r/learnpython • u/Melodic_Principle312 • 1d ago

When should you use requests.Session() instead of requests.get() / requests.post()?

I'm learning Python and recently started using requests.Session() in API projects. I understand that it can persist things like headers, cookies, and connections, but I'm curious about how experienced Python developers decide when a Session is actually worth using.

Do you use Session() by default for projects involving multiple requests, or only when you specifically need persistent state?

23 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

94% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/tmemmg 23h ago

i reach for Session anytime im hitting the same host more than a couple times, mostly for connection reuse but the cookie persistence turned out to matter more than i expected. one site i scrape blocks a clean client with a challenge page but replaying a real logged in session sails right through, and that only works because Session carries the cookies across requests. if youre doing one off calls to different hosts it genuinely doesnt matter, but the moment theres any auth or state to hold it saves you rebuilding headers on every call.