Wheel

A wheel file is a distribution format for Python packages.

Wheels are one of two standard formats for packaging and distributing Python packages PyPI, the other being sdist. wheels are the newer of the two formats, although sdists is still widely used.

Wheels are a binary distribution format wrapped in the ZIP format, meaning they can contain a combination of Python source code and compiled code (e.g., C extensions). This makes wheels faster to install for libraries with compiled components.

The wheel file format is officially defined in the Python Packaging User Guide.

Learn More

• Wheel documentation
• What Are Python Wheels and Why Should You Care?
• Wheel format specification