pytest-cov
Pytest plugin for measuring coverage.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. pytest-cov is a mature, actively maintained plugin in the top 1000 PyPI packages with no known vulnerabilities. It has low install friction, permissive MIT licensing, and solves a standard testing need—coverage measurement—cleanly within the pytest ecosystem. Install it if you want coverage reports as part of your normal test workflow.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.9 or later; coverage 7.10.6 or later required as of version 7.0.0 for subprocess measurement via coverage's patch system.
- Low friction installation with a pure-Python wheel.
- Actively maintained with recent releases; requires coverage and pytest as runtime dependencies, both widely used and stable.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and open-source projects without significant restrictions.
last release 2026-03-21 (146 days) · last repo commit 2026-04-24 · 2,054 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 235,924,037 downloads/mo, #169 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install pytest-cov
pytest --cov=myproj tests/
Produces a coverage report showing statement counts, missed lines, and coverage percentage for each module.- Whether the plugin's performance impact on test execution time is acceptable for large test suites.
- Specific behavior when combining coverage from multiple test runs with --cov-append in complex CI/CD pipelines.
What it is and what it does
pytest-cov is a pytest plugin that integrates code coverage measurement directly into your test runs. Instead of running coverage separately after tests, it measures coverage as pytest executes, automatically erasing and combining .coverage files, and generating reports. It handles distributed testing scenarios where pytest-xdist runs tests across multiple workers or remote interpreters, ensuring coverage data is still collected and merged correctly.
The plugin works with all features of the coverage package, either through pytest command-line options (like --cov-context for detailed test-level coverage tracking) or through coverage's config file. It maintains consistent sys.path behavior compared to running coverage run -m pytest directly, and as of version 7.0.0, it delegates subprocess measurement to coverage's built-in patch system rather than using .pth files.
Use it for
- Generate coverage reports automatically as part of your pytest test run without extra commands or configuration.
- Track coverage across distributed test runs using pytest-xdist, with results automatically combined into a single report.
- Measure coverage with detailed context (full test name including parametrization) to understand which tests exercise which code.
- Enforce minimum coverage thresholds using --cov-fail-under to fail builds when coverage drops below a target percentage.
- Append coverage data from multiple test runs to accumulate coverage across different test suites or environments.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
pytest-cov is a mature, actively maintained plugin in the top 1000 PyPI packages with no known vulnerabilities. It has low install friction, permissive MIT licensing, and solves a standard testing need—coverage measurement—cleanly within the pytest ecosystem. Install it if you want coverage reports as part of your normal test workflow.
Install
pytest-cov on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction installation with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with recent releases; requires coverage and pytest as runtime dependencies, both widely used and stable.
Requires Python 3.9 or later; coverage 7.10.6 or later required as of version 7.0.0 for subprocess measurement via coverage's patch system.
License in practice
MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this package freely in commercial and open-source projects without significant restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install pytest-cov
pytest --cov=myproj tests/
Produces a coverage report showing statement counts, missed lines, and coverage percentage for each module.Verify before relying
- Whether the plugin's performance impact on test execution time is acceptable for large test suites.
- Specific behavior when combining coverage from multiple test runs with --cov-append in complex CI/CD pipelines.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 3 packagescoveragepluggypytest |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 146 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 235,924,037 / month, #169 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableFramework :: PytestIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: POSIXOperating System :: UnixProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: Software Development :: TestingTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: pytest_cov-7.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also pytest-cagoule · pytest-cover · cov-core · covdefaults · pycobertura · pytest-json-ctrf · pytest-integration · pytest-cpp · pytest-xdist · pytest-astropy