No module named '_zstd'?

[p0rkly]

Using Python 3.14.0 in a virtual environment, I'm unable to use import discord without receiving this error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_zstd'

Assuming this meant zstd was not installed, I installed it into my virtual env with python -m pip install zstd. It was successful, but I still cannot import discord.

Am I missing something obvious? Maybe 3.14 is not yet supported?

EDIT 1: I tested on Python 3.8.10 and I can import. Soooo probably a 3.14 issue?

EDIT 2: Adding full stack trace:

$ python
Python 3.14.0 (main, Oct  8 2025, 13:26:33) [GCC 9.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import discord.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-0>", line 1, in <module>
    import discord.py
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    from .client import *
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/client.py", line 50, in <module>
    import aiohttp
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/aiohttp/__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
    from .client import (
    ...<42 lines>...
    )
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/aiohttp/client.py", line 40, in <module>
    from . import hdrs, http, payload
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/aiohttp/http.py", line 7, in <module>
    from .http_parser import (
    ...<6 lines>...
    )
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/aiohttp/http_parser.py", line 29, in <module>
    from .compression_utils import (
    ...<5 lines>...
    )
  File "/home/p0rkly/code/0xB07/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/aiohttp/compression_utils.py", line 25, in <module>
    import compression.zstd  # noqa: I900
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.14/compression/zstd/__init__.py", line 29, in <module>
    import _zstd
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_zstd'

[MajorTanya]

How are you installing discord.py?

[p0rkly]

I'm in Ubuntu. Used the installation instructions on the site here:

# This is inside a venv
python3.14 -m pip install -U discord.py

I've also tried with and without the -U flag just for fun.

[Harmon758]

You're likely encountering aio-libs/aiohttp#11603, an issue with aiohttp (a dependency of discord.py) that should be fixed in its next release.
Otherwise, if not, you'll need to provide the full traceback, as the issue would be difficult to diagnose without more information.

[p0rkly]

Thank you. I have updated my post with the full stack trace.

[Harmon758]

Yeah, you're encountering aio-libs/aiohttp#11603.
I would just wait until the next aiohttp release. If you really need it now, the fix is already in the master branch of aiohttp, with aio-libs/aiohttp#11611 / aio-libs/aiohttp@4929094.

[Harmon758]

This should be resolved with aiohttp v3.13.1 now.

[nirbhaykwatra]

Still getting this as of aiohttp v3.13.2. On Ubuntu 25.10 with Python 3.14.

EDIT: Just tested importing only aiohttp in a separate file, it seems to be working. And looking at the stack trace, the issue seems to be in discord/utils.py, which is still assuming zstd is bundled with 3.14

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/projects/professional/programming/discord-bot/main.py", line 1, in <module>
    import discord
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/projects/professional/programming/discord-bot/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    from .client import *
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/projects/professional/programming/discord-bot/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/client.py", line 52, in <module>
    from .sku import SKU, Entitlement
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/projects/professional/programming/discord-bot/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/sku.py", line 31, in <module>
    from . import utils
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/projects/professional/programming/discord-bot/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/discord/utils.py", line 78, in <module>
    import compression.zstd
  File "/home/nirbhaykwatra/.pyenv/versions/3.14.0/lib/python3.14/compression/zstd/__init__.py", line 29, in <module>
    import _zstd
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_zstd'

[Sacul0457]

There was a recent fix/pr regarding this #10328, are you using the latest version?

[Rapptz]

Is this your own build of Python? If so have you tried rebuilding it with the proper dependencies?

[mikeshardmind]

If you built python3.14 yourself, You should probably rebuild python with zstandard stupport.
If you didnt, you should probably check if they offer a build with zstandard support, or otherwise report this to the redistributor you got it from.

I wouldn't expect most developers to guard for it existing. It was more surprising to see aiohttp and discord.py both add a guard here rather than say they require python to be built with all relevent optional modules, as this is pretty much the same as guarding an import to zlib, which is also optional in theory, yet all major prebuilt python redistributions include both it and zstandard.

Python's own Ccore developers just expect these to be present outside of exceptional cases, because they are only optional so that python can still be used in those exceptional cases, not with the expectation that they will be absent in general use.

from ongoing discussion of how optional module support should be documented in python:

It's technically possible to build without zlib, for good reasons (porting to new platforms; perhaps bootstrapping a buildsystem to compile zlib itself). But if you share the result with general users you should at least warn them :)

while the comment mentions zlib by name, the sentiment as a whole is that at distributions missing this are not for general use.