faust-cchardet
cChardet is high speed universal character encoding detector.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need reliable encoding detection and can accept the copyleft license terms. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, supports current Python versions, and ships prebuilt wheels for common platforms, making installation frictionless for most users. The bundled uchardet build offers better accuracy than the system library. Avoid if your project forbids GPL/LGPL dependencies or if you require Python < 3.10.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python >= 3.10.
- On platforms without prebuilt wheels, a C++ compiler and build tools are needed.
- Medium install friction due to compiled C++ extension, but prebuilt wheels are available for common platforms (Linux x86_64/aarch64, macOS x86_64/arm64, Windows x86_64) across Python 3.10–3.14, reducing compilation needs for most users.
License · maintenance · safety
copyleft license (copyleft) — Licensed under MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later OR LGPL-2.1-or-later (copyleft). Use is permitted but derivative works or distributions may require source disclosure and compatibility with GPL/LGPL terms depending on which license applies to your use.
last release 2026-08-10 (4 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-10 · 64 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 736,596 downloads/mo, #5,192 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install faust-cchardet
import cchardet
with open('file.bin', 'rb') as f:
result = cchardet.detect(f.read())
print(result)- Actual throughput (MB/s) claims in the description are specific to the bundled uchardet build; performance with system uchardet may differ.
- The 16.2% false-positive rate for non-UTF-8 detection with system uchardet is documented as an upstream issue; whether this affects your use case depends on your input data.
- Whether prebuilt wheels cover your specific platform/Python combination (e.g., PyPy on Linux is listed but not all combinations may be published).
- Confidence scores returned by detect() and their typical ranges across different encodings and input sizes.
What it is and what it does
faust-cchardet is a maintained fork of cChardet, a high-speed character encoding detector that wraps the uchardet C++ library. It identifies the encoding of binary data by analyzing byte patterns, supporting dozens of languages and encodings from ASCII and UTF variants to CJK, Cyrillic, Arabic, and European character sets. The package is designed for both one-shot detection (call detect() on a byte string) and streaming detection (feed chunks to a UniversalDetector instance).
This fork exists to keep the project building on modern Python (3.10+) and Windows toolchains, shipping prebuilt wheels so most users avoid needing a C++ compiler. It bundles uchardet by default for better detection accuracy, though it can optionally link a system uchardet library. The public API is unchanged from upstream—you import as cchardet—but the PyPI distribution is renamed to faust-cchardet. The package is thread-safe for stateless detect() calls but not for shared UniversalDetector instances.
Use it for
- Detect encoding of uploaded files or network streams before parsing or displaying them.
- Preprocess text data in data pipelines to normalize encoding before NLP or ML processing.
- Identify encoding of legacy documents or logs in mixed-encoding archives.
- Stream large files incrementally to detect encoding without loading them entirely into memory.
- Handle international user-generated content where encoding is unknown or misreported.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need reliable encoding detection and can accept the copyleft license terms.
The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, supports current Python versions, and ships prebuilt wheels for common platforms, making installation frictionless for most users. The bundled uchardet build offers better accuracy than the system library. Avoid if your project forbids GPL/LGPL dependencies or if you require Python < 3.10.
Install
faust-cchardet on PyPI
Before you install
Medium install friction due to compiled C++ extension, but prebuilt wheels are available for common platforms (Linux x86_64/aarch64, macOS x86_64/arm64, Windows x86_64) across Python 3.10–3.14, reducing compilation needs for most users. Actively maintained as of 2026-08-10.
Requires Python >= 3.10. On platforms without prebuilt wheels, a C++ compiler and build tools are needed.
License in practice
Licensed under MPL-1.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later OR LGPL-2.1-or-later (copyleft). Use is permitted but derivative works or distributions may require source disclosure and compatibility with GPL/LGPL terms depending on which license applies to your use.
Quickstart
pip install faust-cchardet
import cchardet
with open('file.bin', 'rb') as f:
result = cchardet.detect(f.read())
print(result)Verify before relying
- Actual throughput (MB/s) claims in the description are specific to the bundled uchardet build; performance with system uchardet may differ.
- The 16.2% false-positive rate for non-UTF-8 detection with system uchardet is documented as an upstream issue; whether this affects your use case depends on your input data.
- Whether prebuilt wheels cover your specific platform/Python combination (e.g., PyPy on Linux is listed but not all combinations may be published).
- Confidence scores returned by detect() and their typical ranges across different encodings and input sizes.
Package facts
| License | copyleft license copyleft |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Medium. Platform-specific wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 4 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 736,596 / month, #5,192 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 6 - MatureProgramming Language :: CythonProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: Free Threading :: 2 - BetaProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries |
Evidence: faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; faust_cchardet-3.2.0-cp312-cp312-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl
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See also cchardet · chardet · charset-normalizer · encutils · isbinary · mbstrdecoder · types-chardet · Unidecode · webencodings · file-magic