import gpgme try: from io import BytesIO except ImportError: from StringIO import StringIO as BytesIO ctx = gpgme.Context() ctx.armor = True key = ctx.get_key('B10A449E4CFB9A60A2DB996701AF93D991CFA34D') plain = BytesIO(b'Hello World\n') cipher = BytesIO() ctx.encrypt([key], 0, plain, cipher) print(cipher.getvalue())