import os local_size = os.path.getsize("local_file.mp4") if local_size == total_size: print("Download successful!") Use code with caution. đź’ˇ Summary Checklist Use to check size before starting. Always use stream=True for files over a few MBs. Use iter_content to save memory. Check for Content-Length availability.
When downloading files using Python’s requests library, handling file size is crucial for performance and reliability. Whether you need to check a file size before downloading or manage a massive multi-gigabyte transfer without crashing your RAM, this guide covers every approach. 🏗️ Check File Size Without Downloading
Wrap the download in a statement to ensure connections close.
Some servers use Transfer-Encoding: chunked . In this case, the Content-Length header is missing because the server doesn't know the final size yet. Your code should always have a fallback:
Since you know the total file size from the headers, you can use the tqdm library to show a visual progress bar.