How to Fix: AttributeError: ‘Response’ object has no attribute ‘json’

This AttributeError Response object issue is one of the most common typos when working with APIs and the requests library.

It means: “You typed response.json but you meant response.json()“.

The Cause

In Python, there’s a huge difference between an attribute (a piece of data, like a variable) and a method (an action, like a function).

• response.status_code is an attribute. It’s just a number (like 200).
• response.text is an attribute. It’s just a string of text.
• response.json() is a method. It’s an action that tells Python to read the response.text and parse it into a Python dictionary.

Problem Code:

import requests
response = requests.get("https://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice.json")

# This is a method, not an attribute!
data = response.json
# CRASH! AttributeError: 'Response' object has no attribute 'json'

The Fix: Add Parentheses

You need to call the method by adding () at the end.

import requests
response = requests.get("https://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice.json")

# THE FIX:
data = response.json() # Call the method

# Now it's a dictionary!
print(data['bpi']['USD']['rate'])

If you ever see an AttributeError, your first check should be: “Did I forget the ()?”