dropbox-sdk-python is the official Dropbox SDK for Python, a client library that lets Python developers call Dropbox API v2 from applications, scripts, and services.

What it is

The package is the vendor-published Python binding for Dropbox API v2, distributed under the MIT licence and installed from PyPI as dropbox. It supplies generated API namespaces such as dropbox.files, plus a higher-level dropbox.file_transfer module that wraps the generated files_* methods with retry, progress, and validation helpers. Requirements are explicit: Python 3.11 or newer, with Python 2.7 and Python 3.4 through 3.10 unsupported because they have reached end of life upstream. Documentation is on Read The Docs, alongside an OAuth guide and runnable examples in the repository.

The problem it solves is staying compatible with a moving API. The README warns prominently that version 12.0.2 or newer is required for compatibility with Dropbox API servers, and that older versions stopped working in January 2026 after API server certificate changes. Without it, a team would hand-roll Dropbox HTTP calls, upload sessions, and OAuth handling against API v2; this SDK replaces that plumbing with maintained bindings and worked examples.

Key capabilities

• Generated bindings for Dropbox API v2 namespaces, including dropbox.files types such as files.CommitInfo and files.WriteMode.overwrite for controlling how uploads are committed.
• The dropbox.file_transfer module, with Downloader and Uploader classes and DownloadOptions / UploadOptions, adding retry, progress, and content validation around the generated files_* methods.
• Parallel ranged transfers, configured with options such as parallel_downloads=4 and parallel_uploads=4.
• Byte and file targets and stream and file sources for copying between Dropbox and local storage.
• Three command-line OAuth examples: basic authentication with no redirect, authentication with scopes, and PKCE.
• Sample applications, including Updown (uploads the local Downloads folder), Reliable file transfer (retry, progress, and validation helpers), and Backup and Restore (saves a file and restores a previous version if it was modified or corrupted).
• Installation from PyPI with pip install dropbox, or from source by cloning the repository and running pip install ..

Who uses it and how

• Python developers adding Dropbox support to an application, who first create an app in the Dropbox Developer Console to obtain credentials.
• Desktop and backup-style automation, as shown by the Updown example that pushes the contents of a local Downloads folder to Dropbox.
• Services moving large files, using dropbox.file_transfer with parallel uploads or downloads, retry, progress reporting, and validation.
• Applications that need versioning, following the Backup and Restore example to keep a copy of a file and recover an earlier version.
• Command-line tools and scripts that authenticate a Dropbox user, choosing among the basic, scoped, and PKCE OAuth examples.

Getting started

Create an app in the Dropbox Developer Console, then install the package with pip install dropbox; the README also documents installing from source by cloning the repository and running pip install .. The examples and the Read The Docs documentation are the next stop.

How it compares

No alternative Dropbox clients for Python are named in the facts behind this page, so this entry stands alone in the registry. What distinguishes it is that it is the official, vendor-published SDK for API v2, released under the MIT licence, and the component Dropbox updates when API server changes break older releases.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose it when a project runs Python 3.11 or newer and needs maintained, official bindings for Dropbox API v2 under a permissive licence. Skip it if the codebase is pinned to Python 2.7 or 3.4 through 3.10, or if the integration is not written in Python. Nothing needs to be hosted, since this is a client library rather than a service, but the README is brief and defers the API surface to Read The Docs, the repository shows 21 open issues, and upgrades matter: releases older than 12.0.2 stopped working in January 2026.

$ pip install dropbox

$ git clone git://github.com/dropbox/dropbox-sdk-python.git
$ cd dropbox-sdk-python
$ pip install .

import dropbox
from dropbox import files
from dropbox.file_transfer import (
    DownloadOptions,
    File,
    FileUpload,
    Uploader,
    UploadOptions,
    Downloader,
)

dbx = dropbox.Dropbox("YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN")

Downloader(dbx).download(
    "/large-file.bin",
    File("large-file.bin"),
    DownloadOptions(parallel_downloads=4),
)

Uploader(dbx).upload(
    FileUpload("large-file.bin"),
    files.CommitInfo("/large-file.bin", mode=files.WriteMode.overwrite),
    UploadOptions(parallel_uploads=4),
)