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How to Manage Cookies with requests in Python

Cookies are a fundamental part of web interactions, used for maintaining state, tracking user sessions, and storing preferences.

This guide explains how to get, set, and manage cookies when making HTTP requests using the requests library in Python.

Getting Cookies with requests​

There are two main ways to access cookies received in an HTTP response:

Using a Session Object​

The requests.Session object automatically manages cookies across multiple requests. This is the recommended approach for most situations, as it handles cookie persistence and expiration correctly:

import requests

session = requests.Session()      # Create a session object
print(session.cookies.get_dict()) # Output: {} (initially empty)

response = session.get('http://google.com') # Make a request that sets cookies

print(session.cookies.get_dict()) # Output: (A dictionary of cookies, e.g., {'CONSENT': 'YES+...'})
  • You can also use the with statement to create and handle sessions:
import requests

with requests.Session() as session: # Automatically closes
print(session.cookies.get_dict())   # Output: (A dictionary of cookies, e.g., {'CONSENT': 'YES+...'})

response = session.get('http://google.com')
print(session.cookies.get_dict())   # Output: {'CONSENT': 'YES+...'}
  • session.cookies: This attribute holds a RequestsCookieJar object, which acts like a dictionary.
  • session.cookies.get_dict(): This returns a standard Python dictionary containing the cookies, making it easy to access them by name.

Accessing Cookies Directly from a Response​

You can also access cookies directly from a Response object, but this is generally less convenient than using a Session:

import requests

response = requests.get('http://google.com')
print(response.cookies.get_dict()) # Output: (A dictionary of cookies)
  • response.cookies: This also holds a RequestsCookieJar object. The difference is that these cookies are only for this specific response and won't be automatically used in subsequent requests (unless you manually manage them).

To access specific cookie attributes (like domain, path, expiry), iterate through the RequestsCookieJar:

import requests

session = requests.Session()
response = session.get('http://google.com')

cookie_data = [
    {'name': c.name, 'value': c.value, 'domain': c.domain, 'path': c.path}
    for c in session.cookies  # Iterate through the RequestCookieJar
]
print(cookie_data)
# Example Output (will vary):
# [{'name': 'CONSENT', 'value': 'YES+cb.202310...', 'domain': '.google.com', 'path': '/'}]
  • The code iterates over the RequestCookieJar which will return cookie objects for each of the cookies.
  • Each c in the loop is a Cookie object, with attributes like .name, .value, .domain, .path, .expires, etc.

Sending Cookies with Requests​

To send cookies with a request, use the cookies parameter:

import requests

session = requests.Session()
response = session.get(
    'https://httpbin.org/cookies',  # httpbin.org echoes back the cookies
    cookies={'my-cookie': 'my-value'}
)

print(response.text)

Output:

{
  "cookies": {
    "my-cookie": "my-value"
  }
}
  • cookies={'my-cookie': 'my-value'}: Pass a dictionary of cookie name/value pairs. The requests library handles the proper formatting for the HTTP request.

Persisting Cookies to a File​

To save cookies to a file and load them later (e.g., to maintain a session across program executions):

Saving Cookies​

import json
import requests

response = requests.get('http://google.com')

with open('cookies.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    json.dump(
        requests.utils.dict_from_cookiejar(response.cookies),  # Convert to dict
        f
    )
  • requests.utils.dict_from_cookiejar() converts a RequestCookieJar to a standard dictionary.
  • The dictionary is then saved as a json file.

Loading Cookies​

import json
import requests

session = requests.Session()  # Create a new session

with open('cookies.txt', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    cookies = requests.utils.cookiejar_from_dict(json.load(f))      # Convert dict back to jar
    session.cookies.update(cookies)                                 # Add cookies to the session

print(session.cookies.get_dict()) # Output: {'CONSENT': 'YES+...'}  # Cookies are loaded!
  • The session created can now be used to automatically send previously saved cookies.

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