How to Set Timeout for http.Get Requests in Go

Created May 3, 2022 at 9:41

Modified May 3, 2022 at 11:34

Using http.Client.Timeout Field

Timeout specifies a time limit for requests made by this Client. The timeout includes connection time, any redirects, and reading the response body.

See the following example:

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "net/http"
  "time"
)

func main() {
  client := http.Client{
    Timeout: 2 * time.Second,
  }

  resp, err := client.Get("https://google.com")
  fmt.Println(resp, err)
}

context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)

Using context.WithTimeout Function

If you want to do it per request, err handling ignored for brevity:

package main

import (
  "context"
  "fmt"
  "net/http"
  "time"
)

func main() {
  ctx, cncl := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 3*time.Second)
  defer cncl()

  req, _ := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, "https://google.com", nil)

  resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
  fmt.Println(resp, err)
}