++ b/fsspec/core.py
@@ -699,7 +699,10 @@ def get_fs_token_paths(
     else:
         if ("w" in mode or "x" in mode) and expand:
             paths = _expand_paths(paths, name_function, num)
-        elif "*" in paths:
+        elif "*" in paths or "[" in paths:
+            # Not has_magic(): "?" is also the URL query delimiter, so
+            # treating it as a glob wildcard breaks paths like
+            # "https://host/f?x=1" (HTTPFileSystem excludes it too).
             paths = [f for f in sorted(fs.glob(paths)) if not fs.isdir(f)]
         else:
             paths = [paths]
diff --git a/fsspec/tests/test_core.py b/fsspec/tests/test_core.py
index 2424baba5..fff9bc4c0 100644
--- a/fsspec/tests/test_core.py
+++ b/fsspec/tests/test_core.py
@@ -92,6 +92,25 @@ def test_expand_fs_token_paths(mode):
     assert len(get_fs_token_paths("path", mode, num=2, expand=True)[-1]) == 2
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("pattern", ["apath*", "apath[12]"])
+def test_get_fs_token_paths_single_string_read_mode_globs(pattern):
+    d = str(tempfile.mkdtemp())
+    for f in ["apath1", "apath2"]:
+        open(os.path.join(d, f), "w").write("test")
+
+    _, _, paths = get_fs_token_paths(os.path.join(d, pattern), mode="rb")
+
+    assert sorted(os.path.basename(p) for p in paths) == ["apath1", "apath2"]
+
+
+def test_get_fs_token_paths_read_mode_keeps_question_mark_literal():
+    # "?" is the URL query delimiter, so it must not be treated as a glob
+    # wildcard here; the path is passed through untouched rather than globbed.
+    url = "memory://host/file?download=1"
+    _, _, paths = get_fs_token_paths(url, mode="rb")
+    assert paths == ["/host/file?download=1"]
+
+
 def test_openfile_api(m):
     m.open("somepath", "wb").write(b"data")
     of = OpenFile(m, "somepath")