Release Date: Dec. 24, 2018

Python 3.6.8 was the eighth and last maintenance release of Python 3.6.

There are now newer security-fix releases of Python 3.6 that supersede 3.6.8 and Python 3.8 is now the latest feature release of Python 3. Get the latest releases of 3.6.x and 3.8.x here. Python 3.6.8 is planned to be the last bugfix release for 3.6.x. Following the release of 3.6.8, we plan to provide security fixes for Python 3.6 as needed through 2021, five years following its initial release.

Among the new major new features in Python 3.6 were:

• PEP 468, Preserving Keyword Argument Order
• PEP 487, Simpler customization of class creation
• PEP 495, Local Time Disambiguation
• PEP 498, Literal String Formatting
• PEP 506, Adding A Secrets Module To The Standard Library
• PEP 509, Add a private version to dict
• PEP 515, Underscores in Numeric Literals
• PEP 519, Adding a file system path protocol
• PEP 520, Preserving Class Attribute Definition Order
• PEP 523, Adding a frame evaluation API to CPython
• PEP 524, Make os.urandom() blocking on Linux (during system startup)
• PEP 525, Asynchronous Generators (provisional)
• PEP 526, Syntax for Variable Annotations (provisional)
• PEP 528, Change Windows console encoding to UTF-8
• PEP 529, Change Windows filesystem encoding to UTF-8
• PEP 530, Asynchronous Comprehensions

Please see What’s New In Python 3.6 for more information.

Release Date: July 13, 2020

This is the fourth maintenance release of Python 3.8

Note: The release you’re looking at is Python 3.8.4, a bugfix release for the legacy 3.8 series. Python 3.9 is now the latest feature release series of Python 3. Get the latest release of 3.9.x here.

Major new features of the 3.8 series, compared to 3.7

• PEP 572, Assignment expressions
• PEP 570, Positional-only arguments
• PEP 587, Python Initialization Configuration (improved embedding)
• PEP 590, Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython
• PEP 578, Runtime audit hooks
• PEP 574, Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data
• Typing-related: PEP 591 (Final qualifier), PEP 586 (Literal types), and PEP 589 (TypedDict)
• Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode
• Debug builds share ABI as release builds
• f-strings support a handy = specifier for debugging
• continue is now legal in finally: blocks
• on Windows, the default asyncio event loop is now ProactorEventLoop
• on macOS, the spawn start method is now used by default in multiprocessing
• multiprocessing can now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processes
• typed_ast is merged back to CPython
• LOAD_GLOBAL is now 40% faster
• pickle now uses Protocol 4 by default, improving performance

There are many other interesting changes, please consult the «What’s New» page in the documentation for a full list.

More resources

• Online Documentation
• PEP 569, 3.8 Release Schedule
• Report bugs at https://bugs.python.org.
• Help fund Python and its community.

Windows users

• The binaries for AMD64 will also work on processors that implement the Intel 64 architecture. (Also known as the «x64» architecture, and formerly known as both «EM64T» and «x86-64».)
• There are now «web-based» installers for Windows platforms; the installer will download the needed software components at installation time.
• There are redistributable zip files containing the Windows builds, making it easy to redistribute Python as part of another software package. Please see the documentation regarding Embedded Distribution for more information.

macOS users

• For Python 3.8, we provide one installer: 64-bit-only that works on macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later systems.
• Please read the «Important Information» displayed during installation for information about SSL/TLS certificate validation and the running the «Install Certificates.command».

And now for something completely different

Michael Palin: Hello, good evening and welcome to another edition of Blood, Devastation, Death War and Horror, and later on we’ll be meeting a man who does gardening. But first on the show we’ve got a man who speaks entirely in anagrams.
Palin: I believe you’re working on an anagram version of Shakespeare?
Eric Idle: Sey, sey — taht si crreoct, er — ta the mnemot I’m wroking on ‘The Mating of the Wersh’.
Palin: Have you done ‘Hamlet’?
Idle: ‘Thamle’. ‘Be ot or bot ne ot, tath is the nestquoi.’
Palin: And what is your next project?
Idle: ‘Ring Kichard the Thrid’.
Palin: I’m sorry?
Idle: ‘A shroe! A shroe! My dingkom for a shroe!’
Palin: Ah, Ring Kichard, yes. but surely that’s not an anagram, that’s a spoonerism.
Idle: (offended) If you’re going to split hairs, I’m going to piss off.

Release Date: Feb. 19, 2021

This is the eight maintenance release of Python 3.8

Note: The release you’re looking at is Python 3.8.8, a bugfix release for the legacy 3.8 series. Python 3.9 is now the latest feature release series of Python 3. Get the latest release of 3.9.x here.

