 <p>This is a full method using <strong>async/await</strong> approach.</p> <pre><code> private static async Task&lt;string&gt; GetRequestContentAsString(string url) { var data = string.Empty; using (var httpClient = new HttpClient()) { var response = await httpClient.GetAsync(url); if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode) { var stream = response.Content; data = await stream.ReadAsStringAsync(); } } return data; } </code></pre> <p>This method is called this way:</p> <pre><code>var content = await GetRequestContentAsString("http://www.bing.com"); </code></pre>