Comparing
Promise based HTTP client for the browser and node.js
Python HTTP for Humans
| Metric | axios | requests |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | npm | Python |
| Difficulty | Advanced | Beginner ✓ |
| Weekly downloads | 101.0M | 324.9M↑ |
| Latest version | v1.14.0 | v2.33.1 |
| Recipes | 7↑ | 3 |
axios only
Shared
requests only
Use axios when you need request/response interceptors (auth headers, logging, retry logic), want automatic JSON serialisation/deserialisation, need to cancel in-flight requests, or want consistent behaviour between browser and Node.js environments.
Use requests for any synchronous HTTP work: calling REST APIs, scraping web pages, downloading files, or integrating with webhooks. It's the right default for scripts, CLI tools, and Django/Flask backends that don't need async.
For simple requests in modern apps, fetch is built-in and perfectly adequate. For lightweight browser-only code, ky is a smaller alternative. React Query or SWR abstract data fetching further — prefer those when you also need caching and state management.
Avoid requests when you're writing async code — it will block your event loop. Switch to httpx (drop-in async API) or aiohttp for FastAPI backends, async scrapers, or anything running inside asyncio.
axios
+3 more
requests