pytest-timeout
pytest plugin to abort hanging tests
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. This is a mature, actively maintained plugin (Production/Stable status, last release 2025-05-05) with no known vulnerabilities and low install friction. It solves a real problem—detecting hanging tests in CI—and is widely used (top 1000 PyPI packages). Install it if you run tests in environments where manual intervention is impractical; skip it if your test suite is already fast and you have other mechanisms to catch hangs.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Timeout termination method (signal vs.
- thread) is platform-dependent; signal method may interfere with code under test that uses SIGALRM, and thread method will skip teardown and JUnit XML output.
- Low friction—a pure Python wheel with only pytest as a runtime dependency.
License · maintenance · safety
MIT (permissive) — MIT license (permissive); you can use, modify, and distribute this plugin freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
last release 2025-05-05 (466 days) · last repo commit 2026-06-30 · 255 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 103,142,767 downloads/mo, #334 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install pytest-timeout
# In your test file:
import pytest
@pytest.mark.timeout(60)
def test_foo():
pass
# Or run with a global timeout:
# pytest --timeout=300- Whether the plugin's overhead is acceptable for test suites with many short tests.
- Compatibility with specific test frameworks or fixtures beyond pytest's standard model.
What it is and what it does
pytest-timeout is a pytest plugin that enforces time limits on individual tests to catch hanging or deadlocked tests. It terminates tests that exceed a configured duration and dumps the stack of all running threads to stderr for debugging. The plugin supports both a global timeout (set via command line, environment variable, or config file) and per-test overrides using the @pytest.mark.timeout decorator.
The plugin offers two termination methods: signal (graceful on POSIX, allows test run to continue) and thread (more portable, terminates the whole process). The signal method is the default on systems that support SIGALRM; thread is the fallback. The documentation explicitly warns that this is a last-resort tool for catching excessively long test durations, not a replacement for writing fast tests or measuring performance regressions.
Use it for
- Catch deadlocked or hanging tests in continuous integration pipelines where manual intervention is not possible.
- Debug test suite hangs by examining stack dumps of all threads printed to stderr when a timeout fires.
- Set per-test timeouts for known slow operations while maintaining a global timeout for the rest of the suite.
- Prevent a single hanging test from blocking the entire test run in CI environments.
- Identify tests that have become unexpectedly slow due to code changes or environment issues.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
This is a mature, actively maintained plugin (Production/Stable status, last release 2025-05-05) with no known vulnerabilities and low install friction. It solves a real problem—detecting hanging tests in CI—and is widely used (top 1000 PyPI packages). Install it if you run tests in environments where manual intervention is impractical; skip it if your test suite is already fast and you have other mechanisms to catch hangs.
Install
pytest-timeout on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction—a pure Python wheel with only pytest as a runtime dependency. Actively maintained with recent releases; last commit 2026-06-30 and 255 GitHub stars indicate steady use.
Timeout termination method (signal vs. thread) is platform-dependent; signal method may interfere with code under test that uses SIGALRM, and thread method will skip teardown and JUnit XML output.
License in practice
MIT license (permissive); you can use, modify, and distribute this plugin freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.
Quickstart
pip install pytest-timeout
# In your test file:
import pytest
@pytest.mark.timeout(60)
def test_foo():
pass
# Or run with a global timeout:
# pytest --timeout=300Verify before relying
- Whether the plugin's overhead is acceptable for test suites with many short tests.
- Compatibility with specific test frameworks or fixtures beyond pytest's standard model.
Package facts
| License | MIT permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.7 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 1 packagepytest |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 466 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 103,142,767 / month, #334 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/StableEnvironment :: ConsoleEnvironment :: PluginsFramework :: PytestIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: DFSG approvedLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming 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 :: 3.7Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPythonProgramming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: PyPyTopic :: Software Development :: Testing |
Evidence: pytest_timeout-2.4.0-py3-none-any.whl
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See also pytest-fail-slow · pytest-socket · pytest-timeouts · stopit · interruptingcow · pytest-run-parallel · func-timeout · pytest_tagging · pytest-extra-durations · wrapt-timeout-decorator