aqtinstall
Another unofficial Qt installer
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need to automate Qt SDK installation in CI/CD or headless environments. The tool is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. However, be aware that you are not affiliated with The Qt Company, must comply with Qt's (L)GPL licensing separately, and must manually configure environment variables after installation. Not necessary for interactive desktop development where the official Qt installer is available.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9+.
- On MSYS2/Mingw64, set environment variable SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib before installation.
- You must manually set PATH, QT_PLUGIN_PATH, QML_IMPORT_PATH, and QML2_IMPORT_PATH after installation.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT License (permissive) — MIT-licensed tool itself, but installing Qt SDK through aqtinstall means you agree to Qt's own licenses—primarily (L)GPL Free Software. Users must comply with Qt's licensing terms separately; aqtinstall is not affiliated with The Qt Company.
last release 2025-06-02 (438 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-01 · 1,311 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 554,927 downloads/mo, #6,029 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install aqtinstall
aqt list-qt windows desktop --arch 6.2.0
aqt install-qt windows desktop 6.2.0 win64_mingw81 -m all- Whether all Qt versions available on official mirrors are reliably accessible or if some have been removed by The Qt Company
- Performance characteristics when installing large Qt versions or multiple modules
- Compatibility matrix for specific Qt versions with recent macOS and Xcode versions beyond the tested 6.2.4+
What it is and what it does
aqtinstall is a non-official command-line alternative to Qt's graphical installer, designed for automated and headless environments like CI/CD pipelines. It queries Qt's distribution mirrors to list available versions, architectures, and modules, then downloads and installs prebuilt Qt SDK binaries for your target platform. The tool handles extraction of 7z archives, updates Qt configuration files (qt.conf, qconfig.pri) to match the installation directory, and supports selective module installation.
It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with dependencies on requests for downloading, py7zr for archive extraction, bs4 and defusedxml for parsing mirror metadata, and several utility libraries. The package is actively maintained and used in production CI workflows (GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, Docker). Note that aqtinstall itself is MIT-licensed but does not manage Qt's own (L)GPL licensing—users must independently comply with Qt's license terms when installing Qt SDK.
Use it for
- Automate Qt SDK installation in GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, or other CI systems without interactive UI
- Build Docker images with specific Qt versions and architectures pre-installed for reproducible builds
- Install multiple Qt versions or architectures on a developer machine via command line for cross-platform development
- Download Qt sources and documentation alongside binaries for offline development or archival
- Set up Qt for Android with required desktop toolsets in headless build environments
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need to automate Qt SDK installation in CI/CD or headless environments.
The tool is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. However, be aware that you are not affiliated with The Qt Company, must comply with Qt's (L)GPL licensing separately, and must manually configure environment variables after installation. Not necessary for interactive desktop development where the official Qt installer is available.
Install
aqtinstall on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with 8 runtime dependencies including requests, py7zr, and bs4 for downloading and extracting Qt binaries. Actively maintained with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities. Requires Python 3.9 or later.
Requires Python 3.9+. On MSYS2/Mingw64, set environment variable SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib before installation. You must manually set PATH, QT_PLUGIN_PATH, QML_IMPORT_PATH, and QML2_IMPORT_PATH after installation.
License in practice
MIT-licensed tool itself, but installing Qt SDK through aqtinstall means you agree to Qt's own licenses—primarily (L)GPL Free Software. Users must comply with Qt's licensing terms separately; aqtinstall is not affiliated with The Qt Company.
Quickstart
pip install aqtinstall
aqt list-qt windows desktop --arch 6.2.0
aqt install-qt windows desktop 6.2.0 win64_mingw81 -m allVerify before relying
- Whether all Qt versions available on official mirrors are reliably accessible or if some have been removed by The Qt Company
- Performance characteristics when installing large Qt versions or multiple modules
- Compatibility matrix for specific Qt versions with recent macOS and Xcode versions beyond the tested 6.2.4+
Package facts
| License | MIT License permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 8 packagesbs4defusedxmlhumanizepatch-ngpy7zrrequestssemantic-versiontexttable |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 438 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 554,927 / month, #6,029 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaEnvironment :: ConsoleEnvironment :: X11 Applications :: QtIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: MacOS :: MacOS XOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: POSIXOperating System :: POSIX :: LinuxProgramming Language :: C++Programming Language :: PythonTopic :: Software DevelopmentTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries |
Evidence: aqtinstall-3.3.0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “qt installer cli”
- aqtinstallaqtinstall is a command-line tool that downloads and installs…
- pickleyInstalls and auto-upgrades standalone Python CLI tools from PyPI into…
- openai-codex-cli-binProvides a local command-line interface to OpenAI's Codex coding…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Software Development packages
Provides backported and experimental type hints for Python 3.9+, allowing use of newer typing features on older Python versions and enabling early experimentation with type system PEPs before they enter the standard library.
NumPy provides an N-dimensional array object and a comprehensive suite of mathematical, linear algebra, Fourier transform, and random number functions for scientific computing in Python.
FastAPI is a Python web framework for building REST APIs using type hints, with automatic request validation, serialization, and interactive API documentation.
Provides a way to document function parameters, class attributes, return types, and variables inline using Python's `Annotated` type hint syntax instead of traditional docstrings.
Typer builds command-line applications from Python functions using type hints, automatically generating help text, argument parsing, and shell completion.
Install it if you are building CLIs in Python.
Distlib provides low-level packaging utilities for building, distributing, and managing Python software—including metadata handling, version specifiers, wheel support, script installation, and dependency resolution.
See also aqt · pyqt5-tools · PyQt6-Qt6 · aqtp · cirq-aqt · qtconsole · PyQt5-Qt5 · flet-cli · PyQt-builder · PyQt6