How to make an axes occupy multiple subplots with pyplot (Python)

Question

I would like to have three plots in single figure. The figure should have a subplot layout of two by two, where the first plot should occupy the first two subplot cells (i.e. th

Answer 1

There are three main options in matplotlib to make separate plots within a figure:

1. subplot: access the axes array and add subplots
2. gridspec: control the geometric properties of the underlying figure (demo)
3. subplots: wraps the first two in a convenient api (demo)

The posts so far have addressed the first two options, but they have not mentioned the third, which is the more modern approach and is based on the first two options. See the specific docs Combining two subplots using subplots and GridSpec.