---
id: unicode-slugify
version: "0.1.5"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# unicode-slugify — A slug generator that turns strings into unicode slugs.

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 78.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Unicode Slugify generates URL-safe slugs from strings while handling unicode characters intelligently. Unlike simple transliteration libraries, it was built to preserve unicode in slugs when appropriate (e.g., 'Bäng' stays 'bäng') or transliterate to ASCII on demand (e.g., '北京' becomes 'bei-jing'). It offers fine-grained control: you can keep or strip case, replace spaces with custom characters, and whitelist additional allowed characters for formats like snake_case or CamelCase.

The package depends on unidecode for transliteration and six for Python 2/3 compatibility. It installs with low friction as a pure Python wheel. Maintenance is dormant, but the library is simple, stable, and carries no known vulnerabilities. It remains suitable for projects that need slug generation with unicode awareness, particularly web applications handling international content.

Use it for:

- Generate URL slugs for blog posts or product names containing accented characters or non-Latin scripts.
- Convert user-provided strings to ASCII-only slugs for systems that require it (e.g., legacy APIs or databases).
- Create snake_case or CamelCase identifiers from natural-language input with unicode support.
- Build URL-friendly identifiers for marketplaces with international content.
- Normalize unicode strings into consistent slug formats for deduplication or routing in web applications.

## Worth the install?

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

Converts strings into URL-friendly slugs while preserving unicode characters, with options to transliterate non-ASCII, adjust case, and customize allowed characters.

Yes, if you need unicode-aware slug generation. The package is lightweight, stable, and carries no security vulnerabilities. Dormant maintenance is not a blocker for a simple, focused tool—the code is unlikely to need updates. Install it when transliteration control and unicode preservation matter; skip it if you only need ASCII slugs or can use a more actively maintained alternative.

## Install

pip install unicode-slugify
uv add unicode-slugify
poetry add unicode-slugify

## Installing unicode-slugify

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two lightweight dependencies (six and unidecode). Maintenance is dormant—last release was 2021-10-20—but the codebase is stable and shows no active development pressure.

License in practice: BSD permissive license imposes no significant restrictions; you may use, modify, and distribute the package freely in commercial or open-source projects.

Quickstart:

pip install unicode-slugify

from slugify import slugify

slugify(u'Bän...g (bang)')
# u'bäng-bang'

slugify(u'北京 (capital of China)', only_ascii=True)
# u'bei-jing-capital-of-china'

Verify before relying:

- Current compatibility with Python versions beyond 3.3 (classifiers list Python 3.3 but requires_python is unspecified)
- Whether dormant maintenance since 2021-10-20 poses any practical risk for modern Python environments

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 78.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

unicode slug generator, url slug from unicode text, transliterate strings to slugs, unicode to ascii slug, slug with unicode support, url-safe string converter, text to slug with unicode, url-slug-generation, unicode-handling, text-normalization

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