How to open my files in data_folder with pandas using relative path?

Try

import pandas as pd
pd.read_csv("../data_folder/data.csv")

Pandas will start looking from where your current python file is located. Therefore you can move from your current directory to where your data is located with '..' For example:

pd.read_csv('../../../data_folder/data.csv')

Will go 3 levels up and then into a data_folder (assuming it's there) Or

pd.read_csv('data_folder/data.csv')

assuming your data_folder is in the same directory as your .py file.