diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 2872932..1873793 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # Changelog
 ## v0.7.8 TBC
+### Added
+- Add `close` method to Module API: `close(file_id: bigint): number;`
 ### Changed
 - Mark optional parameters as such in the TypeScript declarations of the following `H5Module` methods: `open`, `create_dataset`, `create_group`, `create_vlen_str_dataset` and `get_keys_vector`.
 ## v0.7.7 2024-08-28
diff --git a/src/hdf5_hl.ts b/src/hdf5_hl.ts
index f34f717..b77fea7 100644
--- a/src/hdf5_hl.ts
+++ b/src/hdf5_hl.ts
@@ -897,7 +897,7 @@ export class File extends Group {
   }
 
   close(): Status {
-    return Module.ccall("H5Fclose", "number", ["bigint"], [this.file_id]);
+    return Module.close(this.file_id);
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/hdf5_util.cc b/src/hdf5_util.cc
index 4bc79ad..7b2f613 100644
--- a/src/hdf5_util.cc
+++ b/src/hdf5_util.cc
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ int64_t open(const std::string& filename_string, unsigned int h5_mode = H5F_ACC_
     return (int64_t)file_id;
 }
 
+int close(hid_t file_id)
+{
+    herr_t status = H5Fclose(file_id);
+    return (int)status;
+}
+
 herr_t link_name_callback(hid_t loc_id, const char *name, const H5L_info_t *linfo, void *opdata)
 {
     std::vector<std::string> *namelist = reinterpret_cast<std::vector<std::string> *>(opdata);
@@ -1325,6 +1331,7 @@ int deactivate_throwing_error_handler() {
 EMSCRIPTEN_BINDINGS(hdf5)
 {
     function("open", &open);
+    function("close", &close);
     function("get_keys", &get_keys_vector);
     function("get_names", &get_child_names);
     function("get_types", &get_child_types);
diff --git a/src/hdf5_util_helpers.d.ts b/src/hdf5_util_helpers.d.ts
index 737f4e9..27f8a7e 100644
--- a/src/hdf5_util_helpers.d.ts
+++ b/src/hdf5_util_helpers.d.ts
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ export interface VirtualSource {
 
 export interface H5Module extends EmscriptenModule {
     open(filename: string, mode?: number, track_order?: boolean): bigint;
+    close(file_id: bigint): number;
     create_dataset(file_id: bigint, arg1: string, arg2: bigint, shape: bigint[], maxshape: (bigint | null)[], chunks: bigint[] | null, type: number, size: number, signed: boolean, vlen: boolean, compression_id: number, compression_opts: number[], track_order?: boolean): number;
     create_soft_link(file_id: bigint, link_target: string, link_name: string): number;
     create_hard_link(file_id: bigint, link_target: string, link_name: string): number;