---
id: maxminddb
version: "3.1.1"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# maxminddb — Reader for the MaxMind DB format

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 21.2M/mo

## What it is and what it does

maxminddb is a Python reader for the MaxMind DB binary format, a file format designed to store geolocation and other data indexed by IP address subnets. The package provides a Reader interface that accepts a MaxMind DB file path and returns lookup results for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. It offers multiple read modes—including memory-mapped access, in-memory loading, and file-based reading—and includes an optional C extension for performance; if compilation fails, the module automatically falls back to a pure Python implementation.

Typical usage involves opening a database file (such as the free GeoLite2 databases from MaxMind), then calling get() or get_with_prefix_len() to retrieve data for a given IP address. The package also supports iteration over the entire database and is thread-safe for concurrent reads, including support for Python 3.13+ free-threading.

Use it for:

- Determine the country, city, or ASN of an incoming request by looking up its IP address in a GeoLite2 database.
- Build IP-based access control or geofencing rules by querying MaxMind DB files in a web application.
- Analyze traffic logs or network data by batch-looking up IP addresses against a MaxMind database.
- Serve geolocation metadata to clients based on their IP, without external API calls.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Reads MaxMind DB files to look up geolocation and other data indexed by IP address, with both pure Python and optional C extension implementations.

Yes. The package is production-stable, actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, supports current Python versions (3.10+), and is widely used (top 5000 on PyPI). Install friction is manageable due to graceful fallback from C extension to pure Python. Use it if you need to query MaxMind DB files locally.

## Install

pip install maxminddb
uv add maxminddb
poetry add maxminddb

## Installing maxminddb

Before you install: Medium install friction due to optional C extension compilation, but the package gracefully falls back to pure Python if the build fails. Active maintenance with recent releases and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in commercial and open-source projects with minimal restrictions; attribution required.

Quickstart:

pip install maxminddb

import maxminddb

with maxminddb.open_database('GeoLite2-City.mmdb') as reader:
    result = reader.get('152.216.7.110')
    print(result)

You must obtain a MaxMind DB file (e.g., GeoLite2 databases) and decompress it with gunzip before use.

Verify before relying:

- Performance characteristics and lookup speed compared to direct file I/O or other geolocation libraries.
- Memory footprint when loading large databases into memory via Mode.MEMORY.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 21.2M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

IP geolocation lookup, MaxMind DB reader, IP address database queries, GeoIP2 GeoLite2 reader, IPv4 IPv6 geolocation, binary IP database format, geolocation, ip-lookup

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