# Change the Size of a Matplotlib Figure in Python

> Set the figsize argument when creating a figure, or call set_size_inches on an existing one, to control the width and height of a Matplotlib plot

**URL:** https://sentry.io/answers/change-the-size-of-figures-drawn-with-matplotlib-in-python/

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## The Problem

How do I change the size of figures drawn with Matplotlib in Python?

## The Solution

To set the size of a new figure on creation, you can provide the `figsize` keyword argument. This will be a tuple of the desired width and height in inches.

```python
myfigure = figure(figsize=(18, 10),
                  # additional arguments...
                  )
```

To set the size of a figure that's already been created, use the [`set_size_inches()`](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.set_size_inches) method. This method takes a new width and height in inches:

```python
myfigure.set_size_inches(18, 10, forward=True)
```

The `forward=True` argument will propagate the size change to any currently displayed versions of the figure.

If you only want to change the height or width of a figure, you can use [`set_figwidth()`](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.set_figwidth) or [`set_figheight()`](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.set_figheight).

By default, an inch is 100 pixels in length. You can use [`set_dpi()`](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/figure_api.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.set_dpi) to change this.

When working with a [plot](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.plot.html) rather than a figure, you can use [`rcParams`](https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/matplotlib_configuration_api.html#matplotlib.rcParams):

```python
import matplotlib.pyplot as pyplt

pyplt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = (18, 10)
```

Note that this will determine the size of all subsequently created plots.

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*Source: [sentry.io/answers/change-the-size-of-figures-drawn-with-matplotlib-in-python/](https://sentry.io/answers/change-the-size-of-figures-drawn-with-matplotlib-in-python/)*