Optimization & simulation · Google

Google OR-Tools

Open-source optimization suite for routing, linear, integer and constraint programming problems.

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OR-Tools is a free, open-source library of solvers and algorithms for combinatorial optimization: vehicle routing, bin packing, scheduling, network flow, linear programming and mixed-integer programming. Its best-known component is CP-SAT, a constraint-programming solver that has placed first in international CP competitions and is a common default for scheduling and routing work. OR-Tools can call its own bundled solvers (GLOP for linear programming, CP-SAT for constraint programming) or hand a problem off to an external commercial solver such as Gurobi, CPLEX or Xpress through a common interface. It ships APIs for Python, C++, Java and C#, runs anywhere those languages run, and requires no license or purchase, making it the usual first stop for teams that want to try mathematical optimization before buying a commercial solver.

At a glance

Vendor Google
Pricing model Open source + paid options
Free tier Yes
Deployment Self-hosted
Open source Yes (Apache-2.0)
Best for Engineering teams building routing, scheduling or packing optimization into a product without a commercial solver license.

Pricing

Free and open source; no vendor pricing page.

Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.

Features

  • CP-SAT constraint-programming solver
  • Vehicle routing problem (VRP) solver with time windows and capacity constraints
  • GLOP linear-programming solver and MIP wrappers
  • Bin packing and knapsack algorithms
  • Network flow and assignment algorithms
  • Python, C++, Java and C# APIs
  • Pluggable interface to call commercial solvers

Integrations

Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026

Alternatives

Gurobi Optimizer Commercial mathematical solver for linear, mixed-integer and quadratic optimization problems. IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio IBM's commercial solver and modeling studio for linear, mixed-integer, quadratic and constraint programming. Pyomo Open-source Python library for formulating optimization models and sending them to a solver.

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Terms to know

Prescriptive analytics Analytics that recommends specific actions by combining predictions with optimization or decision rules. Linear programming (LP) An optimization method that finds the best outcome for a problem whose objective and constraints are all linear relationships.

Related guides

How to choose an optimization or simulation tool Solvers compute one best answer to a math problem; simulators show how a system behaves over time. Pick the discipline before the vendor.