--- title: "HTTP Requests | Grafana k6 documentation" description: "Define the HTTP requests and methods you want to use. k6 adds tags to the requests, making it easier to filter results. You can customize tags as you wish." --- # HTTP Requests When you create a new load test, one of the first steps is to define the HTTP requests that you would like to test. ## Make HTTP Requests A GET request looks like this: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import http from 'k6/http'; export default function () { http.get('http://test.k6.io'); } ``` For something slightly more complex, this example shows a POST request with an email/password authentication payload: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import http from 'k6/http'; export default function () { const url = 'http://test.k6.io/login'; const payload = JSON.stringify({ email: 'aaa', password: 'bbb', }); const params = { headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', }, }; http.post(url, payload, params); } ``` ## Available methods The [http module](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/) handles all kinds of HTTP requests and methods. Expand table | Name | Value | |--------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | [batch()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/batch/) | Issue multiple HTTP requests in parallel (like e.g. browsers tend to do). | | [del()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/del/) | Issue an HTTP DELETE request. | | [get()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/get/) | Issue an HTTP GET request. | | [head()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/head/) | Issue an HTTP HEAD request. | | [options()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/options/) | Issue an HTTP OPTIONS request. | | [patch()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/patch/) | Issue an HTTP PATCH request. | | [post()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/post/) | Issue an HTTP POST request. | | [put()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/put/) | Issue an HTTP PUT request. | | [request()](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/request/) | Issue any type of HTTP request. | ## Follow redirects By default, k6 automatically follows a set number of redirects before stopping and returning the last response. You can customize this by using: - The `maxRedirects` option to customize the number of redirects globally. Refer to [Max redirects](/docs/k6/latest/using-k6/k6-options/reference/#max-redirects) for more details. - The `Params.redirects` property to customize the number of redirects for a specific request, which overrides the `maxRedirects` option. Refer to [Params](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/params/) for more details. ## HTTP Request Tags k6 automatically applies [tags](/docs/k6/latest/using-k6/tags-and-groups/#section-tags) to your HTTP requests. You can use these tags to filter your results and organize your analysis. Expand table | Name | Description | |--------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | expected\_response | By default, response statuses between 200 and 399 are `true`. Change the default behavior with [setResponseCallback](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6-http/set-response-callback/). | | group | When the request runs inside a [group](/docs/k6/latest/javascript-api/k6/group/), the tag value is the group name. Default is empty. | | name | Defaults to URL requested | | method | Request method (`GET`, `POST`, `PUT` etc.) | | scenario | When the request runs inside a [scenario](/docs/k6/latest/using-k6/scenarios/), the tag value is the scenario name. Default is `default`. | | status | response status | | url | defaults to URL requested | The following snippet shows a JSON example of how a test-result data point is logged. In this example, the metric is the duration of an HTTP request. Note how the `tags` object groups data. JSON ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```json { "type": "Point", "metric": "http_req_duration", "data": { "time": "2017-06-02T23:10:29.52444541+02:00", "value": 586.831127, "tags": { "expected_response": "true", "group": "", "method": "GET", "name": "http://test.k6.io", "scenario": "default", "status": "200", "url": "http://test.k6.io" } } } ``` ## Group URLs under one tag By default, tags have a `name` field that holds the value of the request URL. If your test has dynamic URL paths, you might not want this behavior, which could bring a large number of unique URLs into the metrics stream. For example, the following code accesses 100 different URLs: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import http from 'k6/http'; export default function () { for (let id = 1; id <= 100; id++) { http.get(`http://example.com/posts/${id}`); } } // tags.name=\"http://example.com/posts/1\", // tags.name=\"http://example.com/posts/2\", ``` You might prefer to report this data in a single metric: To aggregate data from dynamic URLs, explicitly set a `name` tag: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import http from 'k6/http'; export default function () { for (let id = 1; id <= 100; id++) { http.get(`http://example.com/posts/${id}`, { tags: { name: 'PostsItemURL' }, }); } } // tags.name=\"PostsItemURL\", // tags.name=\"PostsItemURL\", ``` That code would produce JSON output like this: JSON ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```json // For http://example.com/1, note that the url is not present in the JSON. { "type":"Point", "metric":"http_req_duration", "data": { "time":"2017-06-02T23:10:29.52444541+02:00", "value":586.831127, "tags": { "method":"GET", "name":"PostsItemURL", "status":"200", "url":"PostsItemURL" } } } // and for http://example.com/2 { "type":"Point", "metric":"http_req_duration", "data": { "time":"2017-06-02T23:10:29.58582529+02:00", "value":580.839273, "tags": { "method":"GET", "name":"PostsItemURL", "status":"200", "url":"PostsItemURL" } } } ``` Note how these two objects have the same `name`, despite having different URLs. If you filter the results for the tag `name: PostsItemURL`, the results include all data points from all 100 URLs. As an alternative, you can also use the `http.url` wrapper to set the `name` tag with a string template value: JavaScript ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```javascript import http from 'k6/http'; export default function () { for (let id = 1; id <= 100; id++) { http.get(http.url`http://example.com/posts/${id}`); } } // tags.name="http://example.com/posts/${}", // tags.name="http://example.com/posts/${}", ```