requests
Python HTTP for Humans.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Requests is a foundational HTTP library with active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and permissive licensing. It is the de facto standard for HTTP client work in Python and is appropriate for virtually any project that needs to make web requests. The only constraint is Python 3.10+, which is reasonable for modern development.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- Low install friction with a wheel distribution.
- Actively maintained with a recent release 92 days ago and continuous repository activity.
License · maintenance · safety
Apache-2.0 (permissive) — Apache-2.0 is a permissive license allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, making this package suitable for most projects without licensing concerns.
last release 2026-05-14 (92 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-11 · 54,259 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 1,756,048,205 downloads/mo, #7 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
import requests
r = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/basic-auth/user/pass', auth=('user', 'pass'))
print(r.status_code)
print(r.json())- Whether the package maintains backward compatibility across the Python versions it claims to support (3.10 through 3.15).
- Performance characteristics under high concurrency or streaming scenarios with large payloads.
What it is and what it does
Requests is a high-level HTTP client library that abstracts away the complexity of making web requests in Python. It handles URL encoding, request headers, authentication schemes (basic, digest), cookies, sessions, and response parsing automatically, so you can focus on your application logic rather than HTTP protocol details. The library manages connection pooling, TLS/SSL verification, and content decompression transparently.
It's designed for building applications that interact with REST APIs, web services, and other HTTP endpoints. The library supports streaming downloads, multi-part file uploads, SOCKS proxies, and timeouts. Its runtime dependencies (urllib3, certifi, charset_normalizer, idna) handle the lower-level concerns of socket management, certificate validation, character encoding, and internationalized domain names.
Use it for
- Fetch data from REST APIs with automatic JSON parsing and error handling.
- Build web scrapers that need to maintain sessions, handle cookies, and manage authentication.
- Send authenticated requests to protected endpoints using basic auth, digest auth, or custom headers.
- Upload files via multi-part form data to web services.
- Stream large responses without loading entire payloads into memory.
- Test HTTP endpoints in integration tests with simple, readable request syntax.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Requests is a foundational HTTP library with active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and permissive licensing. It is the de facto standard for HTTP client work in Python and is appropriate for virtually any project that needs to make web requests. The only constraint is Python 3.10+, which is reasonable for modern development.
Install
requests on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a wheel distribution. Actively maintained with a recent release 92 days ago and continuous repository activity. Depends on four stable transport libraries (charset_normalizer, idna, urllib3, certifi) that handle URL parsing, encoding, and TLS verification.
Requires Python 3.10 or later.
License in practice
Apache-2.0 is a permissive license allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, making this package suitable for most projects without licensing concerns.
Quickstart
import requests
r = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/basic-auth/user/pass', auth=('user', 'pass'))
print(r.status_code)
print(r.json())Verify before relying
- Whether the package maintains backward compatibility across the Python versions it claims to support (3.10 through 3.15).
- Performance characteristics under high concurrency or streaming scenarios with large payloads.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 4 packagescharset_normalizeridnaurllib3certifi |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 92 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 1,756,048,205 / month, #7 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableEnvironment :: Web EnvironmentIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software LicenseNatural Language :: EnglishOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.15Programming Language :: Python :: Free Threading :: 2 - BetaProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: Internet :: WWW/HTTPTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries |
Evidence: requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl
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See also niquests · cookies · httpx · requests-unixsocket2 · httpcore · requests-unixsocket · WooCommerce · sharepy · httpbin