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timeout in python requests

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 1 min read

Timeout in Python Requests

If you have worked with Python requests library, you might have encountered a situation where your request takes too long to get a response or the server does not give a response at all. This can be a frustrating experience, especially when you have a deadline to meet. In such situations, the use of timeout can be handy.

What is Timeout?

Timeout is the duration of time that a request will wait for a response from the server before it times out. It is measured in seconds.

How to Set Timeout in Python Requests

Timeout can be set using the timeout parameter of the requests.get() or requests.post() method. Here is an example:


import requests

resp = requests.get('https://www.example.com', timeout=5)

In the above code, timeout=5 sets the timeout to 5 seconds. If the server does not respond within 5 seconds, a TimeoutError will be raised.

Multiple Ways to Set Timeout

There are multiple ways to set timeout in Python requests:

  • Global Timeout: You can set a global timeout for all requests made using requests library by setting the timeout parameter in the Session() object. Example:

import requests

s = requests.Session()
s.timeout = 5

resp = s.get('https://www.example.com')
  • Per-Request Timeout: You can set timeout on a per-request basis by setting the timeout parameter in the get() or post() method. Example:

import requests

resp = requests.get('https://www.example.com', timeout=5)
  • Connection Timeout: You can also set a separate timeout for establishing a connection to the server using the connect_timeout parameter. Example:

import requests

resp = requests.get('https://www.example.com', timeout=(5, 10))

In the above code, (5, 10) sets the connection timeout to 5 seconds and the response timeout to 10 seconds. This means that if the server does not respond within 10 seconds after the connection is established, a TimeoutError will be raised.

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