---
id: pyside6
version: "6.11.1"
license: LGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: active
---

# PySide6 — Python bindings for the Qt cross-platform application and UI framework

License: copyleft · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 3.6M/mo

## What it is and what it does

PySide6 is the official Python binding layer for the Qt 6 framework, maintained by the Qt Company. It exposes Qt's comprehensive widget set, layout system, signal-slot mechanism, and platform abstraction to Python developers, allowing you to write desktop applications that run on Windows, macOS, and Linux with native look and feel. The package itself is an alias that installs two modular wheels—PySide6_Essentials (core UI and framework) and PySide6_Addons (extended modules)—plus shiboken6 (the C++ binding generator) and tomli (for configuration parsing).

You use PySide6 to build traditional desktop applications with event-driven architecture, custom widgets, and data models. It is production-stable (Development Status 5), actively maintained, and supports modern Python versions. The copyleft license (LGPL/GPL) means you can use it in proprietary applications under LGPL terms by allowing dynamic relinking, or choose GPL if you distribute source. The compiled dependencies and platform-specific wheels introduce medium install friction, but prebuilt binaries are available for common platforms.

Use it for:

- Build cross-platform desktop applications with native UI components and consistent behavior across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Create data visualization and analysis tools with custom widgets, charts, and interactive dialogs.
- Develop IDE-like applications or code editors with syntax highlighting, project trees, and dockable panels.
- Build system administration or configuration utilities with forms, tables, and real-time monitoring dashboards.
- Prototype or deploy scientific applications with native performance and professional UI polish.

## Worth the install?

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

PySide6 provides Python bindings to the Qt 6.0+ framework, enabling you to build cross-platform desktop applications with native UI components and comprehensive framework features.

Yes. PySide6 is production-stable, actively maintained, and the official Qt binding for Python. Install it if you need a mature, feature-complete GUI framework for desktop applications on Windows, macOS, or Linux. Be aware of the copyleft license terms (LGPL-3.0 is typical for proprietary use) and the medium install friction from compiled dependencies. No known vulnerabilities.

## Install

pip install pyside6
uv add pyside6
poetry add pyside6

## Installing PySide6

Before you install: Medium install friction due to compiled C++ dependencies (shiboken6, PySide6_Essentials, PySide6_Addons) and prebuilt wheels for multiple platforms. Active maintenance with a release 93 days ago. Supports Python 3.10–3.14.

License in practice: Copyleft license (LGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only). Distributing applications built with PySide6 requires compliance with one of these three licenses—typically LGPL-3.0 for proprietary applications, which permits linking without source disclosure if you allow dynamic relinking.

Quickstart:

pip install PySide6

from PySide6.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow, QPushButton

app = QApplication([])
window = QMainWindow()
button = QPushButton("Click me")
window.setCentralWidget(button)
window.show()
app.exec()

Requires Python 3.10 or higher (up to 3.14). Prebuilt wheels are available for macOS 13+, Linux (manylinux_2_34+), and Windows; other platforms may require building from source with Clang 13.0+ and LLVM_INSTALL_DIR environment variable set.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the medium install friction materially affects adoption or runtime stability in practice.
- Performance characteristics and memory footprint compared to other Python GUI frameworks.
- Completeness of Qt 6.0+ feature coverage in the current binding version.

## Package facts

- License: LGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only (copyleft)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: medium
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 3.6M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

python qt bindings, cross-platform desktop gui, qt6 python framework, native ui application development, python qt framework, desktop app gui toolkit, qt for python, gui-framework, cross-platform, qt-bindings

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