How to POST JSON data with Python Requests?

Starting with Requests version 2.4.2, you can use the json= parameter (which takes a dictionary) instead of data= (which takes a string) in the call:

>>> import requests
>>> r = requests.post('http://httpbin.org/post', json={"key": "value"})
>>> r.status_code
200
>>> r.json()
{'args': {},
 'data': '{"key": "value"}',
 'files': {},
 'form': {},
 'headers': {'Accept': '*/*',
             'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate',
             'Connection': 'close',
             'Content-Length': '16',
             'Content-Type': 'application/json',
             'Host': 'httpbin.org',
             'User-Agent': 'python-requests/2.4.3 CPython/3.4.0',
             'X-Request-Id': 'xx-xx-xx'},
 'json': {'key': 'value'},
 'origin': 'x.x.x.x',
 'url': 'http://httpbin.org/post'}

It turns out I was missing the header information. The following works:

url = "http://localhost:8080"
data = {'sender': 'Alice', 'receiver': 'Bob', 'message': 'We did it!'}
headers = {'Content-type': 'application/json', 'Accept': 'text/plain'}
r = requests.post(url, data=json.dumps(data), headers=headers)

From requests 2.4.2 (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/requests), the "json" parameter is supported. No need to specify "Content-Type". So the shorter version:

requests.post('http://httpbin.org/post', json={'test': 'cheers'})

Which parameter between data / json / files you need to use depends on a request header named Content-Type (you can check this through the developer tools of your browser).

When the Content-Type is application/x-www-form-urlencoded, use data=:

requests.post(url, data=json_obj)

When the Content-Type is application/json, you can either just use json= or use data= and set the Content-Type yourself:

requests.post(url, json=json_obj)

requests.post(url, data=jsonstr, headers={"Content-Type":"application/json"})

When the Content-Type is multipart/form-data, it's used to upload files, so use files=:

requests.post(url, files=xxxx)