Python Overtakes JavaScript as GitHub's Most Popular Language, Driven by AI Boom

GitHub's most-used language isn't JavaScript anymore

Yearly report finds explosion of GenAI projects, new users from outside the coding community responsible for boost There's been an upset in the Octoverse, as Python has unseated JavaScript as the most-used programming language on GitHub. Python's ascendancy from the number-two slot, which it's held since knocking Java from the position in 2019, is largely down to an explosion of generative AI activity on GitHub, the Microsoft-owned coding platform said in this year's the State of the Octoverse report issued last week. Along with Python jumping to first place, GitHub noted that the use of Jupyter Notebooks (the open source, web-based development notebooks designed for data science applications) rose by 92 percent on the platform in the past year. Those two factors, along with a surge of new users, "could indicate people in data science, AI, machine learning, and academia increasingly use GitHub." 2024, GitHub seems to have concluded, is the year that generative AI has come into its own as a part of developers' "core building blocks," with a 98 percent increase in the total number of GenAI projects on GitHub, and a 59 percent increase in the number of contributions to those projects. Many of those contributors are new users, according to GitHub, with a notable number coming from India and Brazil. "We've also seen 100% year-over-year growth among students, teachers, and open source maintainers adopting GitHub Copilot as part of our complimentary access program," GitHub said. "This suggests AI isn't just helping more people learn to write code or build software faster - it's also attracting and helping more people become developers." In short, GitHub concluded that AI is changing what it means to be a developer: It's not just about being a coder with expertise in computer science or mastery of a particular programming language anymore. "The notion of a developer extends beyond software developers to roles like operations or IT developers, machine learning researchers, data scientists, students, teachers, and mathematicians," GitHub noted. Given Python's role as a darling of the data science community, its rise to be the most popular language on GitHub (with the exception of code pushes alone, where JavaScript still holds the top spot) makes perfect sense. "We couldn't be more pleased to learn about Python's continued rise in popularity on GitHub, especially coupled with the increased use of Jupyter Notebooks, data analysis, AI, and open source technology," Python Software Foundation executive director Deb Nicholson told GitHub when asked about Python's newfound supremacy. Along with the rise of Python, and a swap for the eighth-most-used language between Shell and C, GitHub said 2024 was a banner year for open source as well, with "a continued increase in first-time contributors to open source projects." Given the rest of the theme of the report, it likely won't surprise you where most of those open source contributors are spending their time: Working on AI projects, with a healthy dose of commercially-backed open source contributions, too. ®

AI push makes Python the most popular language on GitHub

For the first time in GitHub history, Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most popular programming language on the platform, with coders using the increasingly common language for AI development. The platform's annual Octoverse report revealed Python's popularity appears largely due to huge demand for artificial intelligence, but it's also used in data science for open source projects. According to the stats, contributions to generative AI projects alone saw a 59% rise, with contributions to AI-related public projects nearly doubling compared with 2023. India, Germany, Japan and Singapore accounted for most of these, says the platform. Moreover, GitHub noted the surge in developers joining and using the platform from all over the world: "...many of these developers are contributing to open source projects for the first time." Two years after the public preview launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent AI boom, the company says companies and developers alike are turning their attentions to AI agents and smaller models that require less compute and promise more custom applications. The demand for Python is also evidenced in the 92% increase in the use of Jupyter Notebooks, a project designed to support the development of open source software. According to the report, the growth of Python to become the platform's number one language is indicative of the shift in userbase, from traditional software programmers to a wider range of STEM use cases. Python, JavaScript, TypeScript and Java remain the most common languages on GitHub, but systems programming languages like Rust are also on the up. Looking ahead, GitHub anticipates that India will have the world's largest developer population on GitHub by 2028, with Africa and Latin America countries, such as Brazil, also set to undergo significant growth. The launch of the report coincides with the company's annual Universe event, which it used to announce the availability of even more models. GitHub Copilot, initially launched with GPT-3-based Codex, has been largely OpenAI-reliant up until now. Later updates to Copilot Chat have seen the introduction of GPT-3.5, GPT 3.5-turbo, GPT-4, GPT-4o and 4o-mini models to cater to different latency and quality requirements, but now the company is promising new model options from other providers. Copilot Chat has now launched with OpenAI o1-preview and o1-mini models, but Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet is set to roll out over the next week, with Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro coming in the coming weeks.

