---
id: plivo
version: "4.62.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# plivo — A Python SDK to make voice calls & send SMS using Plivo and to generate Plivo XML

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 259.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Plivo is a Python client library for Plivo's cloud communications platform, wrapping REST API endpoints for voice calls, SMS, and WhatsApp messaging. It provides a consistent object-oriented interface for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting communication resources, plus utilities for generating Plivo XML to control call flows and interactive messaging templates.

The SDK handles authentication via environment variables or explicit credentials, supports both synchronous request patterns and context managers for resource cleanup, and includes pagination helpers for listing resources. It depends on requests for HTTP transport, lxml for XML generation, PyJWT for token handling, and six for Python 2/3 compatibility—though Python 2.7 support is legacy.

Use it for:

- Send SMS or WhatsApp messages programmatically from a web application or backend service.
- Initiate outbound voice calls with custom answer URLs to control call flow via Plivo XML.
- Build interactive WhatsApp bots using templated and free-form messaging with media support.
- Generate call-control XML responses for inbound call handling (IVR, call routing, etc.).
- Look up phone number metadata (carrier, type, validity) using the lookup API.

## Worth the install?

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

A Python SDK for integrating Plivo's voice, SMS, and WhatsApp messaging APIs into applications, with support for making calls, sending messages, and generating Plivo XML for call control.

Yes. Plivo is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, installs with low friction, and is licensed permissively. Install it if you need to integrate Plivo's voice, SMS, or WhatsApp APIs into a Python application. The SDK is production-stable and suitable for commercial use.

## Install

pip install plivo
uv add plivo
poetry add plivo

## Installing plivo

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Actively maintained with a recent release (17 days old) and an active repository. Depends on five common libraries (requests, six, decorator, lxml, PyJWT) with no compiled dependencies.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for most projects that can include a license notice.

Quickstart:

pip install plivo

import plivo

client = plivo.RestClient(auth_id='your_auth_id', auth_token='your_auth_token')
message = client.messages.create(src='from_number', dst='to_number', text='Hello')

Requires Plivo account credentials (auth_id and auth_token) from https://manage.plivo.com/dashboard/ to authenticate API requests.

Verify before relying:

- Whether all Python versions listed in classifiers (2.7, 3.4–3.13) are actively tested or only declared.
- Rate limits or quota constraints on API calls through this SDK.
- Whether WhatsApp messaging requires additional account setup beyond standard Plivo credentials.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 259.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

plivo sdk python, voice calls sms api, whatsapp messaging api, plivo xml generation, telecommunications api client, sms voice integration, plivo rest client, communications-api, sms-voice-whatsapp, rest-client

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