Convert curl to Python Requests

Converting curl to Python Requests

The Python requests library is the most popular HTTP client in the Python ecosystem. Converting curl commands to Python is one of the most common developer tasks.

GET Request

curl:

curl -H "Accept: application/json" https://api.example.com/users

Python:

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.example.com/users",
    headers={"Accept": "application/json"}
)
data = response.json()

POST with JSON

curl:

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Alice"}'

Python:

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.example.com/users",
    json={"name": "Alice"}
)

The json parameter automatically sets the Content-Type header and serializes the dictionary.

Authentication

curl:

curl -u user:pass https://api.example.com/data

Python:

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.example.com/data",
    auth=("user", "pass")
)

File Upload

curl:

curl -F "file=@photo.jpg" https://api.example.com/upload

Python:

with open("photo.jpg", "rb") as f:
    response = requests.post(
        "https://api.example.com/upload",
        files={"file": f}
    )

Key Mapping Reference

curl flag	Python requests equivalent
-H	headers={} dict
-d	data= parameter
-d (JSON)	json= parameter
-u	auth=() tuple
-F	files={} dict
-x	proxies={} dict
--timeout	timeout= seconds
-L	Enabled by default
-k	verify=False

Python requests handles redirects, cookies, and connection pooling automatically, making it more concise than raw curl commands for most use cases.