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# fiftyone.utils.caltech

Utilities for working with the
`Caltech 101 <https://data.caltech.edu/records/mzrjq-6wc02>` and
`Caltech 256 <https://data.caltech.edu/records/nyy15-4j048>` datasets.

Copyright 2017-2026, Voxel51, Inc.
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[voxel51.com](https://voxel51.com/)
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**Functions:**

| [`download_caltech101_dataset`](#fiftyone.utils.caltech.download_caltech101_dataset)(dataset_dir[, ...])   | Downloads the Caltech 101 dataset.   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| [`download_caltech256_dataset`](#fiftyone.utils.caltech.download_caltech256_dataset)(dataset_dir[, ...])   | Downloads the Caltech 256 dataset.   |

### fiftyone.utils.caltech.download_caltech101_dataset(dataset_dir, scratch_dir=None)

Downloads the Caltech 101 dataset.

See [this page](../user_guide/import_datasets.md#imageclassificationdirectorytree-import) for the
format in which `dataset_dir` will be arranged.

* **Parameters:**
  * **dataset_dir** – the directory in which to construct the dataset
  * **scratch_dir** (*None*) – a scratch directory to use to download any
    necessary temporary files
* **Returns:**
  - num_samples: the total number of downloaded images
  - classes: the list of all classes
  - did_download: whether any content was downloaded (True) or if all
    necessary files were already downloaded (False)
* **Return type:**
  a tuple of

### fiftyone.utils.caltech.download_caltech256_dataset(dataset_dir, scratch_dir=None)

Downloads the Caltech 256 dataset.

See [this page](../user_guide/import_datasets.md#imageclassificationdirectorytree-import) for the
format in which `dataset_dir` will be arranged.

* **Parameters:**
  * **dataset_dir** – the directory in which to construct the dataset
  * **scratch_dir** (*None*) – a scratch directory to use to download any
    necessary temporary files
* **Returns:**
  - num_samples: the total number of downloaded images
  - classes: the list of all classes
  - did_download: whether any content was downloaded (True) or if all
    necessary files were already downloaded (False)
* **Return type:**
  a tuple of
