uv Has a Free API — The Python Package Manager That's 100x Faster Than pip

TL;DR

uv by Astral (makers of Ruff) is a Python package manager written in Rust that replaces pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, and virtualenv. It's 10-100x faster and works as a drop-in replacement.

What Is uv?

uv is the all-in-one Python toolchain:

• 100x faster than pip — Rust-powered resolution and installation
• Replaces everything — pip, pip-tools, poetry, pyenv, virtualenv, pipx
• Python version management — install and manage Python versions
• Lockfile — reproducible installs with uv.lock
• Scripts — run single-file Python scripts with dependencies
• Free — MIT/Apache 2.0

Quick Start

# Install uv
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Create a new project
uv init my-project
cd my-project

# Add dependencies
uv add fastapi uvicorn sqlalchemy

# Run your app
uv run python main.py

# Or run directly
uv run fastapi dev

Replace pip

# Instead of: pip install requests
uv pip install requests

# Instead of: pip install -r requirements.txt
uv pip install -r requirements.txt

# Instead of: pip freeze > requirements.txt
uv pip freeze > requirements.txt

# 10-100x faster, same interface!

Python Version Management (Replace pyenv)

# Install Python versions
uv python install 3.12
uv python install 3.11 3.10

# List installed versions
uv python list

# Pin version for project
uv python pin 3.12

# Use specific version
uv run --python 3.11 python script.py

Project Management (Replace Poetry)

# Initialize with pyproject.toml
uv init my-api

# Add dependencies
uv add fastapi
uv add sqlalchemy>=2.0
uv add --dev pytest ruff mypy

# Remove dependencies
uv remove sqlalchemy

# Sync environment from lockfile
uv sync

# Update all dependencies
uv lock --upgrade

Inline Script Dependencies

# /// script
# dependencies = [
#   "requests>=2.31",
#   "rich>=13.0",
# ]
# ///

import requests
from rich import print

response = requests.get("https://api.github.com/repos/astral-sh/uv")
data = response.json()
print(f"uv has {data['stargazers_count']} stars!")

# Run it — uv auto-installs dependencies!
uv run script.py

Replace pipx (Install CLI Tools)

# Instead of: pipx install ruff
uv tool install ruff

# Run without installing
uv tool run black --check .
uvx black --check .  # shorthand

# Run specific version
uvx ruff@0.8.0 check .

Speed Comparison

Operation	uv	pip	poetry
Install Django	0.5s	15s	25s
Resolve 500 deps	2s	45s	120s
Create virtualenv	0.01s	2s	3s
Cold install (no cache)	3s	30s	60s

pyproject.toml

[project]
name = "my-api"
version = "0.1.0"
requires-python = ">=3.11"
dependencies = [
    "fastapi>=0.115",
    "uvicorn>=0.32",
    "sqlalchemy>=2.0",
]

[tool.uv]
dev-dependencies = [
    "pytest>=8.0",
    "ruff>=0.8",
    "mypy>=1.13",
]

Resources

• uv Documentation
• GitHub Repository — 40K+ stars
• Migration Guide
• Astral Blog

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Managing Python scraping projects? My Apify tools provide production web scrapers — manage them with uv for lightning-fast dependency management. Questions? Email [e-mail]