How to Remove Ticks and Tick Labels in Matplotlib

To remove tick labels in Matplotlib but keep the tick marks, use ax.tick_params(labelbottom=False, labelleft=False). To remove the ticks and their labels together, use ax.set_xticks([]) and ax.set_yticks([]) (or plt.xticks([]) with pyplot), and to hide everything including the frame, use ax.axis("off"). This guide compares all of these on real plots, then shows how to remove tick labels from subplots, from a single axis, and how to remove only minor ticks.

Tested with Python 3.12.5 and Matplotlib 3.11.2; the plots are real Matplotlib windows. Full parameter list: Axes.tick_params and Axes.set_xticks.

Quick comparison

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 2, figsize=(8, 5.5))
for ax in axes.flat:
    ax.plot(x, np.sin(x))

axes[0, 0].set_title("Default")

axes[0, 1].set_xticks([])                     # no x ticks and no x tick labels
axes[0, 1].set_yticks([])
axes[0, 1].set_title("set_xticks([]) + set_yticks([])")

axes[1, 0].tick_params(labelbottom=False, labelleft=False)   # keep the tick marks
axes[1, 0].set_title("Labels removed, ticks kept")

axes[1, 1].tick_params(length=0)              # keep the labels, hide the tick marks
axes[1, 1].set_title("Tick marks removed, labels kept")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Goal	Code
Remove x tick marks and labels	ax.set_xticks([]) or plt.xticks([])
Remove y tick marks and labels	ax.set_yticks([]) or plt.yticks([])
Remove tick labels, keep tick marks	ax.tick_params(labelbottom=False, labelleft=False)
Remove tick marks, keep labels	ax.tick_params(length=0)
Remove ticks, labels and frame	ax.axis("off")
Remove a whole axis (ticks + label)	ax.yaxis.set_visible(False)
Remove only minor ticks	ax.minorticks_off()

Remove ticks with plt.xticks([]) and plt.yticks([])

With the pyplot interface, pass an empty list to plt.xticks() or plt.yticks():

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.bar(["North", "South", "East", "West"], [42, 35, 51, 28], color="tab:purple")
plt.yticks([])                 # pyplot: remove the y ticks and labels
plt.title("Orders by region (y-axis ticks removed)")
plt.show()

Remove tick labels but keep the ticks

tick_params() switches labels on each side on or off: labelbottom, labeltop, labelleft, labelright. The ticks stay, so gridlines and zooming still work. Emptying the labels with set_xticklabels([]) also works, but giving new labels that way without setting the tick positions first triggers a warning:

import warnings
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Agg")
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

warnings.simplefilter("always")

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [4, 6, 5])
fig.canvas.draw()

ax.tick_params(labelbottom=False)
first = ax.xaxis.get_major_ticks()[0]
print("tick_params -> label visible:", first.label1.get_visible(), "| tick mark visible:", first.tick1line.get_visible())

ax.tick_params(labelbottom=True)
ax.set_xticklabels([])                       # empty labels: works without a warning
print("set_xticklabels([]) -> label texts:", [t.get_text() for t in ax.get_xticklabels()][:3])

ax.set_xticklabels(["a", "b", "c"])          # new labels without set_xticks(): warning

Output:

tick_params -> label visible: False | tick mark visible: True
set_xticklabels([]) -> label texts: ['', '', '']
C:\pyguides\remove_tick_labels_check.py:20: UserWarning: set_ticklabels() should only be used with a fixed number of ticks, i.e. after set_ticks() or using a FixedLocator. Otherwise, ticks may be mislabeled.
  ax.set_xticklabels(["a", "b", "c"])          # new labels without set_xticks(): warning

In Matplotlib 3.x, use labelbottom=False (a boolean). The old labelbottom="off" string form from Matplotlib 1.x no longer works.

Remove ticks, labels and the frame with axis(‘off’)

For images and diagrams you usually want nothing around the data. ax.axis("off") (or ax.set_axis_off()) hides the ticks, tick labels, axis labels and the spines:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

img = np.random.default_rng(1).random((12, 12))
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(8, 4))

ax1.imshow(img, cmap="viridis")
ax1.set_title("Default: ticks on the image")

ax2.imshow(img, cmap="viridis")
ax2.axis("off")                               # remove ticks, labels AND the frame
ax2.set_title("ax.axis('off')")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

If you want to keep the frame but drop the ticks, use set_xticks([]) and set_yticks([]) instead.

Remove tick labels from subplots

Only keep labels on the outer subplots

In a grid of subplots, repeated tick labels waste space. ax.label_outer() keeps x labels only on the bottom row and y labels only on the left column. plt.subplots(..., sharex=True, sharey=True) does the same automatically.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 3, figsize=(9, 5))
for i, ax in enumerate(axes.flat, start=1):
    ax.plot(x, np.sin(x * i / 3))
    ax.set_title(f"Plot {i}")
    ax.label_outer()                          # keep tick labels only on the outer edges
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Remove the y-axis from one subplot

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
fig, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(9, 3.4))
ax1.plot(x, np.sin(x))
ax2.plot(x, np.cos(x))
ax3.plot(x, np.sin(x) * np.cos(x))

ax2.tick_params(labelleft=False)              # hide y labels on the middle subplot only
ax3.yaxis.set_visible(False)                  # remove the whole y-axis on the right subplot
ax1.set_title("unchanged")
ax2.set_title("labelleft=False")
ax3.set_title("yaxis.set_visible(False)")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Remove minor ticks

Log-scale axes add many small minor ticks. ax.minorticks_off() removes them and keeps the major ticks:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.logspace(0, 3, 50)
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, figsize=(9, 3.6))
for ax in (ax1, ax2):
    ax.loglog(x, x ** 1.5)
ax1.set_title("Log axes: major + minor ticks")
ax2.minorticks_off()                          # remove only the small minor ticks
ax2.set_title("minorticks_off()")
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

Remove axis labels

Axis labels are separate from tick labels. Remove them with an empty string, or hide them:

ax.set_xlabel("")                       # remove the x-axis label
ax.yaxis.label.set_visible(False)       # hide the y-axis label

To style or move them instead, see the Matplotlib x-axis label guide.

Related Matplotlib tick tutorials:

• Customize ticks with tick_params()
• Rotate tick labels in Matplotlib
• Set the x-axis label in Matplotlib
• Fix overlapping labels with tight_layout()

Frequently asked questions