node-fetch Has a Free API — Here's How to Use the Fetch Standard in Node.js

node-fetch brings the Fetch API to Node.js. While Node 18+ has built-in fetch, node-fetch remains relevant for older versions and offers additional features like custom agents and AbortController integration.

Installation

npm install node-fetch

Basic Usage

import fetch from "node-fetch";

// GET request
const response = await fetch("https://api.github.com/users/node-fetch");
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

// POST with JSON
const result = await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ tool: "node-fetch", version: 3 })
});
console.log(await result.json());

Handling Streams

import { createWriteStream } from "node:fs";
import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises";

const response = await fetch("https://example.com/large-file.zip");

if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);

await pipeline(response.body, createWriteStream("download.zip"));
console.log("Download complete");

Request Cancellation

const controller = new AbortController();
const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);

try {
  const response = await fetch("https://api.example.com/slow", {
    signal: controller.signal
  });
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.name === "AbortError") {
    console.log("Request timed out");
  }
} finally {
  clearTimeout(timeout);
}

Custom HTTP Agent

import https from "node:https";

const agent = new https.Agent({
  keepAlive: true,
  maxSockets: 10
});

const response = await fetch("https://api.example.com/data", { agent });

Form Data Upload

import { FormData, File } from "node-fetch";
import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";

const form = new FormData();
form.append("field", "value");
form.append("file", new File([readFileSync("photo.jpg")], "photo.jpg", { type: "image/jpeg" }));

const response = await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {
  method: "POST",
  body: form
});

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