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Requests ​

Requests is a popular third-party Python library used for making HTTP requests simple and human-friendly. It abstracts low-level networking details and provides a clean API for interacting with web services and REST APIs.

Official site: https://docs.python-requests.org

Installation ​

bash
pip install requests

Making HTTP Requests ​

GET Request ​

python
response = requests.get("https://api.example.com/data")

POST Request ​

python
response = requests.post("https://api.example.com/create", data={"key": "value"})

Other HTTP Methods ​

python
requests.put(url, data=data)
requests.delete(url)
requests.patch(url, data=data)
requests.head(url)
requests.options(url)

Request Parameters ​

Query Parameters ​

python
params = {"page": 1, "limit": 10}
requests.get(url, params=params)

Headers ​

python
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN"}
requests.get(url, headers=headers)

Request Body (Form Data) ​

python
data = {"username": "admin", "password": "1234"}
requests.post(url, data=data)

JSON Body ​

python
requests.post(url, json={"title": "Python"})

Timeout Handling ​

python
requests.get(url, timeout=5)

Prevents indefinite waiting for a server response.

Response Object ​

Status Code and Headers ​

python
response.status_code
response.headers

Response Content ​

python
response.text      # string
response.content   # bytes

JSON Response ​

python
data = response.json()

URL and History ​

python
response.url
response.history   # redirects

Authentication ​

Basic Authentication ​

python
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
requests.get(url, auth=HTTPBasicAuth("user", "pass"))

Token-Based Authentication ​

python
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN"}
requests.get(url, headers=headers)

Error Handling ​

HTTP Errors ​

python
response.raise_for_status()

Exception Handling ​

python
try:
    requests.get(url, timeout=3)
    response.raise_for_status()
except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
    print("Request timed out")
except requests.exceptions.ConnectionError:
    print("Connection error")
except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as e:
    print(e)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(e)
except requests.exceptions.TooManyRedirects as e:
    print(e)

Working with Files ​

File Upload ​

python
files = {"file": open("data.txt", "rb")}
requests.post(url, files=files)

File Download ​

python
response = requests.get(file_url)
with open("file.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Sessions (Persistent Connections) ​

Sessions persist headers, cookies, and connections across requests.

python
session = requests.Session()

# Applied to all future requests made with this session
session.headers.update({
    "Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN",
    "User-Agent": "MyApp/1.0"
})

response1 = session.get("https://api.example.com/profile")
response2 = session.post("https://api.example.com/update", json={"name": "Alice"})

Both requests automatically include the same headers without passing them again.

Cookies ​

Sending Cookies ​

python
cookies = {"session_id": "abc123"}
requests.get(url, cookies=cookies)

Reading Cookies ​

python
response.cookies

Redirects ​

python
requests.get(url, allow_redirects=True)

Check redirect history:

python
response.history

SSL Verification ​

python
requests.get(url, verify=True)   # default
requests.get(url, verify=False)  # not recommended

Custom CA bundle:

python
requests.get(url, verify="ca.pem")

Proxies ​

python
proxies = {
    "http": "http://proxy.example.com:8080",
    "https": "https://proxy.example.com:8080",
}
requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)

Streaming Large Responses ​

python
response = requests.get(url, stream=True)
for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):
    process(chunk)

Limitations ​

  • Not asynchronous (use httpx or aiohttp for async).
  • No built-in retry logic (can be added with adapters)
  • Not designed for browser automation.
  • No built-in rate limiting.