Monitor Website Uptime with Python

Periodically check if a website is reachable and its HTTP status is 200, logging the status with timestamps.

Easy Python 3.9+ Jun 27, 2026 Automation & scripting 1 views 0 copies

monitoring uptime requests web scraping automation

Requires third-party packages — install first

pip install requests

Python code

32 lines

Python 3.9+

import requests
import time

def check_website(url):
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, timeout=5)
        if response.status_code == 200:
            return True
        else:
            return False
    except requests.ConnectionError:
        return False
    except requests.Timeout:
        return False

def monitor_uptime(url, interval=60):
    while True:
        if check_website(url):
            print(f"{url} is UP - {time.ctime()}")
        else:
            print(f"{url} is DOWN - {time.ctime()}")
        time.sleep(interval)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    website = "https://httpbin.org/status/200"
    # Run for 3 checks only for demo
    for _ in range(3):
        if check_website(website):
            print(f"{website} is UP - {time.ctime()}")
        else:
            print(f"{website} is DOWN - {time.ctime()}")
        time.sleep(2)

Output

stdout

https://httpbin.org/status/200 is UP - Mon Jan 15 12:00:05 2024
https://httpbin.org/status/200 is UP - Mon Jan 15 12:00:07 2024
https://httpbin.org/status/200 is UP - Mon Jan 15 12:00:09 2024

How it works

The check_website() function wraps a GET request in a try/except to catch connection errors and timeouts, returning True only when a 200 status is received. monitor_uptime() runs an infinite loop calling this checker at a fixed interval (default 60 seconds). The demo loop at the bottom mimics this behavior for three iterations with a 2-second pause. HTTP status codes other than 200 (e.g., 404, 500) are treated as downtime, which is reasonable for basic uptime monitoring.

Common mistakes

Forgetting to handle `requests.Timeout`, causing the script to hang indefinitely if the server is slow.
Assuming any successful response (not just 200) means uptime, ignoring 3xx redirects or 4xx client errors.
Using too short an interval that overwhelms the target server or your own network.

Variations

Use `requests.head()` instead of `get()` for a lighter check that doesn't download the page body.
Replace `time.sleep()` with `schedule` library for more flexible cron-like scheduling.

Real-world use cases

Running a background script on a Raspberry Pi to alert when your personal blog goes offline.
Integrating with a monitoring dashboard that plots uptime percentages over weeks.
Triggering automated failover to a backup server when primary endpoint returns non-200 status.

Monitor Website Uptime with Python

Python code

Output

How it works

Common mistakes

Variations

Real-world use cases

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Python code

Output

How it works

Common mistakes

Variations

Real-world use cases

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