Python has overtaken JavaScript on GitHub

Python has overtaken JavaScript as the most popular language on GitHub, while the use of Jupyter Notebooks also has skyrocketed on the site. The rise of both underscore the surge in data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning on the code-sharing platform, according to GitHub's just-released Octoverse 2024 report. Python is used heavily across machine learning, data science, and scientific computing, among many other areas ranging from web development to home automation, GitHub found in its report. The growth in Python usage coincides with open source activity continuing to extend beyond traditional software development, GitHub said. Along with increased Python adoption, GitHub also sees increased interest in AI agents and smaller models requiring less computational power. The Octoverse 2024 report was released October 29, and covers GitHub data from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. GitHub in its research found a different notion from expectations that AI would replace developers. "As AI rapidly expands, developers are increasingly building AI models into applications and engaging with AI projects on GitHub in large numbers. At the same time, we're seeing an unprecedented number of developers join GitHub from across the globe," GitHub said.

Python is Now the Top Programming Language on GitHub

The platform has hosted 518 million projects, with a 25% year-over-year growth, leading to a total of 5.2 billion contributions to all projects on GitHub in 2024. Python has long been the go-to for automation, data science, and AI, and now Pythonistas have even more to celebrate! At the GitHub Universe event on October 29, the developer platform announced that Python overtook JavaScript as the most popular language. The company also said the adoption of Jupyter Notebooks, the open-source Python application, sharply increased. These developments highlight the growing focus on data science and machine learning among GitHub users. Source: GitHub During the event, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke emphasised that the age of AI hasn't just begun -- it has crossed the chasm and now runs through the core of GitHub. Over the past year, GitHub, the popular web-based platform, experienced a generational surge in AI creation, with a remarkable 98% year-over-year growth in AI-related projects in 2024 alone. A significant factor behind this growth is Python's dominance in machine learning and AI development. "The platform is now widely integrated into daily workflows across data science, academia, and research, solidifying Python's role as the primary language for AI," said Dohmke, in his keynote speech. GitHub's rapid expansion has made open-source innovation a central trend, driving its growth and has evolved from a social coding platform to the world's largest creator network in the AI era. Meanwhile, according to their Octoverse report, the platform has hosted 518 million projects, with a 25% year-over-year growth, leading to a total of 5.2 billion contributions to all projects on GitHub in 2024. Less than 1 million open source maintainers, verified teachers, and students have used GitHub Copilot at no cost, while contributions to public and open source projects in 2024 have reached approximately 1 billion. Additionally, there are 137,000 public generative AI projects, showing a 98% year-over-year growth. While there are clear indications that AI is sparking interest in software development, the surge in global growth still surpasses what can be fully attributed to AI alone. Putting all this aside, one of the big trends uncovered at Universe' 24 is that over the past year, more developers have joined GitHub and engaged with open source and public projects -- often empowered by AI tools. Since GitHub Copilot gained mainstream traction in early 2023, the platform has experienced major growth, with notable increases in developer engagement from the Global South. The 2024 edition of GitHub's Octoverse report shows a surge in generative AI activity in India, signalling that AI has moved beyond the hype of 2023 as Indian developers and organisations prioritise results over experimentation. We are also emerging as a crucial player in the global technology sector, with substantial contributions to generative AI and open-source projects. With notable growth in our country, it now boasts over 17 million developers actively building on the platform. This reflects a remarkable 28% increase in 2024, and India is expected to have the world's largest developer population on GitHub by 2028. In Q4 FY23, it had 13.2 million Indian developers using GitHub. This surge establishes India as the fastest-growing developer community worldwide. Comparatively, in the US, there were approximately 20 million developers. "Our latest Octoverse report affirms that India's developer community is the fastest growing developer population on the planet. India's rise as a global tech titan is now inexorable," said GitHub chief. He added that Indian developers are increasingly using AI to drive innovation, improving the likelihood that major multinational companies will emerge from India. Python is everywhere -- and it's been used to build a significant number of the technologies, websites, and even systems most people encounter on a daily basis. It powers everything from popular video streaming platforms to machine learning algorithms that guide cryptocurrency trades. On a larger scale, back in 2022, Python played a key role in NASA's data analysis for the sophisticated James Webb Space Telescope, making it one of the few programming languages that is, quite literally, out of this world. Nonetheless, this new milestone highlights the language's role in shaping open-source innovation and supporting a global community of developers. As Python continues to evolve, its impact on the future of technology remains substantial and far-reaching.