python-humanize/humanize

Python humanize functions

Python

761

1,059 commits

updated Oct 6, 2026

See the code

README

humanize

PyPI version Supported Python versions Documentation Status PyPI downloads GitHub Actions status codecov MIT License Tidelift

This modest package contains various common humanization utilities, like turning a number into a fuzzy human-readable duration ("3 minutes ago") or into a human-readable size or throughput. It is localized to:

  • Arabic
  • Basque
  • Bengali
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Catalan
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Esperanto
  • European Portuguese
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Klingon
  • Korean
  • Latvian
  • Norwegian
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Russian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Sinhala
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Uzbek
  • Vietnamese

API reference

https://humanize.readthedocs.io

Installation

From PyPI

python3 -m pip install --upgrade humanize

From source

git clone https://github.com/python-humanize/humanize
cd humanize
python3 -m pip install -e .

Usage

Integer humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.intcomma(12345)
'12,345'
>>> humanize.intword(123455913)
'123.5 million'
>>> humanize.intword(12345591313)
'12.3 billion'
>>> humanize.apnumber(4)
'four'
>>> humanize.apnumber(41)
'41'

Date & time humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.datetime.now())
'today'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(dt.timedelta(seconds=1001))
'16 minutes'
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(days=1))
'yesterday'
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.date(2007, 6, 5))
'Jun 05'
>>> humanize.naturaldate(dt.date(2007, 6, 5))
'Jun 05 2007'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(seconds=1))
'a second ago'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(seconds=3600))
'an hour ago'

Precise time delta

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> delta = dt.timedelta(seconds=3633, days=2, microseconds=123000)
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta)
'2 days, 1 hour and 33.12 seconds'
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'2 days, 1 hour, 33 seconds and 123 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta, suppress=["days"], format="%0.4f")
'49 hours and 33.1230 seconds'

Smaller units

If seconds are too large, set minimum_unit to milliseconds or microseconds:

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(dt.timedelta(seconds=2))
'2 seconds'
>>> delta = dt.timedelta(milliseconds=4)
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta)
'a moment'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta, minimum_unit="milliseconds")
'4 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'4 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta)
'now'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta, minimum_unit="milliseconds")
'4 milliseconds ago'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'4 milliseconds ago'

File size humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000)
'1.0 MB'
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000, binary=True)
'976.6 KiB'
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000, gnu=True)
'976.6K'

Human-readable floating point numbers

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.fractional(1/3)
'1/3'
>>> humanize.fractional(1.5)
'1 1/2'
>>> humanize.fractional(0.3)
'3/10'
>>> humanize.fractional(0.333)
'333/1000'
>>> humanize.fractional(1)
'1'

Scientific notation

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.scientific(0.3)
'3.00 x 10⁻¹'
>>> humanize.scientific(500)
'5.00 x 10²'
>>> humanize.scientific("20000")
'2.00 x 10⁴'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10)
'1.00 x 10⁰'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10, precision=1)
'1.0 x 10⁰'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10, precision=0)
'1 x 10⁰'

Localization

How to change locale at runtime:

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 seconds ago'
>>> _t = humanize.i18n.activate("ru_RU")
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 секунды назад'
>>> humanize.i18n.deactivate()
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 seconds ago'

You can pass additional parameter path to activate to specify a path to search locales in.

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.i18n.activate("xx_XX")
<...>
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No translation file found for domain: 'humanize'
>>> humanize.i18n.activate("pt_BR", path="path/to/my/own/translation/")
<gettext.GNUTranslations instance ...>

How to add new phrases to existing locale files:

scripts/update-translations.sh

This extracts new phrases from the source code into humanize.pot, merges them into each locale's .po file and compiles the binary .mo catalogs.

How to add a new locale:

msginit -i humanize.pot -o humanize/locale/<locale name>/LC_MESSAGES/humanize.po --locale <locale name>

Where <locale name> is a locale abbreviation, eg. en_GB, pt_BR or just ru, fr etc.

