---
id: stream-chat
version: "4.32.0"
license: unclear
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: active
---

# stream-chat — Client for Stream Chat.

License: unclear · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 490.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

stream-chat is the official Python client library for Stream Chat, a backend service for building chat applications. It provides synchronous and asynchronous APIs to manage users, channels, messages, and other chat metadata server-side. The library wraps HTTP requests to Stream's API endpoints and returns typed response objects that inherit from dict, maintaining backward compatibility while exposing rate-limit information, headers, and status codes.

The package depends on requests, aiohttp, aiodns, aiofile, pyjwt, and typing_extensions to handle both sync and async operations. It is currently in maintenance mode—the maintainers recommend new projects use the newer `getstream` SDK instead, though stream-chat remains safe for continued use and will receive critical fixes.

Use it for:

- Build a chat backend that manages user accounts, channels, and permissions through Stream's API.
- Send and retrieve messages programmatically from a server-side application.
- Implement async chat operations in high-concurrency environments using StreamChatAsync.
- Monitor rate limits and API response metadata for production chat systems.
- Migrate existing chat integrations while maintaining backward-compatible dict-like response handling.

## Worth the install?

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

Python SDK for server-side integration with Stream Chat, providing APIs to manage users, channels, messages, and chat metadata.

Yes, if you are maintaining an existing stream-chat integration or building a new chat backend with Stream. The package is actively maintained and has no known vulnerabilities. However, if starting a new project, consider the newer `getstream` SDK instead, as stream-chat is in maintenance mode. License terms are unclear and should be verified before use.

## Install

pip install stream-chat
uv add stream-chat
poetry add stream-chat

## Installing stream-chat

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Actively maintained with recent commits; however, the package is in maintenance mode with the newer `getstream` SDK recommended for new projects.

License in practice: License status is unclear—no SPDX identifier or raw license text is available in the package metadata. Verify the actual license terms before use in proprietary or restricted contexts.

Quickstart:

from stream_chat import StreamChat

chat = StreamChat(api_key="STREAM_KEY", api_secret="STREAM_SECRET")
chat.upsert_user({"id": "user1", "name": "User One"})
channel = chat.channel("messaging", "general")
channel.create("user1")

Requires valid Stream Chat API credentials (api_key and api_secret) to instantiate the client.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package's license is compatible with your project's licensing requirements.
- Whether migration to the newer `getstream` SDK is necessary for your use case or timeline.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 490.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

stream chat python sdk, chat api client python, messaging backend integration, stream chat server api, python chat service sdk, real-time messaging api client, chat application backend, chat-api, async-support, maintenance-mode

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/stream-chat) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/stream-chat/)