Hi, The size of the C API, as measured by `git grep PyAPI_FUNC | wc -l` has been steadily increasing over the last few releases. 3.5 1237 3.6 1304 3.7 1408 3.8 1478 3.9 1518 For reference the 2.7 branch has "only" 973 functions I've heard many criticisms of Python 2 over the years, but that it needed a bigger C API wasn't one of them ;) Why are these functions being added? Wasn't 1000 C functions enough? Every one of these functions represents a maintenance burden. Removing them is painful and takes a lot of effort, but adding them is done casually, without a PEP or, in many cases, even a review. We need to address what to do about the C API in the long term, but for now can we just stop making it larger? Please. Also, can we remove all the new API functions added in 3.9 before the release and it is too late? Cheers, Mark.