What is Python Wheel?

Wheels are the standard binary distribution format for Python packages (PEP 427). Unlike source distributions that may require compilation of C extensions during installation, wheels are pre-built and install quickly. A .whl file is a ZIP archive with a structured filename encoding package name, version, Python version, ABI, and platform. Pure Python wheels work everywhere; platform-specific wheels contain compiled extensions. pip prefers wheels over source distributions. Publishing wheels to PyPI significantly improves installation speed for users. The wheel package provides the bdist_wheel command for building wheels.