comtypes
comtypes is a lightweight pure Python COM package based on the ctypes foreign function interface library.
comtypes allows you to define, call, and implement custom and dispatch-based COM interfaces in pure Python.
comtypes requires Windows and Python 3.9 or later.
- Note about Python 3.15 and
enumbehavior
Starting with Python 3.15, the internal handling ofIntFlag(Flag) values is planned to change:
NegativeIntFlagmembers will be reinterpreted by masking them to the defined positive bit domain, instead of keeping their original negative literal values.
This can affect enumeration types generated bycomtypesfrom COM type libraries. Action is needed to maintain literal evaluation.
For details and ongoing discussion, see: GH-894. - Version 1.4.12 is the last version to support Python 3.8.
- Version <= 1.4.7 does not work with Python 3.13 as reported in GH-618. Version 1.4.8 can work with Python 3.13.
- Version 1.4.6 is the last version to support Python 3.7.
- Version 1.2.1 is the last version to support Python 2.7 and 3.3–3.6.
- Certain
comtypesfunctions may not work correctly in Python 3.8 and 3.9 as reported in GH-212. This bug has been fixed in Python >= 3.10.10 and >= 3.11.2.
Installation
comtypes is available on PyPI and can be installed with pip:
# PyPI
pip install comtypes
The source code is currently hosted here on GitHub.
Dependencies
comtypes is a pure Python package — it has no additional required dependencies.
Optional functionalities can be enabled by installing:
numpy, in order to process arrays asnumpy'sndarray.mypyor other static type checkers, in order to interpret type hints.
None of these packages, however, are required in order to run comtypes.
Community
The GitHub repository is used for tracking issues, reporting bugs, and contributing to the codebase and documentation.
For Enterprise
Available as part of the Tidelift Subscription.
This project and the maintainers of thousands of other packages are working with Tidelift to deliver one enterprise subscription that covers all of the open source you use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does this package not support platforms other than Windows?
A: The Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) is a technology that is unique to Windows and is not supported on other platforms.
The phrase "COM is a platform-independent" in the MS documentation means that COM maintains compatibility across different versions of Windows, and does NOT imply that it is supported on Linux or Mac.
For as long as COM is not supported outside of Windows, there is no plan to port comtypes to other platforms.
Q: Why does cannot import name 'COMError' from '_ctypes' error occur when using this package on platforms other than Windows?
A: The _ctypes is part of the internal implementation of the ctypes standard library that exists for Python on all platforms.
However, COMError and COM-related features are only implemented in Python for Windows.
In cross-platform software development, care must be taken to ensure that codebases that depend on comtypes do not execute in environments other than Windows.
Q: Despite a script that depends on comtypes having run successfully before, a error (ImportError, NameError, or SyntaxError) is raised now, and the same error occurs again and again.
A: Executing py -m comtypes.clear_cache and then running the script again might resolve the problem.
When comtypes.client.GetModule is called (either directly or indirectly), comtypes generates Python module files.
If Python is forced to terminate or crashes in the middle of file generation, the codebase written to the file becomes partial.
When Python tries to import this unexecutable partial codebase module, an error occurs.
Executing py -m comtypes.clear_cache identifies the directories where the "cache module files" are stored and deletes them.
After deleting these partial modules and running the script again, comtypes.client.GetModule is called and executable modules are generated anew.
However, if the script implementation does not use comtypes.client.GetModule or processes generated files, it may not be a solution.
Documentation
The documentation is currently hosted here on ReadTheDocs.
6 maintainers
Release files for comtypes 1.4.16
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| comtypes-1.4.16.tar.gz | 260.3 kB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| comtypes-1.4.16-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 556.5 kB
Release files / comtypes-1.4.16.tar.gz
| Download URL | comtypes-1.4.16.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 260.3 kB |
| Tags | Source |
|
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Release files / comtypes-1.4.16-py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | comtypes-1.4.16-py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 296.2 kB |
| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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No |
| Uploaded via |
twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.3
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