---
id: pmtiles
version: "3.7.0"
license: BSD-3-Clause
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pmtiles — Library and utilities to write and read PMTiles archives - cloud-optimized archives of map tiles.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 214.6K/mo

## 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 above — 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

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

- License: BSD-3-Clause (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 214.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

pmtiles archive reader writer, cloud-optimized map tiles, serverless tile storage, mbtiles to pmtiles conversion, vector tiles cloud storage, tiled map data format, s3 hosted map tiles, geospatial, cloud-storage, map-tiles

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