---
title: "Plonky3"
description: "Plonky3: Proof-system toolkit. Kind: Proof-system toolkit. Arithmetisation / backend: AIR / FRI over small fields. Setup: None."
type: "option"
url: "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/plonky3/"
section: "02 Choosing a framework"
authors:
  - "MarketComp"
publisher: "MarketComp"
version: "1.3"
updated: "2026-09-12"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
json: "https://zkpick.com/data/frameworks/plonky3.json"
---

*By MarketComp. Updated 2026-09-12. Version 1.3. CC BY 4.0.*

# Plonky3 — *Proof-system toolkit*

> Plonky3: Proof-system toolkit. Kind: Proof-system toolkit. Arithmetisation / backend: AIR / FRI over small fields. Setup: None. Maintained by: Plonky3 org (Polygon Zero lineage). Licence: MIT / Apache-2.0. Status: Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API. Choose it when: Teams building a zkVM, a custom AIR-based prover, or a domain-specific proving engine.

A toolkit of polynomial IOP primitives — fields, FRI, commitment schemes, DFTs — for building STARK provers over small fields. Not a DSL: you write AIRs against it or build a zkVM on it. It is the shared substrate beneath a large fraction of the modern zkVM landscape.

**Strengths**

- Improvements propagate broadly because so much of the zkVM landscape sits on it
- Field-agnostic design lets the same proof system be retargeted across field choices
- Extremely active development; permissive dual licence

**Tradeoffs**

- Not usable directly by application developers — designing an AIR is a specialist skill
- No stable 1.0 API; component crates version independently and downstream projects commonly pin forks
- Security depends on parameters *you* choose; a Plonky3 dependency by itself implies nothing about soundness level

**Choose it when:** Teams building a zkVM, a custom AIR-based prover, or a domain-specific proving engine.

Maintained by: Plonky3 organisation (Polygon Zero lineage), with contributors from the zkVM teams built on it · Maturity: Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API · License: MIT / Apache-2.0 · Source: https://github.com/Plonky3/Plonky3

**In the framework selection matrix** (https://zkpick.com/frameworks/#frameworks-matrix-plonky3)

| Project | Kind | Arithmetisation / backend | Setup | Maintained by | Licence | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Plonky3 | Proof-system toolkit | AIR / FRI over small fields | None | Plonky3 org (Polygon Zero lineage) | MIT / Apache-2.0 | Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API |