3.8.8 introduces two security fixes (also present in 3.8.8 RC1) and is recommended to all users:

bpo-42938: Avoid static buffers when computing the repr of ctypes.c_double and ctypes.c_longdouble values. This issue was assigned CVE-2021-3177.

bpo-42967: Fix web cache poisoning vulnerability by defaulting the query args separator to & , and allowing the user to choose a custom separator. This issue was assigned CVE-2021-23336.

Major new features of the 3.8 series, compared to 3.7

• PEP 572, Assignment expressions
• PEP 570, Positional-only arguments
• PEP 587, Python Initialization Configuration (improved embedding)
• PEP 590, Vectorcall: a fast calling protocol for CPython
• PEP 578, Runtime audit hooks
• PEP 574, Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data
• Typing-related: PEP 591 (Final qualifier), PEP 586 (Literal types), and PEP 589 (TypedDict)
• Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode
• Debug builds share ABI as release builds
• f-strings support a handy = specifier for debugging
• continue is now legal in finally: blocks
• on Windows, the default asyncio event loop is now ProactorEventLoop
• on macOS, the spawn start method is now used by default in multiprocessing
• multiprocessing can now use shared memory segments to avoid pickling costs between processes
• typed_ast is merged back to CPython
• LOAD_GLOBAL is now 40% faster
• pickle now uses Protocol 4 by default, improving performance

There are many other interesting changes, please consult the «What’s New» page in the documentation for a full list.

More resources

• Online Documentation
• PEP 569, 3.8 Release Schedule
• Report bugs at https://bugs.python.org.
• Help fund Python and its community.

Windows users

• The binaries for AMD64 will also work on processors that implement the Intel 64 architecture. (Also known as the «x64» architecture, and formerly known as both «EM64T» and «x86-64».)
• There are now «web-based» installers for Windows platforms; the installer will download the needed software components at installation time.
• There are redistributable zip files containing the Windows builds, making it easy to redistribute Python as part of another software package. Please see the documentation regarding Embedded Distribution for more information.

macOS users

• For Python 3.8, we provide one installer: 64-bit-only that works on macOS 10.9 (Mavericks) and later systems.
• Please read the «Important Information» displayed during installation for information about SSL/TLS certificate validation and the running the «Install Certificates.command».

And now for something completely different

Voice Over (Michael Palin): This is Ken Clean-Air Systems, the great white hope of the British boxing world. After three fights — and only two convictions — his manager believes that Ken is now ready to face the giant American, Satellite Five.
Manager (Graham Chapman): The great thing about Ken is that he’s almost totally stupid.
(Cut back to Ken jogging, the early morning sun filtering through the trees.)
Voice Over: Every morning, he jogs the forty-seven miles from his two-bedroomed, eight-bathroom, six-up-two-down, three-to-go-house in Reigate, to the Government’s Pesticide Research Centre at Shoreham. Nobody knows why.

Download the latest source release

Download the latest version of Python

Looking for Python with a different OS? Python for Windows, Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, Other

Want to help test development versions of Python? Prereleases, Docker images

Looking for Python 2.7? See below for specific releases

Active Python Releases

1. 3.9 bugfix 2020-10-05 2025-10 PEP 596
2. 3.8 bugfix 2019-10-14 2024-10 PEP 569
3. 3.7 security 2018-06-27 2023-06-27 PEP 537
4. 3.6 security 2016-12-23 2021-12-23 PEP 494
5. 2.7 end-of-life 2010-07-03 2020-01-01 PEP 373

Looking for a specific release?

Python releases by version number:

