How to Pass an API Key in a Python Header

APIs are a cornerstone of digital functionality, allowing different software to interface and interact with one another. In many APIs, an API key is required to authenticate requests. This tutorial will guide you on how to pass an API key in a Python header.

What is an API Key?

An API key is a unique identifier that is used to authenticate a user, developer, or calling program to an API. However, they are not a security feature, API keys provide the capability to generate a service request.

How to pass an API Key?

API keys are passed in the HTTP header. The key-value pairs to specify the API key value are used in the request headers. It doesn’t really matter how you pass the API key – as a query string parameter, in the header, or even in the body – it’s still insecure.

Step 1: The Import Statements

There are certain Python libraries you will need to interact with an API such as the ‘requests’ library.

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import requests

Step 2: Define the API Key

The next step is to define or specify your API key. Storing the key in a variable is advised as making it a string makes it much easier to use in subsequent codes.

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api_key = "your_api_key_here"

Step 3: Pass the API Key in Headers

The ‘requests’ library allows us to send an HTTP request using the .get() method. We pass the API endpoint/url and headers as parameters, where the headers include the API key.

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url = "api_endpoint_here"
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer " + api_key
}
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

The API key is appended to the string “Bearer ” in the headers dictionary. This dictionary is then passed along with the URL to the .get() method.

Step 4: Check the Response

Finally, you can check the response status code to know if your request is successful or not. You may also print the full response to see the data received.

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print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Full Code

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import requests
 
api_key = "your_api_key_here"
url = "your_api_endpoint_here"
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer " + api_key
}
 
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.status_code)
print(response.json())

Conclusion

By following these steps, you should now be able to pass an API key in a Python header. Remember that while the key grants you access to specific functions and data, it should be kept secret and not included in the front end of an application.