The team responsible for the PyPI software repository has announced a move towards some payments for services to enable the developers to devote enough resources to meet user demands. Members of corporate Organization accounts will from March 27 be charged $5 per member User, per month.

The Python Package Index, abbreviated as PyPI, is the official third-party software repository for Python. It contains over 530,000 Python packages, and in 2023 has 235.7 billion downloads, which represented a 57% annual growth in its download counts and bandwidth. 

In view of the demands,  Ee Durbin, Director of Infrastructure at the Python Software Foundation, has announced that the foundation is introducing a new Terms of Service to

"formalize our relationship to users and enable us to move forward with providing new features and services, specifically Organization Accounts."

Durbin said in the post that:

"Our new Terms of Service formalizes our relationship to PyPI users, makes protections for the PSF and PyPI users more explicit, and establishes terms we need to provide Organization Accounts to paid Corporate Organizations."

Organizations on PyPI are self-managed teams with their own web addresses, and are designed to make the PyPI platform easier to use for large community projects, organizations, or companies with multiple teams and packages. 

The new charges will only apply to corporate projects; community projects will still be able to access organization accounts for free.

When Organization accounts were introduced, PyPI assured its users that the new features are optional and there is no obligation to create an organization. The feature is currently in closed beta with no new organization accounts being created. 

The introduction of organizations on PyPI is approved by the Packaging Working Group and funded through the Python Software Foundation's sponsorship program.

The revenue raised from corporate projects will be used within the PyPI project to continue building better support and infrastructure for all of its users. The PyPI team says the funds are necessary for it to increase organizational capacity to accommodate the ever-increasing number of users and contributors to Python. The plan is that it will become a platform with staff so it will be capable of responding to support requests and addressing issues more rapidly than is possible via its current team mainly made up of volunteers.

The fact that so many businesses rely on Python and PyPI despite the lack of funding seems unsustainable, and the possibility of paid-for add-on services seems a possibility as a way to keep the basic PyPI freely available. 

More Information

PyPI New Terms Of Service

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