How to Get Header from Request in Django?

Published on March 25, 2025 Django

Hi Guys,

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to get HTTP headers from a request in Django using simple and effective methods. If you're wondering how to fetch all request headers in Django or specifically retrieve headers like Authorization or User-Agent, this guide provides clear examples for Django 3 and above.

This article also answers the common question — "How can I read headers in a Django view or template?" You'll also learn how Django handles headers case-insensitively, which makes it easier to work with any header format.

Let’s dive into the code example below:

Example:

In this step, we will get all header parameters from the request. This includes User-Agent, Authorization, and any custom headers sent with the request.

>>> request.headers
{'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36', ...}

>>> 'User-Agent' in request.headers
True
>>> 'user-agent' in request.headers
True

>>> request.headers['User-Agent']
'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'
>>> request.headers['user-agent']
'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'

>>> request.headers.get('User-Agent')
'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'
>>> request.headers.get('user-agent')
'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/103.0.0.0 Safari/537.36'

Get Django Templates

You can also access request headers inside Django templates using dot notation with underscores instead of hyphens. Here's how to get the User-Agent header:

{{ request.headers.user_agent }}

This is especially useful when you want to conditionally render content based on the user's device or browser.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I get all headers in Django?

You can access all request headers using request.headers in Django views. It returns a dictionary-like object that lets you read any header, such as request.headers['User-Agent'].

Is request.headers case-sensitive in Django?

No, Django handles headers in a case-insensitive manner. request.headers['User-Agent'] and request.headers['user-agent'] will return the same result.

Can I use headers inside Django templates?

Yes, in Django templates you can access headers using dot notation. Replace hyphens with underscores. Example: {{ request.headers.user_agent }}.

What version of Django supports request.headers?

The request.headers attribute was introduced in Django 2.2 and is available in all later versions including Django 3.x and Django 4.x.

I hope this detailed guide on Django request headers helps you build more responsive and intelligent backend logic. Let me know if you want a working Django project example!