Skip to content

httptoolsvsrequests-cache

MIT 23 3 1,316
123.6 million (month) Dec 28 2012 0.7.1(2025-10-10 03:54:20 ago)
1,486 5 24 BSD-2-Clause
Feb 14 2011 23.9 million (month) 1.3.1(2026-03-04 18:05:49 ago)

httptools is a package for parsing and modifying HTTP protocol strings which supports HTTP1.1 and HTTP2 protocol versions.

httptools is a Python binding for the nodejs HTTP parser. The package is available on PyPI: pip install httptools

requests-cache is an extension to the popular requests package and it provides easy request/response caching.

This can be very useful in web scraper development as it'll speed up all requests. requests-cache can also be used for programs that integrate web scrapers as it's an easy caching layer for the most time consuming part of web scraping - http connections.

Some features:

  • Ease of use
    Keep using the requests library you're already familiar with. Add caching with a drop-in replacement for requests.Session, or install globally to add transparent caching to all requests functions.
  • Performance
    Get sub-millisecond response times for cached responses. When they expire, you still save time with conditional requests.
  • Persistence
    Works with several storage backends including SQLite, Redis, MongoDB, and DynamoDB; or save responses as plain JSON files, YAML, and more
  • Expiration
    Use Cache-Control and other standard HTTP headers, define your own expiration schedule, keep your cache clutter-free with backends that natively support TTL, or any combination of strategies
  • Customization
    Works out of the box with zero config, but with a robust set of features for configuring and extending the library to suit your needs
  • Compatibility
    Can be combined with other popular libraries based on requests

Example Use


```python import requests_cache # to use requests_cache just replace requests.Session with requests_cache.CachedSession session = requests_cache.CachedSession('demo_cache') for i in range(60): session.get('https://httpbin.org/delay/1') # or patch global requests requests_cache.install_cache('demo_cache') requests.get('https://httpbin.org/delay/1') # there are various configuration options: session = CachedSession( 'demo_cache', use_cache_dir=True, # Save files in the default user cache dir cache_control=True, # Use Cache-Control response headers for expiration, if available expire_after=timedelta(days=1), # Otherwise expire responses after one day allowable_codes=[200, 400], # Cache 400 responses as a solemn reminder of your failures allowable_methods=['GET', 'POST'], # Cache whatever HTTP methods you want ignored_parameters=['api_key'], # Don't match this request param, and redact if from the cache match_headers=['Accept-Language'], # Cache a different response per language stale_if_error=True, # In case of request errors, use stale cache data if possible ) ```

Alternatives / Similar


Was this page helpful?