mplcursors

What it is and what it does

mplcursors is a Matplotlib extension that lets you add interactive cursors to your plots. When you enable it, you can click on data points in a live plot window and the cursor will display the coordinates and values of that point. It's designed as a simpler alternative with a streamlined API.

The package depends only on matplotlib and importlib-metadata, making it lightweight to add to existing visualization workflows. It's actively maintained, has no known security vulnerabilities, and ranks in the top 5000 PyPI packages by download volume, suggesting it's used in real data exploration and analysis pipelines.

Use it for:

• Exploring scatter plots or line plots interactively to read exact values without manually hovering or zooming.
• Building interactive data analysis tools where users need to identify and annotate specific data points in real time.
• Debugging or validating data by clicking on plot points to confirm their coordinates match expectations.
• Creating Jupyter notebooks or scripts where interactive point selection enhances exploratory data analysis without complex UI code.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Adds interactive point-selection cursors to Matplotlib plots, allowing users to click on data points and retrieve their coordinates and values.

Yes, if you work with Matplotlib and need simple interactive point selection. The package is lightweight, actively maintained, has no vulnerabilities, and solves a common exploratory data analysis task. The only caveat is that the license status is unclear in the metadata, so verify the repository license before using it in a restricted context.

Install

mplcursors on PyPI

pip install mplcursors

uv add mplcursors

poetry add mplcursors

Installing mplcursors

Before you install

Low friction install with only two runtime dependencies (matplotlib and importlib-metadata). Actively maintained with a recent release and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice

License status is unclear from the package metadata, so you may want to check the repository directly before adopting it in a commercial or restricted context.

Quickstart

pip install mplcursors

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import mplcursors

plt.plot([1, 2, 3])
mplcursors.cursor()
plt.show()

Requires Matplotlib ≥3.1 and Python ≥3.7; interactive cursor features depend on a working display and Matplotlib backend that supports mouse events.

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works with all Matplotlib backends or only interactive ones (e.g., whether it functions in headless or notebook environments).
• Specific behavior when used with large datasets or whether there are performance considerations for plots with many points.

Package facts

Evidence: mplcursors-0.7.1-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Graphics packages