---
id: google-apitools
version: "0.5.35"
license: Apache 2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# google-apitools — client libraries for humans

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 3.0M/mo

## What it is and what it does

google-apitools is a collection of utilities designed to simplify building client-side tools that interact with Google APIs. It provides foundational HTTP request handling via httplib2, authentication support through oauth2client, file locking via fasteners, and Python 2/3 compatibility through six.

However, the package is explicitly marked as deprecated and unsupported. The maintainers direct users toward official Google Cloud client libraries or alternative generators for API clients from proto specifications. While the repository remains active with recent commits, new projects should avoid this package in favor of the recommended alternatives.

Use it for:

- Maintaining legacy applications that already depend on google-apitools and oauth2client for Google API access
- Building simple command-line tools for Google APIs when official libraries are unavailable
- Educational projects learning how Google API client libraries work internally
- Migrating away from deprecated tooling by understanding existing implementations

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides utilities for building client-side tools that communicate with Google APIs, including HTTP request handling and authentication support.

No, unless maintaining legacy code. The package is explicitly deprecated and unsupported. Use official Google Cloud client libraries instead. While install friction is low and no known vulnerabilities exist, the deprecation status means no security updates or maintenance are guaranteed, making it unsuitable for new projects.

## Install

pip install google-apitools
uv add google-apitools
poetry add google-apitools

## Installing google-apitools

Before you install: Low install friction with four lightweight runtime dependencies. The package is marked active with a recent commit (2026-03-02), though the description explicitly states the library is deprecated and unsupported, recommending users migrate to official alternatives.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache 2.0 (permissive), allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, though the deprecated status means ongoing maintenance and security updates are not guaranteed.

Quickstart:

pip install google-apitools

import oauth2client
from oauth2client import client

# Use oauth2client for authentication with Google APIs

Package is deprecated; official Google Cloud client libraries are recommended instead. Requires Python 2.7 or 3.5+.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package receives security patches despite deprecation status
- Current adoption rate and whether new projects should avoid it
- Specific Google API versions and authentication flows supported

## Package facts

- License: Apache 2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 3.0M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

google api client library, google api utilities, build google api clients, google api http tools, api client generation, rest api client builder, google api authentication, deprecated, google-apis, legacy

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