1. Python 3.9.4 April 4, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
2. Python 3.8.9 April 2, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
3. Python 3.9.2 Feb. 19, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
4. Python 3.8.8 Feb. 19, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
5. Python 3.6.13 Feb. 15, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
6. Python 3.7.10 Feb. 15, 2021 DownloadRelease Notes
7. Python 3.8.7 Dec. 21, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
8. Python 3.9.1 Dec. 7, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
9. Python 3.9.0 Oct. 5, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
10. Python 3.8.6 Sept. 24, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
11. Python 3.5.10 Sept. 5, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
12. Python 3.7.9 Aug. 17, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
13. Python 3.6.12 Aug. 17, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
14. Python 3.8.5 July 20, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
15. Python 3.8.4 July 13, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
16. Python 3.7.8 June 27, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
17. Python 3.6.11 June 27, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
18. Python 3.8.3 May 13, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
19. Python 2.7.18 April 20, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
20. Python 3.7.7 March 10, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
21. Python 3.8.2 Feb. 24, 2020 DownloadRelease Notes
22. Python 3.8.1 Dec. 18, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
23. Python 3.7.6 Dec. 18, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
24. Python 3.6.10 Dec. 18, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
25. Python 3.5.9 Nov. 2, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
26. Python 3.5.8 Oct. 29, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
27. Python 2.7.17 Oct. 19, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
28. Python 3.7.5 Oct. 15, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
29. Python 3.8.0 Oct. 14, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
30. Python 3.7.4 July 8, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
31. Python 3.6.9 July 2, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
32. Python 3.7.3 March 25, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
33. Python 3.4.10 March 18, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
34. Python 3.5.7 March 18, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
35. Python 2.7.16 March 4, 2019 DownloadRelease Notes
36. Python 3.7.2 Dec. 24, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
37. Python 3.6.8 Dec. 24, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
38. Python 3.7.1 Oct. 20, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
39. Python 3.6.7 Oct. 20, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
40. Python 3.5.6 Aug. 2, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
41. Python 3.4.9 Aug. 2, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
42. Python 3.7.0 June 27, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
43. Python 3.6.6 June 27, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
44. Python 2.7.15 May 1, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
45. Python 3.6.5 March 28, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
46. Python 3.4.8 Feb. 5, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
47. Python 3.5.5 Feb. 5, 2018 DownloadRelease Notes
48. Python 3.6.4 Dec. 19, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
49. Python 3.6.3 Oct. 3, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
50. Python 3.3.7 Sept. 19, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
51. Python 2.7.14 Sept. 16, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
52. Python 3.4.7 Aug. 9, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
53. Python 3.5.4 Aug. 8, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
54. Python 3.6.2 July 17, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
55. Python 3.6.1 March 21, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
56. Python 3.4.6 Jan. 17, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
57. Python 3.5.3 Jan. 17, 2017 DownloadRelease Notes
58. Python 3.6.0 Dec. 23, 2016 DownloadRelease Notes
59. Python 2.7.13 Dec. 17, 2016 DownloadRelease Notes
60. Python 3.4.5 June 27, 2016 DownloadRelease Notes
61. Python 3.5.2 June 27, 2016 DownloadRelease Notes
62. Python 2.7.12 June 25, 2016 DownloadRelease Notes
63. Python 3.4.4 Dec. 21, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
64. Python 3.5.1 Dec. 7, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
65. Python 2.7.11 Dec. 5, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
66. Python 3.5.0 Sept. 13, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
67. Python 2.7.10 May 23, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
68. Python 3.4.3 Feb. 25, 2015 DownloadRelease Notes
69. Python 2.7.9 Dec. 10, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
70. Python 3.4.2 Oct. 13, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
71. Python 3.3.6 Oct. 12, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
72. Python 3.2.6 Oct. 12, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
73. Python 2.7.8 July 2, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
74. Python 2.7.7 June 1, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
75. Python 3.4.1 May 19, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
76. Python 3.4.0 March 17, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
77. Python 3.3.5 March 9, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
78. Python 3.3.4 Feb. 9, 2014 DownloadRelease Notes
79. Python 3.3.3 Nov. 17, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
80. Python 2.7.6 Nov. 10, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
81. Python 2.6.9 Oct. 29, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
82. Python 3.2.5 May 15, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
83. Python 3.3.2 May 15, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
84. Python 2.7.5 May 12, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
85. Python 2.7.4 April 6, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
86. Python 3.2.4 April 6, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
87. Python 3.3.1 April 6, 2013 DownloadRelease Notes
88. Python 3.3.0 Sept. 29, 2012 DownloadRelease Notes
89. Python 3.2.3 April 10, 2012 DownloadRelease Notes
90. Python 2.6.8 April 10, 2012 DownloadRelease Notes
91. Python 2.7.3 April 9, 2012 DownloadRelease Notes
92. Python 3.1.5 April 9, 2012 DownloadRelease Notes
93. Python 3.2.2 Sept. 3, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
94. Python 3.2.1 July 9, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
95. Python 2.7.2 June 11, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
96. Python 3.1.4 June 11, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
97. Python 2.6.7 June 3, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
98. Python 2.5.6 May 26, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
99. Python 3.2.0 Feb. 20, 2011 DownloadRelease Notes
100. Python 2.7.1 Nov. 27, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
101. Python 3.1.3 Nov. 27, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
102. Python 2.6.6 Aug. 24, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
103. Python 2.7.0 July 3, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
104. Python 3.1.2 March 20, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
105. Python 2.6.5 March 18, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
106. Python 2.5.5 Jan. 31, 2010 DownloadRelease Notes
107. Python 2.6.4 Oct. 26, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
108. Python 2.6.3 Oct. 2, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
109. Python 3.1.1 Aug. 17, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
110. Python 3.1.0 June 26, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
111. Python 2.6.2 April 14, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
112. Python 3.0.1 Feb. 13, 2009 DownloadRelease Notes
113. Python 2.5.4 Dec. 23, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
114. Python 2.5.3 Dec. 19, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
115. Python 2.4.6 Dec. 19, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
116. Python 2.6.1 Dec. 4, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
117. Python 3.0.0 Dec. 3, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
118. Python 2.6.0 Oct. 2, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
119. Python 2.4.5 March 11, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
120. Python 2.3.7 March 11, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
121. Python 2.5.2 Feb. 21, 2008 DownloadRelease Notes
122. Python 2.5.1 April 19, 2007 DownloadRelease Notes
123. Python 2.3.6 Nov. 1, 2006 DownloadRelease Notes
124. Python 2.4.4 Oct. 18, 2006 DownloadRelease Notes
125. Python 2.5.0 Sept. 19, 2006 DownloadRelease Notes
126. Python 2.4.3 April 15, 2006 DownloadRelease Notes
127. Python 2.4.2 Sept. 27, 2005 DownloadRelease Notes
128. Python 2.4.1 March 30, 2005 DownloadRelease Notes
129. Python 2.3.5 Feb. 8, 2005 DownloadRelease Notes
130. Python 2.4.0 Nov. 30, 2004 DownloadRelease Notes
131. Python 2.3.4 May 27, 2004 DownloadRelease Notes
132. Python 2.3.3 Dec. 19, 2003 DownloadRelease Notes
133. Python 2.3.2 Oct. 3, 2003 DownloadRelease Notes
134. Python 2.3.1 Sept. 23, 2003 DownloadRelease Notes
135. Python 2.3.0 July 29, 2003 DownloadRelease Notes
136. Python 2.2.3 May 30, 2003 DownloadRelease Notes
137. Python 2.2.2 Oct. 14, 2002 DownloadRelease Notes
138. Python 2.2.1 April 10, 2002 DownloadRelease Notes
139. Python 2.1.3 April 9, 2002 DownloadRelease Notes
140. Python 2.2.0 Dec. 21, 2001 DownloadRelease Notes
141. Python 2.0.1 June 22, 2001 DownloadRelease Notes

