Scalene

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · Extension

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Scalene is ranked #2 of 29 in profiling software on Freedom251. It runs on Browser extension, Linux, macOS, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Scalene plans and pricing

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Scalene Free Open-source Python profiler · install via pip or conda github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on profiling software

Profiling modes: sampling
Supported languages: Python
CPU profiling: Yes
Memory profiling: Yes
Thread profiling: Yes
Deployment model: desktop

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The record

Purpose: Scalene profiles Python programs for CPU, GPU, and memory use and provides AI-powered optimization proposals.
Detailed profiling: It reports performance at line and function level and separates Python time from native-code and system time.
Memory analysis: It reports per-line memory use, distinguishes Python from native allocations, and identifies lines with likely memory leaks.
GPU support: GPU profiling reports time on NVIDIA-based systems.
Async profiling: Async profiling attributes wall-clock await time to the line where a coroutine is suspended and reports mean and peak concurrent waiters.
Stack views: Its GUI can display stitched Python and native call stacks, memory flame charts, and a timeline.
AI providers: For optimization suggestions, Scalene lists Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Azure, OpenAI, and local models via Ollama as supported providers.
Local processing: The web interface processes profiles locally and works offline; the project says API keys passed from environment variables are sent only to the local browser session and are never written into the HTML file.
Interfaces: Scalene can be used from the command line, a web-based GUI, a Visual Studio Code extension, or Jupyter notebooks.
Install platforms: The project lists macOS, Linux, Windows, and Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 as supported installation platforms.
Windows note: Starting with Scalene 2.0, Windows supports full memory profiling; troubleshooting may require the Visual C++ Redistributable.
Performance overhead: The README says profiling overhead is typically no more than 10–20%, and often less.
License: The repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0.
Support: The project links to a Scalene community Slack for community discussion.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Profiling Software in 2026#2 of 29

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Sources

github.com/plasma-umass/scalene· checked 4 Oct 2026