Installing 23 packages from a warm cache takes pip about 6.6 seconds, while uv handles the same task in just 0.12 seconds. On larger projects involving Django, Celery, Pandas, and scikit-learn, pip needs around 90 seconds, whereas uv finishes in roughly 8 seconds.
uv is a single binary that consolidates five separate tools into one: pip, pip-tools, virtualenv, pyenv, and pipx. In March 2026, OpenAI acquired Astral, the company behind uv, to bring it into their Codex AI platform.
What Tools Does uv Replace?
The traditional Python project setup required juggling five different tools, each with its own configuration format. uv streamlines this into a single, unified workflow:
pyenv install becomes uv python install
