Levenshtein

Python extension for computing string edit distances and similarities.

levenshtein Copyleft license GPL-2.0-or-later Active ★ 398 v0.27.4 released 2026-08-08

Install

levenshtein on PyPI

pip

pip install levenshtein

uv

uv add levenshtein

poetry

poetry add levenshtein

Package facts

License	GPL-2.0-or-later (copyleft)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.10)
Install friction	medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies	1 — rapidfuzz
Maintenance	actively maintained — 5 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-10
First released	2021-01-09
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: levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_24_armv7l.manylinux_2_31_armv7l.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_armv7l.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp310-cp310-win_arm64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_24_armv7l.manylinux_2_31_armv7l.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_armv7l.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; levenshtein-0.27.4-cp311-cp311-win32.whl

Programming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14

About Levenshtein

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

Levenshtein

Introduction

The Levenshtein Python C extension module contains functions for fast computation of:

Levenshtein (edit) distance, and edit operations
string similarity
approximate median strings, and generally string averaging
string sequence and set similarity

Requirements

Python 3.10 or later

Installation

```bash pip install...

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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

Levenshtein computes string edit distances, similarities, and related operations like approximate median strings using a fast C extension, with support for sequence and set comparisons.

Medium install friction due to compiled wheels; however, prebuilt binaries are available for Python 3.10–3.14 across Linux, macOS, and Windows architectures. Active maintenance (last commit 2026-08-10, release 5 days old) and a single lightweight runtime dependency on rapidfuzz support reliable installation.

Licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later (copyleft). Any derivative work or distribution must comply with GPL terms, including source code disclosure obligations if you modify or redistribute the package.

Usage

pip install levenshtein
import Levenshtein
dist = Levenshtein.distance('kitten', 'sitting')
print(dist)  # Output: 3

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

Verdict: Levenshtein is a well-maintained, actively developed library (398 GitHub stars, recent release) with no known vulnerabilities and broad platform support via prebuilt wheels. Its GPL-2.0-or-later copyleft license requires careful review if you plan to redistribute or modify the code. Medium install friction is offset by availability of compiled binaries for all major platforms and Python versions.

Needs verification

Whether rapidfuzz is a build-time-only dependency or a true runtime requirement that must be installed separately.
Performance characteristics and typical use cases where the C extension provides meaningful speedup over pure-Python alternatives.

string edit distancelevenshtein distancestring similarityapproximate string matchingedit operationsstring averaging