---
id: charset-normalizer
version: "3.5.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# charset-normalizer — The Real First Universal Charset Detector. Open, modern and actively maintained alternative to Chardet.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Popularity: top 100 on PyPI

## Install

pip install charset-normalizer
uv add charset-normalizer
poetry add charset-normalizer

## Description

<h1 align="center">Charset Detection, for Everyone 👋</h1>

<p align="center">
  <sup>The Real First Universal Charset Detector</sup><br>
  <a href="https://pypi.org/project/charset-normalizer">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/charset_normalizer.svg?orange=blue" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://pepy.tech/project/charset-normalizer/">
    <img alt="Download Count Total" src="https://static.pepy.tech/badge/charset-normalizer/month" />
  </a>
  <a href="https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/7297">
    <img src="https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/7297/badge">
  </a>
</p>
<p align="center">
  <sup><i>Featured Packages</i></sup><br>
  <a href="https://github.com/jawah/niquests">
   <img alt="Static Badge" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Niquests-Most_Advanced_HTTP_Client-cyan">
  </a>
  <a href="https://github.com/jawah/wassima">
   <img alt="Static Badge" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Wassima-Certifi_Replacement-cyan">
  </a>
</p>
<p align="center">
  <sup><i>In other language (unofficial port - by the community)</i></sup><br>
  <a href="https://github.com/nickspring/charset-normalizer-rs">
   <img alt="Static Badge"...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Detects and normalizes text encoding from unknown or ambiguous sources, supporting 99 IANA character sets with a universal approach that handles edge cases safely.

Verdict: A top-100 PyPI package offering fast, reliable charset detection across 99 encodings with zero dependencies, active maintenance, and a permissive MIT license. No known vulnerabilities and strong Python version coverage make it a production-ready alternative to Chardet.

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/charset-normalizer) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/charset-normalizer/)