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requests-cache

1,183 5 24 BSD-2-Clause
1.1.1 (19 Nov 2023) Feb 14 2011 961.5 thousand (month)

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


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
) 

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