levenshtein [](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/agnivade/levenshtein) [](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/agnivade/levenshtein)
March 3, 2026 · View on GitHub
Go package to calculate the Levenshtein Distance
The library is fully capable of working with non-ascii strings. But the strings are not normalized. That is left as a user-dependant use case. Please normalize the strings before passing it to the library if you have such a requirement.
Limitation
As a performance optimization, the library can handle strings only up to 65536 characters (runes). If you need to handle strings larger than that, please pin to version 1.0.3.
Install
go get github.com/agnivade/levenshtein
Example
package main
import (
"fmt"
"github.com/agnivade/levenshtein"
)
func main() {
s1 := "kitten"
s2 := "sitting"
distance := levenshtein.ComputeDistance(s1, s2)
fmt.Printf("The distance between %s and %s is %d.\n", s1, s2, distance)
// Output:
// The distance between kitten and sitting is 3.
}
Benchmarks
goos: darwin
goarch: arm64
pkg: github.com/agnivade/levenshtein
cpu: Apple M4
│ bench.out │
│ sec/op │
Simple/ASCII-10 123.8n ± 0%
Simple/French-10 212.6n ± 1%
Simple/Nordic-10 365.9n ± 0%
Simple/Long_lead-10 224.5n ± 0%
Simple/Long_middle-10 379.9n ± 0%
Simple/Long_trail-10 580.8n ± 0%
Simple/Long_diff-10 8.008µ ± 0%
Simple/Tibetan-10 459.5n ± 0%
geomean 452.4n
│ bench.out │
│ B/op │
Simple/ASCII-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/French-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/Nordic-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/Long_lead-10 368.0 ± 0%
Simple/Long_middle-10 544.0 ± 0%
Simple/Long_trail-10 576.0 ± 0%
Simple/Long_diff-10 720.0 ± 0%
Simple/Tibetan-10 0.000 ± 0%
geomean ¹
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
│ bench.out │
│ allocs/op │
Simple/ASCII-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/French-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/Nordic-10 0.000 ± 0%
Simple/Long_lead-10 2.000 ± 0%
Simple/Long_middle-10 2.000 ± 0%
Simple/Long_trail-10 2.000 ± 0%
Simple/Long_diff-10 3.000 ± 0%
Simple/Tibetan-10 0.000 ± 0%
geomean ¹
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
Comparisons with other libraries
github.com/dgryski/trifles
goos: darwin
goarch: arm64
pkg: github.com/agnivade/levenshtein
cpu: Apple M4
│ dgryski │ agniva │
│ sec/op │ sec/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 288.4n ± 0% 123.9n ± 1% -57.05% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 518.8n ± 0% 211.7n ± 1% -59.20% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 963.8n ± 0% 369.4n ± 1% -61.67% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 795.6n ± 0% 460.1n ± 0% -42.18% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 582.0n 258.4n -55.60%
│ dgryski │ agniva │
│ B/op │ B/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 96.00 ± 0% 0.00 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 128.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 192.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 160.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 139.4 ? ¹ ²
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
² ratios must be >0 to compute geomean
│ dgryski │ agniva │
│ allocs/op │ allocs/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 1.000 ? ¹ ²
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
² ratios must be >0 to compute geomean
github.com/arbovm/levenshtein
goos: darwin
goarch: arm64
pkg: github.com/agnivade/levenshtein
cpu: Apple M4
│ arbovm │ agniva │
│ sec/op │ sec/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 283.1n ± 1% 123.9n ± 1% -56.23% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 516.4n ± 0% 211.7n ± 1% -59.01% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 978.9n ± 0% 369.4n ± 1% -62.26% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 804.9n ± 0% 460.1n ± 0% -42.84% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 582.6n 258.4n -55.65%
│ arbovm │ agniva │
│ B/op │ B/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 96.00 ± 0% 0.00 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 128.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 192.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 160.0 ± 0% 0.0 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 139.4 ? ¹ ²
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
² ratios must be >0 to compute geomean
│ arbovm │ agniva │
│ allocs/op │ allocs/op vs base │
All/case=ASCII-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=French-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Nordic-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
All/case=Tibetan-10 1.000 ± 0% 0.000 ± 0% -100.00% (p=0.000 n=20)
geomean 1.000 ? ¹ ²
¹ summaries must be >0 to compute geomean
² ratios must be >0 to compute geomean