aiofiles

File support for asyncio.

aiofiles Permissive license Apache-2.0 Active ★ 3,252 v25.1.0 released 2025-10-09

Install

aiofiles on PyPI

pip

pip install aiofiles

uv

uv add aiofiles

poetry

poetry add aiofiles

Package facts

License	Apache-2.0 (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.9)
Install friction	low — pure-Python wheel
Runtime dependencies	none
Maintenance	actively maintained — 308 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-07-18
First released	2015-04-06
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: aiofiles-25.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableFramework :: AsyncIOLicense :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPy

About aiofiles

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

aiofiles: file support for asyncio

PyPI (image) Build (image) Coverage (image) Supported Python versions (image) Ruff (image)

aiofiles is an Apache2 licensed library, written in Python, for handling local disk files in asyncio applications.

Ordinary local file IO is blocking, and cannot easily and portably be made asynchronous. This means doing file IO may interfere with asyncio applications, which shouldn't block the executing thread. aiofiles helps with this by introducing asynchronous versions of files that support delegating operations to a separate thread...

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AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

aiofiles provides asynchronous file I/O operations for asyncio applications, delegating blocking disk operations to a thread pool so they don't freeze the event loop.

Installation is straightforward with no runtime dependencies. The package is actively maintained with a recent release (308 days ago) and 3252 GitHub stars, indicating stable, well-adopted infrastructure.

Apache-2.0 is a permissive license that allows commercial use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making aiofiles suitable for most projects.

Usage

import aiofiles
import asyncio

async def read_file():
    async with aiofiles.open('filename', mode='r') as f:
        contents = await f.read()
    return contents

asyncio.run(read_file())

Requires Python 3.9 or later and an active asyncio event loop.

Verdict: aiofiles is a production-stable, zero-dependency library for async file operations in asyncio applications. Active maintenance, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities make it a reliable choice for projects needing non-blocking disk I/O.

Needs verification

Performance characteristics compared to standard blocking I/O or alternative async file libraries in typical workloads.
Whether the thread pool executor approach introduces measurable overhead for small file operations.

async file operationsasyncio file I/Onon-blocking file readingasync with openthread pool file operationsasyncio disk accessasync tempfile