Faster pip installs: caching, bytecode compilation, and uv

Installing your Python application’s dependencies can be surprisingly slow.
Whether you’re running tests in CI, building a Docker image, or installing an application, downloading and installing dependencies can take a while.

So how do you speed up installation with pip?

In this article I’ll cover:

• Avoiding the slow path of installing from source.
• The package cache.
• Bytecode compilation and how it interacts with installation and startup speed.
• Using uv, a faster replacement for pip, and why it’s not always as fast as it might initially seem.

Avoiding installs from source

When you install a Python package, there are two ways you can install it, typically:

• The packaged up source file, often a .tar.gz with a pyproject.toml or

   

   

   

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