Request - Making API calls

Python - A Quick Start for existing Programers

1 min read

Published Sep 16 2025, updated Aug 17 2026

Python

The requests module is the most popular library for making HTTP requests in Python. It simplifies interacting with web APIs, downloading web content, sending data, etc.

To install:

pip install requests

To include the module:

import requests

Key features:

Send HTTP/HTTPS requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
Handle query parameters, headers, cookies.
Automatic JSON decoding.
Handle timeouts, redirects, and sessions.
Supports file uploads.

Main functions

requests.get(url) : Simple GET request.
requests.post(url) : POST request.
params= : Dictionary of URL query parameters.
data= : Dictionary of form data (POST).
json= : Dictionary to send as JSON payload.
headers= : Custom headers.
cookies= : Send cookies.
timeout= : Timeout in seconds.
response.status_code : HTTP response code.
response.text : Response content as string.
response.json() : Parse JSON response.
requests.Session() : Maintain cookies and headers across requests.

Examples

import requests# Simple GET requestresponse = requests.get("https://api.github.com")print(response.status_code)   # HTTP status codeprint(response.headers["Content-Type"])print(response.text[:100])    # first 100 chars of response body# GET with query parametersparams = {"q": "python requests", "page": 1}response = requests.get("https://www.example.com/search", params=params)print(response.url)           # URL with encoded query stringprint(response.json())        # if the response is JSON# POST request with datadata = {"username": "alice", "password": "1234"}response = requests.post("https://httpbin.org/post", data=data)print(response.json())# Sending JSONjson_data = {"title": "Hello", "body": "This is a post"}response = requests.post("https://httpbin.org/post", json=json_data)print(response.json())# Custom headersheaders = {"User-Agent": "MyApp/1.0"}response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/headers", headers=headers)print(response.json())# Handling timeoutstry:    response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/delay/5", timeout=2)except requests.Timeout:    print("Request timed out!")# Sessions (persistent cookies, headers)session = requests.Session()session.headers.update({"Authorization": "Bearer TOKEN"})response = session.get("https://httpbin.org/headers")print(response.json())url = "https://httpbin.org"# PUT request (replace/update resource)put_data = {"name": "Alice", "role": "admin"}response = requests.put(f"{url}/put", json=put_data)print("PUT status:", response.status_code)print("PUT response:", response.json())# PATCH request (partial update)patch_data = {"role": "moderator"}response = requests.patch(f"{url}/patch", json=patch_data)print("PATCH status:", response.status_code)print("PATCH response:", response.json())# DELETE requestresponse = requests.delete(f"{url}/delete")print("DELETE status:", response.status_code)print("DELETE response:", response.json())# Post file data# Open the file in binary modewith open("example.txt", "rb") as f:    files = {"file": f}  # 'file' is the form field name    response = requests.post(f"{url}/post", files=files)# Check the responseprint("Status code:", response.status_code)print("Response JSON:", response.json())# Multiple fileswith open("example1.txt", "rb") as f1, open("example2.txt", "rb") as f2:    files = {        "file1": f1,        "file2": f2    }    data = {"user": "alice", "role": "admin"}      # extra form fields    response = requests.post(f"{url}/post", files=files, data=data)print(response.json())