RapidFuzz

rapid fuzzy string matching

rapidfuzz Permissive license MIT Active ★ 4,065 v3.14.5 released 2026-04-07

Install

rapidfuzz on PyPI

pip

pip install rapidfuzz

uv

uv add rapidfuzz

poetry

poetry add rapidfuzz

Package facts

License	MIT (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.10)
Install friction	medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies	none
Maintenance	actively maintained — 128 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-10
First released	2020-03-18
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_26_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_27_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_39_riscv64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_riscv64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp310-cp310-win_arm64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_26_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_27_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_39_riscv64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_riscv64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl; rapidfuzz-3.14.5-cp311-cp311-win32.whl

Programming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14

About RapidFuzz

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

<h1 align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz/main/docs/img/RapidFuzz.svg?sanitize=true" alt="RapidFuzz" width="400"> </h1> <h4 align="center">Rapid fuzzy string matching in Python and C++ using the Levenshtein Distance</h4>

<p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz/actions"> <img src="https://github.com/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz/workflows/Test%20Build/badge.svg" alt="Continuous Integration"> </a> <a href="https://pypi.org/project/rapidfuzz/"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/rapidfuzz" alt="PyPI package version"> </a> <a href="https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/rapidfuzz"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/conda/vn/conda-forge/rapidfuzz.svg" alt="Conda Version"> </a> <a href="https://www.python.org"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/rapidfuzz" alt="Python versions"> </a><br/> <a href="https://rapidfuzz.github.io/RapidFuzz"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/-documentation-blue" alt="Documentation"> </a> <a href="https://codecov.io/gh/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz"> <img...

Read as markdown · JSON record · Source repository · Homepage · Docs

AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

RapidFuzz performs fast fuzzy string matching using Levenshtein Distance and related metrics, offering C++-accelerated algorithms for similarity scoring between strings and batch processing of string comparisons.

Medium install friction due to compiled C++ components requiring platform-specific wheels; however, pre-built binaries are available for macOS, Linux x86_64, Windows, and ARM platforms. Maintenance is active with recent releases and no known vulnerabilities.

MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution in proprietary or open-source projects without copyleft obligations—a key advantage over GPL-licensed alternatives.

Usage

pip install rapidfuzz
from rapidfuzz import fuzz
fuzz.ratio("this is a test", "this is a test!")

Python 3.10 or later required; on Windows, Visual C++ 2019 redistributable must be installed for DLL dependencies.

Verdict: RapidFuzz is a well-maintained, actively developed fuzzy matching library with no known vulnerabilities, permissive MIT licensing, and broad platform support via pre-built wheels. The medium install friction is offset by strong algorithmic performance and a mature codebase (4065 GitHub stars, active development).

Needs verification

Specific performance benchmarks vs. alternatives to validate the claimed speed improvements over FuzzyWuzzy.
Whether the Visual C++ 2019 redistributable is bundled or must be installed separately on Windows systems.

fuzzy string matchinglevenshtein distancestring similarity scoringapproximate string matchingtoken sort ratiofuzz ratio comparisonbatch string matching