Uploading files from local system

from google.colab import files

uploaded = files.upload()

for fn in uploaded.keys():
  print('User uploaded file "{name}" with length {length} bytes'.format(
      name=fn, length=len(uploaded[fn])))

files.upload() returns a dictionary of the files that were uploaded. Upon running this code snippet, the user can select a file to upload.

Downloading files from local system

from google.colab import files

with open('example.txt', 'w') as f:
  f.write('some content')

files.download('example.txt')

files.download() will invoke a browser download of the file to the local computer.