How to make HTTP requests

Stdlib Web
2026-04-17T16:32:01+00:00
Use the standard library's `net/http` package for most cases, as it provides a robust, dependency-free client with built-in support for timeouts and TLS.

Use the standard library's net/http package for most cases, as it provides a robust, dependency-free client with built-in support for timeouts and TLS. For quick scripts or complex scenarios like automatic retries, consider third-party libraries like golang.org/x/net/http2 or github.com/go-resty/resty, but the standard http.Client is sufficient for 95% of production needs.

Here is the standard pattern using http.Get for simple requests and http.Client with a custom Request for more control:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	// 1. Simple GET request (no timeout control)
	resp, err := http.Get("https://api.example.com/data")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		panic("unexpected status code")
	}

	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println("Simple GET:", string(body))

	// 2. Robust request with timeout and custom headers
	client := &http.Client{
		Timeout: 5 * time.Second,
	}

	req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.example.com/submit", 
		[]byte(`{"key":"value"}`))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

	resp, err = client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	body, _ = io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println("POST response:", string(body))
}

For command-line testing or quick verification without writing Go code, use curl with the -X flag for the method and -d for the body:

# GET request
curl -s https://api.example.com/data

# POST request with JSON body and custom header
curl -X POST https://api.example.com/submit \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"key":"value"}'

Always remember to close the response body (defer resp.Body.Close()) to prevent resource leaks, and prefer creating a dedicated http.Client with a configured Timeout over using http.Get or http.Post convenience functions in production. The convenience functions use a global client with no timeout, which can cause your application to hang indefinitely if the server is unresponsive. If you need to share a client across multiple goroutines, create a single http.Client instance at the package level; it is safe for concurrent use.