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Serhat Teker
Serhat Teker

Posted on Originally published at tech.serhatteker.com on

How to Create Secret Tokens in Python

If you working with web applications, it usually necessary to If you working with web applications, it usually necessary to generate tokens, API keys, personal keys etc.

We assign them to clients to use as authentication.

We already saw how to create secrets. However using that method could cause problem sometimes like if we use them in url.

Python's built-in secrets module provides functions for generating secure tokens, suitable for methods such as password resets, hard-to-guess URLs, and similar.

Generating Tokens

Bytes

Return a random byte string containing nbytes number of bytes

# utils/secrets.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import string
import secrets


def generate_token_bytes(length: int = 32):
    return secrets.token_bytes(length)
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025
In [2]: generate_token_bytes()
Out[2]: b'\x8a\xb7\x19\xd8\x8f\x94\x16\x15\xedg\xc1\x833\xd4\xb9\xfe\xd8\xa7\xc5\xa17d\xd7k\xe5\x14\xea\xe4\x7fz\x0f}'
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025

Hex

Return a random text string, in hexadecimal.

# utils/secrets.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import string
import secrets


def generate_token_bytes(length: int = 32):
    return secrets.token_bytes(length)
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025
In [3]: generate_token_hex()
Out[3]: 'b9165728eb46a36db8389c902c20bd7bd7a8430be398f47818323b0d15b46600'
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025

URL Safe

Return a random URL-safe text string, containing nbytes random bytes.

# utils/secrets.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import string
import secrets


def generate_token_urlsafe(length: int = 32):
    return secrets.token_urlsafe(length)
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025
In [5]: generate_token_urlsafe()
Out[5]: 'uNuz07y8mkmwvHftrszV_SFffh9LT25L98UZO0w_LHA'
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025

urlsafe is very useful when you want to use password reset:

http://tech.serhatteker.com/accounts/reset/MQ/uNuz07y8mkmwvHftrszV_SFffh9LT25L98UZO0w_LHA/
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025

or using it as a password:

# redis://user:pass@instance:port/db
redis://redis-user:uNuz07y8mkmwvHftrszV_SFffh9LT25L98UZO0w_LHA@redis_instance_url:6379/0
⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025 ⭐ Must Read: serhatteker/how to create secret tokens in python nll - Kapook Update 2025

All done!

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