PyMC (formerly PyMC3) is a Python package for Bayesian statistical modeling focusing on advanced Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and variational inference (VI) algorithms. Its flexibility and extensibility make it applicable to a large suite of problems.
Check out the PyMC overview, or one of the many examples! For questions on PyMC, head on over to our PyMC Discourse forum.
Features
- Intuitive model specification syntax, for example,
x ~ N(0,1)translates tox = Normal('x',0,1) - Powerful sampling algorithms, such as the No U-Turn Sampler, allow complex models with thousands of parameters with little specialized knowledge of fitting algorithms.
- Variational inference: ADVI for fast approximate posterior estimation as well as mini-batch ADVI for large data sets.
- Relies on PyTensor which provides:
- Computation optimization and dynamic C or JAX compilation
- NumPy broadcasting and advanced indexing
- Linear algebra operators
- Simple extensibility
- Transparent support for missing value imputation
Getting started
If you already know about Bayesian statistics:
- API quickstart guide
- The PyMC tutorial
- PyMC examples and the API reference
Learn Bayesian statistics with a book together with PyMC
- Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers: Fantastic book with many applied code examples.
- PyMC port of the book "Doing Bayesian Data Analysis" by John Kruschke as well as the second edition: Principled introduction to Bayesian data analysis.
- PyMC port of the book "Statistical Rethinking A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan" by Richard McElreath
- PyMC port of the book "Bayesian Cognitive Modeling" by Michael Lee and EJ Wagenmakers: Focused on using Bayesian statistics in cognitive modeling.
- Bayesian Analysis with Python (second edition) by Osvaldo Martin: Great introductory book. (code and errata).
Audio & Video
- Here is a YouTube playlist gathering several talks on PyMC.
- You can also find all the talks given at PyMCon 2020 here.
- The "Learning Bayesian Statistics" podcast helps you discover and stay up-to-date with the vast Bayesian community. Bonus: it's hosted by Alex Andorra, one of the PyMC core devs!
Installation
To install PyMC on your system, follow the instructions on the installation guide.
Citing PyMC
Please choose from the following:
Probabilistic programming in Python using PyMC3, Salvatier J., Wiecki T.V., Fonnesbeck C. (2016)
A DOI for all versions.
- DOIs for specific versions are shown on Zenodo and under Releases
Contact
We are using discourse.pymc.io as our main communication channel.
To ask a question regarding modeling or usage of PyMC we encourage posting to our Discourse forum under the “Questions” Category. You can also suggest feature in the “Development” Category.
You can also follow us on these social media platforms for updates and other announcements:
To report an issue with PyMC please use the issue tracker.
Finally, if you need to get in touch for non-technical information about the project, send us an e-mail.
License
Software using PyMC
General purpose
- Bambi: BAyesian Model-Building Interface (BAMBI) in Python.
- calibr8: A toolbox for constructing detailed observation models to be used as likelihoods in PyMC.
- gumbi: A high-level interface for building GP models.
- SunODE: Fast ODE solver, much faster than the one that comes with PyMC.
- pymc-learn: Custom PyMC models built on top of pymc3_models/scikit-learn API
Domain specific
- Exoplanet: a toolkit for modeling of transit and/or radial velocity observations of exoplanets and other astronomical time series.
- beat: Bayesian Earthquake Analysis Tool.
- CausalPy: A package focussing on causal inference in quasi-experimental settings.
Please contact us if your software is not listed here.
Papers citing PyMC
See Google Scholar for a continuously updated list.
Contributors
See the GitHub contributor page. Also read our Code of Conduct guidelines for a better contributing experience.
Support
PyMC is a non-profit project under NumFOCUS umbrella. If you want to support PyMC financially, you can donate here.
Professional Consulting Support
You can get professional consulting support from PyMC Labs.
Sponsors
