How to remove X or Y labels from a Seaborn heatmap?

To remove X or Y labels from a Seaborn heatmap, you can use the xticklabels and yticklabels parameters. Setting them to False removes the axis labels while keeping the data visualization intact.

Removing Y-axis Labels

Use yticklabels=False to hide row labels ?

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = [8, 4]
plt.rcParams["figure.autolayout"] = True

# Create sample data
data = np.random.random((5, 5))
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["col1", "col2", "col3", "col4", "col5"])

# Create heatmap without Y-axis labels
sns.heatmap(df, yticklabels=False)
plt.title("Heatmap without Y-axis Labels")
plt.show()

Removing X-axis Labels

Use xticklabels=False to hide column labels ?

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = [8, 4]

# Create sample data
data = np.random.random((5, 5))
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["col1", "col2", "col3", "col4", "col5"])

# Create heatmap without X-axis labels
sns.heatmap(df, xticklabels=False)
plt.title("Heatmap without X-axis Labels")
plt.show()

Removing Both X and Y Labels

Set both parameters to False for a clean heatmap ?

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = [8, 4]

# Create sample data
data = np.random.random((5, 5))
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["col1", "col2", "col3", "col4", "col5"])

# Create heatmap without any axis labels
sns.heatmap(df, xticklabels=False, yticklabels=False)
plt.title("Heatmap without Any Axis Labels")
plt.show()

Customizing Label Display

You can also control label frequency by passing integers ?

import seaborn as sns
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Create larger sample data
data = np.random.random((10, 10))
df = pd.DataFrame(data)

# Show every 2nd label
sns.heatmap(df, xticklabels=2, yticklabels=2)
plt.title("Heatmap with Every 2nd Label")
plt.show()

Parameters Summary

Conclusion

Use xticklabels=False and yticklabels=False to remove axis labels from Seaborn heatmaps. You can also pass integers to control label frequency for large datasets.