---
id: av
version: "18.1.0"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# av — Pythonic bindings for FFmpeg's libraries.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install av
uv add av
poetry add av

## Description

PyAV
====

PyAV is a Pythonic binding for the [FFmpeg][ffmpeg] libraries. We aim to provide all the power and control of the underlying library, but manage the gritty details as much as possible.

---

[![GitHub Test Status][github-tests-badge]][github-tests] [![Documentation][docs-badge]][docs] [![Python Package Index][pypi-badge]][pypi] [![Conda Forge][conda-badge]][conda]

PyAV is for direct and precise access to your media via containers, streams, packets, codecs, and frames. It exposes a few transformations of that data, and helps you get your data to/from other packages (e.g. NumPy and Pillow).

This power does come with some responsibility as working with media is horrendously complicated and PyAV can't abstract it away or make all the best decisions for you. If the `ffmpeg` command does the job without you bending over backwards, PyAV is likely going to be more of a hindrance than a help.

But where you can't work without it, PyAV is a critical tool.


Installation
------------

PyAV requires Python 3.11 or later. Binary wheels are provided on [PyPI][pypi] for Linux, macOS, and Windows with FFmpeg bundled. You can install these wheels by running:

```bash
pip install...

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