---
id: pymupdfb
version: "1.24.10"
license: GNU AFFERO GPL 3.0
license_treatment: agpl
maintenance: active
---

# PyMuPDFb — MuPDF shared libraries for PyMuPDF.

License: agpl · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.2M/mo

## What it is and what it does

PyMuPDFb is the compiled binary distribution of MuPDF's C rendering engine, packaged as a dependency for PyMuPDF. It provides the low-level PDF processing primitives—text extraction with font and position metadata, page rendering to images, annotation handling, and document manipulation—without requiring system-level PDF libraries or mandatory Python dependencies. The package ships pre-built wheels for major platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux on x86_64 and ARM architectures), reducing installation friction for most users.

PyMuPDFb is typically installed as a transitive dependency when you install pymupdf. It enables high-performance document processing suitable for data extraction pipelines, AI/LLM workflows, and batch document conversion. The AGPL license means derivative works must be released under the same terms unless a commercial license is obtained.

Use it for:

- Extract text and layout metadata from PDFs for data pipelines and AI workflows
- Render PDF pages to images at arbitrary DPI for document preview or archival systems
- Detect and extract tables from PDFs and convert them to Markdown or structured data
- Merge, split, and reorder pages across multiple PDF documents in batch workflows
- Apply annotations, redactions, and form-field updates to PDFs programmatically
- Convert documents to PDF with full fidelity using optional extensions

## Worth the install?

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

PyMuPDFb provides the compiled MuPDF C engine binaries that power PyMuPDF's PDF processing—text extraction, rendering, annotation, and document conversion without mandatory external dependencies.

Yes, if you need PDF processing in Python and accept the AGPL license terms. PyMuPDFb is actively maintained, widely deployed (4201745 monthly downloads), has no known vulnerabilities, and offers substantial performance advantages. Install friction is moderate but manageable via pre-built wheels on standard platforms. Verify your license compliance before using in proprietary applications.

## Install

pip install pymupdfb
uv add pymupdfb
poetry add pymupdfb

## Installing PyMuPDFb

Before you install: Medium install friction due to platform-specific wheel distribution (macOS x86_64/arm64, Linux x86_64/aarch64/musllinux, Windows x86/x86_64). Pre-built wheels available; source compilation required on unsupported platforms. Active maintenance with recent commits and 10474 repository stars.

License in practice: Licensed under GNU AFFERO GPL 3.0. Derivative works and network-distributed modifications must be released under the same license; proprietary use requires a commercial license or separate unlock.

Quickstart:

pip install pymupdf

import pymupdf

doc = pymupdf.open("document.pdf")
for page in doc:
    print(page.get_text())

Verify before relying:

- Whether pymupdfb can be used standalone or only as a dependency of pymupdf
- Exact performance benchmarks claimed in description but not independently verified
- Whether all listed output formats are available in base pymupdfb or require optional packages

## Package facts

- License: GNU AFFERO GPL 3.0 (agpl)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.2M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

pdf text extraction, pdf rendering library, document conversion python, pdf annotation and redaction, pdf to image conversion, table extraction from pdf, pdf merge and split, pdf-processing, document-extraction, llm-ready

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