List the language at the top of this README.

date
hacktoberfest
humanise
humanize
python
time

python-humanize/humanize

Python humanize functions

Python

761

1,059 commits

updated Oct 6, 2026

See the code

README

humanize

PyPI version Supported Python versions Documentation Status PyPI downloads GitHub Actions status codecov MIT License Tidelift

This modest package contains various common humanization utilities, like turning a number into a fuzzy human-readable duration ("3 minutes ago") or into a human-readable size or throughput. It is localized to:

  • Arabic
  • Basque
  • Bengali
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Catalan
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Esperanto
  • European Portuguese
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Klingon
  • Korean
  • Latvian
  • Norwegian
  • Persian
  • Polish
  • Russian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Sinhala
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Uzbek
  • Vietnamese

API reference

https://humanize.readthedocs.io

Installation

From PyPI

python3 -m pip install --upgrade humanize

From source

git clone https://github.com/python-humanize/humanize
cd humanize
python3 -m pip install -e .

Usage

Integer humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.intcomma(12345)
'12,345'
>>> humanize.intword(123455913)
'123.5 million'
>>> humanize.intword(12345591313)
'12.3 billion'
>>> humanize.apnumber(4)
'four'
>>> humanize.apnumber(41)
'41'

Date & time humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.datetime.now())
'today'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(dt.timedelta(seconds=1001))
'16 minutes'
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(days=1))
'yesterday'
>>> humanize.naturalday(dt.date(2007, 6, 5))
'Jun 05'
>>> humanize.naturaldate(dt.date(2007, 6, 5))
'Jun 05 2007'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(seconds=1))
'a second ago'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.datetime.now() - dt.timedelta(seconds=3600))
'an hour ago'

Precise time delta

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> delta = dt.timedelta(seconds=3633, days=2, microseconds=123000)
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta)
'2 days, 1 hour and 33.12 seconds'
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'2 days, 1 hour, 33 seconds and 123 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.precisedelta(delta, suppress=["days"], format="%0.4f")
'49 hours and 33.1230 seconds'

Smaller units

If seconds are too large, set minimum_unit to milliseconds or microseconds:

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(dt.timedelta(seconds=2))
'2 seconds'
>>> delta = dt.timedelta(milliseconds=4)
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta)
'a moment'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta, minimum_unit="milliseconds")
'4 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.naturaldelta(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'4 milliseconds'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta)
'now'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta, minimum_unit="milliseconds")
'4 milliseconds ago'
>>> humanize.naturaltime(delta, minimum_unit="microseconds")
'4 milliseconds ago'

File size humanization

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000)
'1.0 MB'
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000, binary=True)
'976.6 KiB'
>>> humanize.naturalsize(1_000_000, gnu=True)
'976.6K'

Human-readable floating point numbers

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.fractional(1/3)
'1/3'
>>> humanize.fractional(1.5)
'1 1/2'
>>> humanize.fractional(0.3)
'3/10'
>>> humanize.fractional(0.333)
'333/1000'
>>> humanize.fractional(1)
'1'

Scientific notation

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.scientific(0.3)
'3.00 x 10⁻¹'
>>> humanize.scientific(500)
'5.00 x 10²'
>>> humanize.scientific("20000")
'2.00 x 10⁴'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10)
'1.00 x 10⁰'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10, precision=1)
'1.0 x 10⁰'
>>> humanize.scientific(1**10, precision=0)
'1 x 10⁰'

Localization

How to change locale at runtime:

>>> import humanize
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 seconds ago'
>>> _t = humanize.i18n.activate("ru_RU")
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 секунды назад'
>>> humanize.i18n.deactivate()
>>> humanize.naturaltime(dt.timedelta(seconds=3))
'3 seconds ago'

You can pass additional parameter path to activate to specify a path to search locales in.

>>> import humanize
>>> humanize.i18n.activate("xx_XX")
<...>
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No translation file found for domain: 'humanize'
>>> humanize.i18n.activate("pt_BR", path="path/to/my/own/translation/")
<gettext.GNUTranslations instance ...>

How to add new phrases to existing locale files:

scripts/update-translations.sh

This extracts new phrases from the source code into humanize.pot, merges them into each locale's .po file and compiles the binary .mo catalogs.

How to add a new locale:

msginit -i humanize.pot -o humanize/locale/<locale name>/LC_MESSAGES/humanize.po --locale <locale name>

Where <locale name> is a locale abbreviation, eg. en_GB, pt_BR or just ru, fr etc.

List the language at the top of this README.

date
hacktoberfest
humanise
humanize
python
time

Significant stargazers

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