Compress Data with Zstandard in Python 3.14

Handling large amounts of data efficiently often means compressing it before storage or transfer. For years, Python developers depended on external libraries to work with modern compression formats like Zstandard. Since Python 3.14, the compression.zstd module enables Zstandard compression and decompression straight from the standard library, eliminating the need for third-party dependencies.

Basic usage is straightforward. You can compress bytes and then restore it back to its original form in-memory as follows:

from compression import zstd

data = 'Hello world'
data_compressed = zstd.compress(data.encode())
data = zstd.decompress(data_compressed).decode()
print(data) # Hello world

This is ideal for scenarios like caching, network transfers, or temporary storage where data never needs to touch the filesystem.

The module also supports stream-based compression, which is useful for large files that shouldn't be loaded entirely into memory.

from compression import zstd

data = 'Hello world'
data_compressed = zstd.compress(data.encode())
data = zstd.decompress(data_compressed).decode()
print(data) # Hello world

This approach efficiently compresses and decompresses data in chunks, making it suitable for large files and production workloads.