Python Requests Library

Installing Requests

requests is not part of the Python standard library, so it needs to be installed with pip before you can import it.

pip install requests

Making a GET Request

A GET request asks a server for data, like fetching a webpage or calling a public API. The response object that comes back holds everything you need: the status code, headers, and the actual content.

import requests

response = requests.get("https://api.github.com")
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

status_code tells you whether the request succeeded — 200 means OK, 404 means not found, and 500 means a server error. When the response body is JSON, response.json() converts it directly into a Python dictionary or list you can work with.

Sending Params and Headers

Many APIs need extra query parameters (like a search term or page number) or headers (like an API key or authorization token). requests lets you pass both as simple dictionaries.

import requests

params = {"q": "python internships", "page": 1}
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"}

response = requests.get(
    "https://example.com/api/search",
    params=params,
    headers=headers
)
print(response.status_code)

Making a POST Request

A POST request sends data to the server, commonly used for submitting a form or creating a new record. Pass a dictionary through the json parameter and requests handles the encoding for you.

import requests

payload = {"name": "Aarav", "email": "aarav@example.com"}
response = requests.post("https://example.com/api/signup", json=payload)

print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())