Convert PyMongo Cursor to JSON

Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2025

Prerequisites: MongoDB Python Basics This article is about converting the PyMongo Cursor to JSON. Functions like find() and find_one() returns the Cursor instance. Let's begin:

Importing Required Modules: Import the required module using the command:
```
from pymongo import MongoClient
from bson.json_util import dumps
```
If MongoDB is already not installed on your machine you can refer to the guide: Guide to Install MongoDB with Python
Creating a Connection: Now we had already imported the module, its time to establish a connection to the MongoDB server, presumably which is running on localhost (host name) at port 27017 (port number).
```
client = MongoClient(‘localhost’, 27017)
```
Accessing the Database: Since the connection to the MongoDB server is established. We can now create or use the existing database.
```
mydatabase = client.name_of_the_database
```
Accessing the Collection: We now select the collection from the database using the following syntax:
```
collection_name = mydatabase.name_of_collection
```
Getting the documents: Getting all the documents from the collection using find() method. It returns the instance of the Cursor.
```
cursor = collection_name.find()
```
Converting the Cursor to JSON: Converting the Cursor to the JSON. First, we will convert the Cursor to the list of dictionary.
```
list_cur = list(cursor)
```
Now, converting the list_cur to the JSON using the method dumps() from bson.json_util
```
json_data = dumps(list_cur)
```
You can now save it to the file or can use it in the program using loads() function.

Below is the implementation.

Python3 1==

# Python Program for
# demonstrating the 
# PyMongo Cursor to JSON
 

# Importing required modules
from pymongo import MongoClient
from bson.json_util import dumps, loads


# Connecting to MongoDB server
# client = MongoClient('host_name',
# 'port_number')
client = MongoClient('localhost', 27017)

# Connecting to the database named
# GFG
mydatabase = client.GFG
 
# Accessing the collection named
# gfg_collection
mycollection = mydatabase.College

# Now creating a Cursor instance
# using find() function
cursor = mycollection.find()

# Converting cursor to the list 
# of dictionaries
list_cur = list(cursor)

# Converting to the JSON
json_data = dumps(list_cur, indent = 2) 
 
# Writing data to file data.json
with open('data.json', 'w') as file:
    file.write(json_data)