pip vs uv install time: 30.1 s vs 3.8 s (0.4 s with warm cache)

Is uv faster than pip?

Installing fastapi, uvicorn, pandas, httpx and pydantic into a fresh virtual environment took 30.1 s with pip (no cache), 3.8 s with uv (no cache) and 0.4 s with uv on a warm cache, in one run each.

Results

pip, no cache	30.1 s
uv, no cache	3.8 s
uv, warm cache	0.4 s

How it was measured

Fresh venv per run, Python 3.14, same five packages. One run each; network conditions vary.

uv venv && uv pip install fastapi uvicorn pandas httpx pydantic

Why

uv resolves and installs in parallel and reuses a global cache.

When this does not apply

Single runs on one network. Install times vary a lot.

Environment

MacBook Air (Apple silicon, 8 cores), macOS, Python 3.14, uv 0.12. Measured 2026-10-12.

Source: shorts/demo-ticket/py in my content-engine repository. Treat any single run as a direction; re-run it on your hardware.

By Josué Barros, senior software engineer (full-stack, data and AI).