ipympl

January 23, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Test Status Latest PyPI version Latest conda-forge version Latest npm version Binder notebook-link Gitter

Leveraging the Jupyter interactive widgets framework, ipympl enables the interactive features of matplotlib in the Jupyter notebook and in JupyterLab.

Besides, the figure canvas element is a proper Jupyter interactive widget which can be positioned in interactive widget layouts.

Usage

To enable the ipympl backend, simply use the matplotlib Jupyter magic:

%matplotlib ipympl

Documentation

See the documentation at: https://matplotlib.org/ipympl/

Try it now

You can easily try ipympl without installing anything, by simply accessing the example Notebook from Notebook.link or MyBinder:

Example

See the example notebook for more!

matplotlib screencast

Installation

With conda

conda install -c conda-forge ipympl

With pip

pip install ipympl

Use in JupyterLab

If you want to use ipympl in JupyterLab, we recommend using JupyterLab >= 3.

If you use JupyterLab 2, you still need to install the labextension manually:

conda install -c conda-forge nodejs
jupyter labextension install @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager jupyter-matplotlib

Install an old JupyterLab extension

If you are using JupyterLab 1 or 2, you will need to install the right jupyter-matplotlib version, according to the ipympl and jupyterlab versions you installed. For example, if you installed ipympl 0.5.1, you need to install jupyter-matplotlib 0.7.0, and this version is only compatible with JupyterLab 1.

conda install -c conda-forge ipympl==0.5.1
jupyter labextension install @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager jupyter-matplotlib@0.7.0

Versions lookup table:

ipympljupyter-matplotlibJupyterLabMatplotlib
0.10.00.12.0>=2,<5>=3.5.0
0.9.5-80.11.5-8>=2,<5>=3.5.0
0.9.3-40.11.3-4>=2,<53.4.0>=
0.9.0-20.11.0-2>=2,<53.4.0>= <3.7
0.8.80.10.x>=2,<53.3.1>= <3.7
0.8.0-70.10.x>=2,<53.3.1>=, <3.6
0.7.00.9.0>=2,<53.3.1>=
0.6.x0.8.x>=2,<53.3.1>=, <3.4
0.5.80.7.4>=1,<33.3.1>=, <3.4
0.5.70.7.3>=1,<33.2.*
.........
0.5.30.7.2>=1,<3
0.5.20.7.1>=1,<2
0.5.10.7.0>=1,<2
0.5.00.6.0>=1,<2
0.4.00.5.0>=1,<2
0.3.30.4.2>=1,<2
0.3.20.4.1>=1,<2
0.3.10.4.0>=0<2

For a development installation

We recommend using pixi for development as it handles both Python and Node.js dependencies (matplotlib has compiled dependencies).

# Install dependencies and set up environment
pixi install

# Install the Python package in editable mode
pixi run pip install -e .

# Install JavaScript dependencies and build
pixi run jlpm install
pixi run jlpm build

# Set up JupyterLab extension in development mode
pixi run jupyter labextension develop --overwrite .

# Start development workflow (in separate terminals)
pixi run npm run watch    # Terminal 1: Auto-rebuild on changes
pixi run jupyter lab      # Terminal 2: Run JupyterLab

Alternative: Using conda/mamba

mamba env create --file dev-environment.yml
conda activate ipympl-dev

pip install -e .
jlpm install
jlpm build
jupyter labextension develop --overwrite .

# Start development workflow (in separate terminals)
npm run watch    # Terminal 1: Auto-rebuild on changes
jupyter lab      # Terminal 2: Run JupyterLab

How to see your changes

TypeScript/JavaScript: After a change, the watch command will automatically rebuild. Wait for the build to finish, then refresh your browser and the changes should take effect.

Python: If you make a change to the Python code, restart the notebook kernel to have it take effect.

Classic Jupyter Notebook

If you need to develop for classic Jupyter Notebook (not JupyterLab), also run:

# With pixi:
pixi run jupyter nbextension install --py --symlink --sys-prefix --overwrite ipympl
pixi run jupyter nbextension enable --py --sys-prefix ipympl

# Or with conda/mamba:
jupyter nbextension install --py --symlink --sys-prefix --overwrite ipympl
jupyter nbextension enable --py --sys-prefix ipympl