Using GRequests: A Go Clone of Python Requests for Simplified HTTP Requests

When I switched from Python to Go, I found the built‑in net/http package a bit cumbersome for everyday HTTP work, especially for tasks like POST requests. I discovered grequests, a Go library inspired by Python's popular requests, which aims to make HTTP calls more intuitive. grequests is described as a Go "clone" of the great and famous Requests library, offering a familiar API that reduces the mental overhead of writing HTTP client code.

Below is a minimal net/http GET example for comparison:

// 发起 HTTP GET 请求
resp, _ := http.Get("https://httpbin.org/get")
defer resp.Body.Close() // 确保关闭响应体

// 读取响应体内容
body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)

// 将响应体打印为字符串
fmt.Println(string(body))

And a net/http POST example, which requires more boilerplate:

// 创建一个要发送的数据结构并编码为 JSON
data := map[string]any{"username": "user", "password": "pass"}
jsonData, _ := json.Marshal(data)

// 创建 POST 请求
url := "https://httpbin.org/post"
request, _ := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, url, bytes.NewBuffer(jsonData))
request.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

// 发送请求并获取响应
client := &http.Client{}
resp, _ := client.Do(request)
defer resp.Body.Close()

// 读取响应体内容
body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))

To start using grequests, install it with:

$ go get -u github.com/levigross/grequests

A simple GET request with grequests reduces to three lines:

resp, _ := grequests.Get("https://httpbin.org/get", nil)
defer resp.Close()
fmt.Println(resp)
fmt.Println(resp.String())

Query string parameters can be passed via RequestOptions:

ro := &grequests.RequestOptions{Params: map[string]string{"Hello": "Goodbye"}}
resp, _ := grequests.Get("https://httpbin.org/get?Hello=World", ro)
defer resp.Close()
fmt.Println(resp)
fmt.Println(resp.RawResponse.Request.URL)

The above prints a JSON response showing the final URL https://httpbin.org/get?Hello=Goodbye, demonstrating how Params override existing query values.

Sending a POST request with JSON payload is equally straightforward:

postData := map[string]string{"username": "user", "password": "pass"}
ro := &grequests.RequestOptions{JSON: postData}
resp, _ := grequests.Post("https://httpbin.org/post", ro)
defer resp.Close()
fmt.Println("Response:", resp.String())

Basic authentication can be set using the Auth field:

ro := &grequests.RequestOptions{Auth: []string{"user", "pass"}}
resp, _ := grequests.Get("https://httpbin.org/basic-auth/user/pass", ro)
defer resp.Close()
if resp.Ok != true {
    log.Println("Request did not return OK")
}
fmt.Println(resp.StatusCode)
fmt.Println(resp.Header.Get("content-type"))
fmt.Println(resp.String())

m := make(map[string]any)
_ = resp.JSON(&m)
fmt.Println(m)

Downloading a response directly to a file is handled by DownloadToFile:

resp, _ := grequests.Get("https://httpbin.org/get", nil)
defer resp.Close()
_ = resp.DownloadToFile("result.json")

Uploading a file (with optional form data) uses the Files and Data fields:

fd, _ := grequests.FileUploadFromDisk("result.json")
resp, _ := grequests.Post("https://httpbin.org/post", &grequests.RequestOptions{Files: fd, Data: map[string]string{"One": "Two"}})
defer resp.Close()
fmt.Println(resp)

Overall, grequests offers a more elegant and concise API than the standard net/http package, especially for POST requests, query handling, basic authentication, and file transfer, making HTTP client development in Go much more pleasant.