ijson

Iterative JSON parser with standard Python iterator interfaces

ijson Permissive license BSD-3-Clause AND ISC Active ★ 1,093 v3.5.1 released 2026-07-06

Install

ijson on PyPI

pip

pip install ijson

uv

uv add ijson

poetry

poetry add ijson

Package facts

License	BSD-3-Clause AND ISC (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.9)
Install friction	medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies	none
Maintenance	actively maintained — 38 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-10
First released	2010-08-26
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: ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-manylinux1_i686.manylinux_2_28_i686.manylinux_2_5_i686.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_i686.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp310-cp310-win_arm64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-manylinux1_i686.manylinux_2_28_i686.manylinux_2_5_i686.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; ijson-3.5.1-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_i686.whl

Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableProgramming 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 :: PyPyTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules

About ijson

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

.. image:: https://github.com/ICRAR/ijson/actions/workflows/deploy-to-pypi.yml/badge.svg :target: https://github.com/ICRAR/ijson/actions/workflows/deploy-to-pypi.yml

.. image:: https://github.com/ICRAR/ijson/actions/workflows/fast-built-and-test.yml/badge.svg :target: https://github.com/ICRAR/ijson/actions/workflows/deploy-to-pypi.yml

.. image:: https://coveralls.io/repos/github/ICRAR/ijson/badge.svg?branch=master :target: https://coveralls.io/github/ICRAR/ijson?branch=master

.. image:: https://badge.fury.io/py/ijson.svg :target: https://badge.fury.io/py/ijson

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/ijson.svg :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ijson

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/dd/ijson.svg :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ijson

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/dw/ijson.svg :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ijson

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/ijson.svg :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ijson

===== ijson =====

Ijson is an iterative JSON parser with standard Python iterator interfaces.

.. contents:: :local:

Installation

Ijson is hosted in PyPI, so you should be able...

Read as markdown · JSON record · Source repository · Homepage

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

ijson is an iterative JSON parser that processes JSON streams using standard Python iterator interfaces, enabling memory-efficient parsing of large JSON documents without loading them entirely into memory.

Medium install friction due to compiled wheel distribution across many platforms (CPython 3.9–3.14, macOS, Linux, Windows, ARM). Active maintenance with recent release (38 days ago) and 1093 GitHub stars indicate solid project health. No runtime dependencies simplify deployment.

Dual-licensed under BSD-3-Clause and ISC (both permissive). Users may choose the more favorable license for their use case; both permit commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Usage

import ijson
from urllib.request import urlopen

f = urlopen('http://example.com/data.json')
objects = ijson.items(f, 'earth.europe.item')
for obj in objects:
    print(obj)

Verdict: ijson is a production-stable, actively maintained streaming JSON parser suitable for processing large JSON files efficiently. Zero vulnerabilities, permissive dual licensing, and broad Python version support (3.9–3.14) make it a low-risk choice. Medium install friction is offset by prebuilt wheels across major platforms and no runtime dependencies.

Needs verification

Whether the compiled wheels include C extension backends or are pure-Python implementations
Performance characteristics compared to standard json module for typical workloads
Whether asyncio support is fully tested and production-ready across all Python versions

streaming json parseriterative json parsinglarge json file processingmemory efficient jsonjson stream iteratorincremental json parsingjson event parser