jieba
Chinese Words Segmentation Utilities
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, with conditions. Jieba remains the de facto standard for Chinese word segmentation in Python and has proven reliability for its core task. However, install it only if you are working with Chinese text and can verify compatibility with your Python version—the package is dormant and may not work on very recent Python releases without testing. Check the GitHub repository for community forks or patches if you encounter issues.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- No runtime dependencies, but package is dormant since 2020 and Python version support is unspecified; compatibility with modern Python versions is uncertain.
- High install friction: the package is dormant (last release January 2020, last commit August 2024) and has not been updated for years.
- Despite 35112 GitHub stars and 2.4M monthly downloads, the lack of recent maintenance and unspecified Python version support create uncertainty about compatibility with current Python releases.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in proprietary or open-source projects.
last release 2020-01-20 (2398 days) · last repo commit 2024-08-21 · 35,112 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 2,395,652 downloads/mo, #3,083 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install jieba
import jieba
result = jieba.cut('我爱自然语言处理')
print(list(result))- Whether the package works reliably on Python 3.8 and later versions given the lack of updates since 2020.
- Whether the built-in dictionary is current for modern Chinese usage and terminology.
- Performance characteristics and memory usage for large-scale text segmentation tasks.
What it is and what it does
Jieba is a Chinese text segmentation library that breaks Chinese sentences into individual words. It offers three segmentation modes: precise mode for accurate analysis, full mode for exhaustive word extraction, and search-engine mode for improved recall in retrieval tasks. The library supports both simplified and traditional Chinese, allows users to inject custom dictionaries, and has no external runtime dependencies.
The package is widely used in Chinese NLP pipelines but has been dormant since January 2020. While it maintains high GitHub visibility and download counts, the lack of recent maintenance means it may have compatibility issues with modern Python versions and may not reflect current Chinese language conventions or terminology.
Use it for
- Tokenizing Chinese text for machine learning models that require word-level input features.
- Building Chinese search engines or information retrieval systems using search-engine segmentation mode.
- Preprocessing Chinese documents for NLP analysis, sentiment analysis, or text classification tasks.
- Extracting keywords from Chinese text by combining segmentation with frequency analysis.
- Processing domain-specific Chinese text by adding custom words to the dictionary.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, with conditions.
Jieba remains the de facto standard for Chinese word segmentation in Python and has proven reliability for its core task. However, install it only if you are working with Chinese text and can verify compatibility with your Python version—the package is dormant and may not work on very recent Python releases without testing. Check the GitHub repository for community forks or patches if you encounter issues.
Install
jieba on PyPI
Before you install
High install friction: the package is dormant (last release January 2020, last commit August 2024) and has not been updated for years. Despite 35112 GitHub stars and 2.4M monthly downloads, the lack of recent maintenance and unspecified Python version support create uncertainty about compatibility with current Python releases.
No runtime dependencies, but package is dormant since 2020 and Python version support is unspecified; compatibility with modern Python versions is uncertain.
License in practice
MIT license is permissive and imposes no restrictions on use, modification, or distribution in proprietary or open-source projects.
Quickstart
pip install jieba
import jieba
result = jieba.cut('我爱自然语言处理')
print(list(result))Verify before relying
- Whether the package works reliably on Python 3.8 and later versions given the lack of updates since 2020.
- Whether the built-in dictionary is current for modern Chinese usage and terminology.
- Performance characteristics and memory usage for large-scale text segmentation tasks.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Not specified |
| Install friction | High. Source build required |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Dormant 2,398 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 2,395,652 / month, #3,083 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Intended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseNatural Language :: Chinese (Simplified)Natural Language :: Chinese (Traditional)Operating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 2Programming Language :: Python :: 2.6Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.2Programming Language :: Python :: 3.3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4Topic :: Text ProcessingTopic :: Text Processing :: IndexingTopic :: Text Processing :: Linguistic |
Evidence: jieba-0.42.1.tar.gz
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See also jieba3k · spacy-pkuseg · rjieba · wordninja · nagisa · rouge-chinese · tinysegmenter · wordsegment · OpenCC · bpemb