diff --git a/src/crawlee/_types.py b/src/crawlee/_types.py
index 1764f658a3..3cb84111fe 100644
--- a/src/crawlee/_types.py
+++ b/src/crawlee/_types.py
@@ -548,6 +548,7 @@ def __call__(
         url: str,
         *,
         method: HttpMethod = 'GET',
+        payload: HttpPayload | None = None,
         headers: HttpHeaders | dict[str, str] | None = None,
     ) -> Coroutine[None, None, HttpResponse]:
         """Call send request function.
@@ -556,6 +557,7 @@ def __call__(
             url: The URL to send the request to.
             method: The HTTP method to use.
             headers: The headers to include in the request.
+            payload: The payload to include in the request.
 
         Returns:
             The HTTP response received from the server.
diff --git a/src/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py b/src/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py
index 2b427cdc97..084fb39fe9 100644
--- a/src/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py
+++ b/src/crawlee/crawlers/_basic/_basic_crawler.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
     BasicCrawlingContext,
     GetKeyValueStoreFromRequestHandlerFunction,
     HttpHeaders,
+    HttpPayload,
     RequestHandlerRunResult,
     SendRequestFunction,
     SkippedReason,
@@ -1081,11 +1082,13 @@ async def send_request(
             url: str,
             *,
             method: HttpMethod = 'GET',
+            payload: HttpPayload | None = None,
             headers: HttpHeaders | dict[str, str] | None = None,
         ) -> HttpResponse:
             return await self._http_client.send_request(
                 url=url,
                 method=method,
+                payload=payload,
                 headers=headers,
                 session=session,
                 proxy_info=proxy_info,
diff --git a/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py b/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
index 4f151ad621..7e934f9f07 100644
--- a/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
+++ b/tests/unit/crawlers/_basic/test_basic_crawler.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 from crawlee import ConcurrencySettings, Glob, service_locator
 from crawlee._request import Request
-from crawlee._types import BasicCrawlingContext, EnqueueLinksKwargs, HttpHeaders
+from crawlee._types import BasicCrawlingContext, EnqueueLinksKwargs, HttpHeaders, HttpMethod
 from crawlee._utils.robots import RobotsTxtFile
 from crawlee.configuration import Configuration
 from crawlee.crawlers import BasicCrawler
@@ -300,29 +300,36 @@ async def failed_request_handler(context: BasicCrawlingContext, error: Exception
         await crawler.run(['http://a.com/', 'http://b.com/', 'http://c.com/'])
 
 
-async def test_send_request_works(server_url: URL) -> None:
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ('method', 'path', 'payload'),
+    [
+        pytest.param('GET', 'get', None, id='get send_request'),
+        pytest.param('POST', 'post', b'Hello, world!', id='post send_request'),
+    ],
+)
+async def test_send_request_works(server_url: URL, method: HttpMethod, path: str, payload: None | bytes) -> None:
     response_data: dict[str, Any] = {}
 
     crawler = BasicCrawler(max_request_retries=3)
 
     @crawler.router.default_handler
     async def handler(context: BasicCrawlingContext) -> None:
-        response = await context.send_request(str(server_url))
+        response = await context.send_request(str(server_url / path), method=method, payload=payload)
 
-        response_data['body'] = response.read()
+        response_data['body'] = json.loads(response.read())
         response_data['headers'] = response.headers
 
     await crawler.run(['http://a.com/', 'http://b.com/', 'http://c.com/'])
 
     response_body = response_data.get('body')
     assert response_body is not None
-    assert b'Hello, world!' in response_body
+    assert response_body.get('data') == (payload.decode() if payload else None)
 
     response_headers = response_data.get('headers')
     assert response_headers is not None
     content_type = response_headers.get('content-type')
     assert content_type is not None
-    assert content_type == 'text/html; charset=utf-8'
+    assert content_type == 'application/json'
 
 
 @dataclass