openmpi
A high performance implementation of MPI
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes, if you need MPI for distributed computing and have Open MPI already installed on your system. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and receives regular downloads. The main gotcha is that it requires the Open MPI system library as a prerequisite and does not specify Python version support, so verify compatibility with your environment before committing.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Open MPI system library must be installed on the host; Python version support is unspecified by the package.
- Medium install friction: prebuilt wheels are available for macOS and Linux across multiple architectures, but no runtime dependencies are bundled, so the underlying Open MPI library must be present on the system.
- Active maintenance with recent releases.
License · maintenance · safety
LicenseRef-OpenMPI (unclear) — License treatment is unclear—the package uses a custom LicenseRef-OpenMPI identifier without a standard SPDX mapping. Review the Open MPI project's actual license terms before use in proprietary or restricted contexts.
last release 2026-02-25 (170 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 2,632 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 101,983 downloads/mo, #12,902 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install openmpi
import openmpi
# Use MPI functions via the package's API- Exact Python version compatibility (requires_python is unspecified)
- Whether the package provides Python bindings or is a thin wrapper around the C library
- Runtime dependency on system-installed Open MPI version and compatibility guarantees
What it is and what it does
This package wraps Open MPI, the open-source implementation of the MPI specification for distributed-memory parallel computing. It allows Python developers to write and run parallel applications across clusters and multi-node systems by providing access to MPI's message-passing primitives. Open MPI is maintained by a consortium of academic, research, and industry partners and combines expertise from across the HPC community.
The package is distributed as prebuilt wheels for macOS and Linux but has medium install friction because it requires the Open MPI system library to be present on the host machine—it does not bundle the runtime. There are no declared Python runtime dependencies. The project is actively maintained, with recent releases and an active repository.
Use it for
- Distribute computation across a cluster of machines using MPI message passing.
- Parallelize scientific simulations and numerical algorithms on multi-node HPC systems.
- Build fault-tolerant distributed applications that coordinate via MPI collective operations.
- Develop and test parallel code locally before deploying to production HPC clusters.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes, if you need MPI for distributed computing and have Open MPI already installed on your system.
The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and receives regular downloads. The main gotcha is that it requires the Open MPI system library as a prerequisite and does not specify Python version support, so verify compatibility with your environment before committing.
Install
openmpi on PyPI
Before you install
Medium install friction: prebuilt wheels are available for macOS and Linux across multiple architectures, but no runtime dependencies are bundled, so the underlying Open MPI library must be present on the system. Active maintenance with recent releases.
Open MPI system library must be installed on the host; Python version support is unspecified by the package.
License in practice
License treatment is unclear—the package uses a custom LicenseRef-OpenMPI identifier without a standard SPDX mapping. Review the Open MPI project's actual license terms before use in proprietary or restricted contexts.
Quickstart
pip install openmpi
import openmpi
# Use MPI functions via the package's APIVerify before relying
- Exact Python version compatibility (requires_python is unspecified)
- Whether the package provides Python bindings or is a thin wrapper around the C library
- Runtime dependency on system-installed Open MPI version and compatibility guarantees
Package facts
| License | LicenseRef-OpenMPI unclear |
| Python support | Not specified |
| Install friction | Medium. Platform-specific wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 170 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 101,983 / month, #12,902 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
Evidence: openmpi-5.0.10-py3-none-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; openmpi-5.0.10-py3-none-macosx_11_0_x86_64.whl; openmpi-5.0.10-py3-none-manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; openmpi-5.0.10-py3-none-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl
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