PyXspec is an object oriented Python interface to the XSPEC (ascl:9910.005) spectral-fitting program. It provides an alternative to Tcl, the sole scripting language for standard Xspec usage. With PyXspec loaded, a user can run Xspec with Python language scripts or interactively at a Python shell prompt; everything in PyXspec is accessible by importing the package xspec into your Python script. PyXspec can be utilized in a Python script or from the command line of the plain interactive Python interpreter. PyXspec does not implement its own command handler, so it is not intended to be run as the Python equivalent of a traditional interactive XSPEC session (which is really an enhanced interactive Tcl interpreter).

It has been over a decade since the first paper was published containing results determined using the general X-ray spectral-fitting program XSPEC. Since then XSPEC has become the most widely used program for this purpose, being the de facto standard for the ROSAT and the de jure standard for the ASCA and XTE satellites. Probably the most important features of XSPEC are the large number of theoretical models available and the facilities for adding new models.