Troubleshooting Python Request Timeouts

Making HTTP requests is essential in many Python programs. However, you may occasionally run into issues with requests unexpectedly timing out. This can lead to failed API calls, scraping jobs, or webhooks.

In this guide, we'll explore some of the common causes and solutions for Python request timeouts.

Why Requests Time Out

There are a few key reasons why a requests call may time out in Python:

Handling Timeouts

When you run into timeouts, there are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and improve the reliability:

requests.get('https://api.example.com', timeout=30) 

import requests
from tenacity import retry, stop_after_attempt

@retry(stop=stop_after_attempt(3))
def make_request():
    response = requests.get('https://api.example.com', timeout=30)
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response

Avoiding Timeouts

To help avoid timeouts, here are some key best practices:

With timeouts, the most important thing is having robust handling and retries in place. This ensures one slow API response doesn't break your entire application.