pmtiles

What it is and what it does

PMTiles is a Python library for working with PMTiles archives—a single-file format designed to store tiled map data efficiently. The format is optimized for cloud storage platforms like S3, enabling serverless map applications without a custom tile backend or third-party provider. The package provides both library interfaces for reading and writing PMTiles data and command-line utilities for common tasks like converting from MBTiles format and uploading to cloud storage.

The library sits at the intersection of geospatial data and cloud infrastructure: it lets you package vector or raster tiles into a single archive that can be served directly from commodity storage with minimal operational overhead. It integrates with the broader PMTiles ecosystem, which includes viewers, JavaScript clients for Leaflet and MapLibre GL JS, and serverless deployment examples for AWS Lambda and Cloudflare Workers.

Use it for:

• Convert MBTiles archives to PMTiles format for cloud-native deployment on S3 or similar storage.
• Build serverless map applications that serve tiles directly from cloud storage without maintaining a tile server.
• Programmatically read and inspect PMTiles archives in Python data pipelines or geospatial workflows.
• Upload and manage tiled map datasets on cloud platforms with minimal operational complexity.
• Integrate tiled map data into Python applications that need efficient, cloud-optimized tile access.

Worth the install?

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

Read and write PMTiles archives, a single-file format for storing tiled map data that can be hosted on cloud storage without a custom backend.

Yes. The package has no runtime dependencies, low install friction, active maintenance, and a permissive license. It fills a specific and well-defined role in the serverless mapping ecosystem. Install it if you work with tiled map data and want to host tiles on cloud storage without a custom backend; skip it if you don't need PMTiles specifically.

Install

pmtiles on PyPI

pip install pmtiles

uv add pmtiles

poetry add pmtiles

Installing pmtiles

Before you install

Low install friction with no runtime dependencies. Active maintenance as of 2026-02-10, with recent repository activity and a solid user base of 214629 monthly downloads.

License in practice

BSD-3-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install pmtiles

import pmtiles
# Access PMTiles archive via the library's read/write interfaces
# See https://github.com/protomaps/PMTiles/tree/main/python/pmtiles/bin for script examples

Verify before relying

• Specific Python version requirements (requires_python is unspecified in metadata)
• Whether the package includes command-line utilities or is library-only
• API surface and typical usage patterns beyond the referenced bin scripts

Package facts

Evidence: pmtiles-3.7.0-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

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