num2words

What it is and what it does

num2words is a library that converts numeric values into their written word equivalents across multiple languages. It handles cardinal numbers (42 → 'forty-two'), ordinal forms (42 → 'forty-second'), year formats, and currency representations. The library supports language variants including English, Spanish, French, German, and many others, with locale-specific fallback behavior when exact regional variants are unavailable.

The package is designed for internationalization and localization tasks where numeric output needs to be human-readable in multiple languages. It exposes a single primary function with optional parameters to specify the conversion type and target language. The library includes both a Python API and a command-line interface, making it suitable for integration into applications or standalone text processing workflows.

Use it for:

• Generate human-readable invoice or receipt text in customer-preferred languages for e-commerce or billing systems.
• Convert numeric data to words for text-to-speech or accessibility features in multilingual applications.
• Format currency amounts as spelled-out text for legal documents, checks, or formal correspondence.
• Localize numeric output in reports, forms, or user-facing content for international audiences.
• Create ordinal representations for ranking, positioning, or date formatting in multilingual contexts.

Worth the install?

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

Converts numbers to their word representations in multiple languages, supporting cardinal numbers, ordinals, years, and currency formats.

Yes. The package is stable (Production/Stable status), widely used (9461923 monthly downloads, top_5000 tier), has no known vulnerabilities, and imposes minimal install friction. The copyleft license is a consideration for proprietary applications but not a barrier for most use cases. The 605-day gap since the last release suggests slower maintenance, but the active repository and recent commits indicate ongoing support. Install it if you need multilingual number-to-words conversion.

Install

num2words on PyPI

pip install num2words

uv add num2words

poetry add num2words

Installing num2words

Before you install

Low install friction with a single lightweight runtime dependency (docopt). Last release was 605 days ago; the repository remains active with recent commits (2025-05-30) and 962 stars, though maintenance pace appears to have slowed.

License in practice

Licensed under LGPL (copyleft). Any derivative work or modification must be distributed under compatible terms; proprietary closed-source applications using this library must comply with copyleft obligations or obtain alternative licensing.

Quickstart

pip install num2words

from num2words import num2words
print(num2words(42))
print(num2words(42, to='ordinal'))
print(num2words(42, lang='fr'))

Verify before relying

• Whether ordinal number generation is reliable across all supported languages (description notes this feature is 'a bit buggy for some languages').
• Current test coverage and robustness of less commonly used language implementations.
• Performance characteristics when handling very large numbers or bulk conversions.
• Total number of supported language variants and regional locales.

Package facts

Evidence: num2words-0.5.14-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: number, word, numbers, words, convert, conversion, i18n, localisation, localization, internationalisation, internationalization

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