---
id: unidecode
version: "1.4.0"
license: GPL
license_treatment: copyleft
maintenance: aging
---

# Unidecode — ASCII transliterations of Unicode text

License: copyleft · Maintenance: aging · Popularity: top 1,000 on PyPI

## Install

pip install unidecode
uv add unidecode
poetry add unidecode

## Description

Unidecode, lossy ASCII transliterations of Unicode text
=======================================================

It often happens that you have text data in Unicode, but you need to
represent it in ASCII. For example when integrating with legacy code that
doesn't support Unicode, or for ease of entry of non-Roman names on a US
keyboard, or when constructing ASCII machine identifiers from human-readable
Unicode strings that should still be somewhat intelligible. A popular example
of this is when making an URL slug from an article title.

**Unidecode is not a replacement for fully supporting Unicode for strings in
your program. There are a number of caveats that come with its use,
especially when its output is directly visible to users. Please read the rest
of this README before using Unidecode in your project.**

In most of examples listed above you could represent Unicode characters as
``???`` or ``\\15BA\\15A0\\1610``, to mention two extreme cases. But that's
nearly useless to someone who actually wants to read what the text says.

What Unidecode provides is a middle road: the function ``unidecode()`` takes
Unicode data and tries to represent it in ASCII characters (i.e.,...

## AI interpretation — verify before relying

Unidecode converts Unicode text to ASCII by transliterating non-Latin characters into their closest ASCII equivalents, useful for creating URL slugs, legacy system integration, and keyboard-friendly identifiers.

Verdict: Unidecode is a mature, dependency-free library well-suited for ASCII transliteration tasks, but its GPL copyleft license limits use in proprietary software. The aging maintenance status and lack of language-specific transliteration should be weighed against its proven stability and broad adoption.

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