# MT5 Python login()

Independent and unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any broker or platform named here. Educational only: nothing here is advice, and nothing here recommends a broker or a trade.

This is the markdown version of https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-login, written from the same records as that page.

Risk warning: CFDs and spread bets are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You can lose money on these products, and each provider publishes its own loss figure under FCA rules. You should consider whether you understand how they work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Automated and API trading can amplify losses through bugs, connectivity failures and runaway orders.

Switches the connected terminal to a trading account, by account number, with the password and server optional.

- Function: `login()`
- Interface: MetaTrader5 Python package
- Group: Connection
- Status: verified. Source: [mql5.com](https://www.mql5.com/en/docs/python_metatrader5/mt5login_py), checked 2026-10-12.

This is a Python function, not an HTTP endpoint. It has no method, no path and no address to send a request to: the package talks to a MetaTrader 5 terminal running on the same computer. It is in no OpenAPI file on this site and the request builder does not list it.

Note: The page's example types a password into the code. The sample here reads it from an environment variable instead, and the page says the password can be left out altogether where the terminal has it saved.

## Signature

The form of the call on the vendor's page, with the vendor's comments taken out.

```python
login(
  login,
  password="PASSWORD",
  server="SERVER",
  timeout=TIMEOUT
)
```

## Arguments

- `login` (type not stated, required): The trading account number. Given first and without a name.
- `password` (type not stated, optional): The account's password. Left out, the terminal uses the password it has saved for the account.
- `server` (type not stated, optional): The trade server's name. Left out, the last server used is applied.
- `timeout` (type not stated, optional): How long to wait, in milliseconds. The default is given as 60,000. The page says that when the time runs out the call is ended and an exception is raised.

## Return value

- Type: `bool`
- What comes back: True when the terminal connects to the trading account, False otherwise.

## Sample

Written by this site from the signature and arguments recorded on this page. It has not been run against a terminal, a server or an account, and the values in it are placeholders. No credential is typed into it: where one is needed it is read from an environment variable on your own machine. Nothing is entered on this site.

```python
import os
import MetaTrader5 as mt5

if not mt5.initialize():
    raise SystemExit(f"initialize() failed: {mt5.last_error()}")

account = int(os.environ["MT5_LOGIN"])
# The password is read from your own environment, never typed into the file.
if mt5.login(account, password=os.environ["MT5_PASSWORD"], server=os.environ["MT5_SERVER"]):
    print(mt5.account_info())
else:
    print("login() failed:", mt5.last_error())

mt5.shutdown()
```

## Related MT5 Python functions: Connection

- [initialize()](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-initialize): Connects the Python package to a MetaTrader 5 terminal on the same computer, starting the terminal if it is not running, and can log in to a trading account in the same call.
- [last_error()](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-last-error): Returns the code and description of the last error raised by a call to the package. The codes are the package's own, not the terminal's.
- [shutdown()](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-shutdown): Closes the connection that initialize() opened between the Python package and the terminal.
- [terminal_info()](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-terminal-info): Returns the status and settings of the connected terminal in one call.
- [version()](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-version): Returns the version of the connected MetaTrader 5 terminal, with its build number and the date of that build.

## More on MetaTrader 5

- [All MetaTrader 5 functions](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions): 78 documented here, grouped by what they do.
- [Log in and keep a session: the call at each API](https://openbrokerapi.com/endpoints/session): The same job at every broker and platform API recorded here, HTTP or not.
- [MetaTrader 5 API quickstart](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/quickstart)
- [All MetaTrader 5 error codes](https://openbrokerapi.com/errors/mt5)
- [MetaTrader 5 API page](https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5): The full record: access, authentication, limits and the source for each.

## Licence and how to cite

The records behind this page are all rights reserved. This file is the page itself, at its own address, in another format. It is not part of the CC BY 4.0 downloads listed at https://openbrokerapi.com/data. Quote from it with a link to the page.

Cite as: MT5 Python login(). Broker API Hub, https://openbrokerapi.com/platforms/metatrader-5/functions/python-login, newest check 2026-10-12.

Where you rely on a single figure, cite the source and the checked date printed beside it as well. Where this page and a broker's own documentation differ, the documentation wins.