skillfed

plotly-express

Plotly Express - a high level wrapper for Plotly.py

plotly-express v0.4.1 1.0M downloads/30d#4,529 on PyPI6
Permissive license MIT Abandoned released

What it is and what it does

Plotly Express is a compatibility layer that re-exports the contents of plotly.express under the plotly_express namespace. It was created as a high-level wrapper for Plotly.py to simplify interactive visualization creation, but has been integrated directly into Plotly.py as of version 4. The package depends on pandas, plotly, statsmodels, scipy, patsy, and numpy to function.

This package is now primarily useful only for maintaining legacy code that explicitly imports from plotly_express rather than plotly.express. The repository is archived and the package has not been updated since 2019. For any new projects, importing directly from plotly.express is the recommended approach.

Use it for:

  • Maintaining legacy code that imports from plotly_express without refactoring import statements
  • Ensuring backward compatibility when migrating older projects to newer Plotly versions
  • Creating interactive scatter plots, line charts, and other visualizations with minimal code

Worth the install?

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

Plotly Express is now a compatibility shim that re-exports plotly.express; it provides a high-level wrapper for creating interactive visualizations with Plotly.

No. This package is abandoned (last updated 2019, repository archived) and serves only as a deprecated compatibility shim. New projects should install plotly directly and import from plotly.express. Existing code using plotly_express should be refactored to use plotly.express instead.

Install

plotly-express on PyPI

pip

pip install plotly-express

uv

uv add plotly-express

poetry

poetry add plotly-express

Installing plotly-express

Before you install

Low install friction with pure Python wheels, but the package is abandoned as of 2019 and no longer maintained. New code should import directly from plotly.express instead.

License in practice

MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart

pip install plotly-express==0.4.1

import plotly_express as px
import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'x': [1, 2, 3], 'y': [4, 5, 6]})
fig = px.scatter(df, x='x', y='y')
fig.show()

Verify before relying

  • Whether existing code relying on plotly_express 0.4.1 will work with current plotly versions without modification
  • Compatibility with modern Python versions (requires_python is unspecified in metadata)

Package facts

License MIT (permissive)
Python support not specified
Install friction low — pure-Python wheel
Runtime dependencies 6 — pandas, plotly, statsmodels, scipy, patsy, numpy
Maintenance abandoned — 2,564 days since the last release
Last repo commit (repository archived)
First released
Downloads 1,005,588/month — #4,529 on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-14)
Known vulnerabilities none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14)

Evidence: plotly_express-0.4.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseTopic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Visualization

Tags

interactive plotting libraryhigh-level visualization wrapperplotly express chartsquick interactive plotsdata visualization plotly
deprecatedcompatibility-shim

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