Sponsors

Visionary sponsors like Google help to host Python downloads.

Licenses

All Python releases are Open Source. Historically, most, but not all, Python releases have also been GPL-compatible. The Licenses page details GPL-compatibility and Terms and Conditions.

Sources

For most Unix systems, you must download and compile the source code. The same source code archive can also be used to build the Windows and Mac versions, and is the starting point for ports to all other platforms.

Download the latest Python 3 and Python 2 source.

Alternative Implementations

This site hosts the «traditional» implementation of Python (nicknamed CPython). A number of alternative implementations are available as well.

History

Python was created in the early 1990s by Guido van Rossum at Stichting Mathematisch Centrum in the Netherlands as a successor of a language called ABC. Guido remains Python’s principal author, although it includes many contributions from others.

Release Schedules

Information about specific ports, and developer info

OpenPGP Public Keys

Source and binary executables are signed by the release manager or binary builder using their OpenPGP key. Release files for currently supported releases are signed by the following:

Release files for older releases which have now reached end-of-life may have been signed by one of the following:

• Anthony Baxter (key id: 0EDD C5F2 6A45 C816)
• Georg Brandl (key id: 0A5B 1018 3658 0288)
• Martin v. Löwis (key id: 6AF0 53F0 7D9D C8D2)
• Ronald Oussoren (key id: C9BE 28DE E6DF 025C)
• Barry Warsaw (key ids: 126E B563 A74B 06BF, D986 6941 EA5B BD71, and ED9D77D5)

You can import a person’s public keys from a public keyserver network server you trust by running a command like:

or, in many cases, public keys can also be found at keybase.io. On the version-specific download pages, you should see a link to both the downloadable file and a detached signature file. To verify the authenticity of the download, grab both files and then run this command:

Note that you must use the name of the signature file, and you should use the one that’s appropriate to the download you’re verifying.

• (These instructions are geared to GnuPG and Unix command-line users.)

Other Useful Items

• Looking for 3rd party Python modules? The Package Index has many of them.
• You can view the standard documentation online, or you can download it in HTML, PostScript, PDF and other formats. See the main Documentation page.
• Information on tools for unpacking archive files provided on python.org is available.
• Tip: even if you download a ready-made binary for your platform, it makes sense to also download the source. This lets you browse the standard library (the subdirectory Lib) and the standard collections of demos (Demo) and tools (Tools) that come with it. There’s a lot you can learn from the source!
• There is also a collection of Emacs packages that the Emacsing Pythoneer might find useful. This includes major modes for editing Python, C, C++, Java, etc., Python debugger interfaces and more. Most packages are compatible with Emacs and XEmacs.

Want to contribute?

Want to contribute? See the Python Developer’s Guide to learn about how Python development is managed.