diff --git a/.drone.yml b/.drone.yml
index c1c1963f7..8f9bb4841 100644
--- a/.drone.yml
+++ b/.drone.yml
@@ -50,10 +50,16 @@ steps:
       from_secret: email_password
     from: technical@dessia.tech
 
+- name: check black formatting
+  image: python:3.9
+  commands:
+    - pip install black[jupyter]==23.1.0
+    - bash code_black.sh
+
 - name: check code complexity
   image: dessia/python-ci:3.9
   commands:
-  - pip install pylint==2.16.1 pydocstyle==6.3.0 pre-commit shellcheck-py cython-lint pyenchant==3.2.2
+  - pip install pylint==2.16.1 pydocstyle==6.3.0 pre-commit shellcheck-py cython-lint pyenchant==3.2.2 black[jupyter]
   - python code_pylint.py
   - python code_pydocstyle.py
   - pre-commit run -a
diff --git a/.pep8 b/.pep8
index fcaeb4bfe..676f98d68 100644
--- a/.pep8
+++ b/.pep8
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [pycodestyle]
 max_line_length = 120
-ignore = E402, E722, E126, E731
+ignore = E402, E722, E126, E731, E203
 recursive = true
 aggressive = 1
 
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index edd042705..507725956 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 # to enable run `pip install pre-commit && pre-commit install`
 
 repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
+    rev: 23.1.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: black
+        language_version: python3.9
+        args: [-l, "120"]
+
   - repo: https://github.com/MarcoGorelli/cython-lint
     rev: v0.10.1
     hooks:
diff --git a/code_black.sh b/code_black.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..aad70bc45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/code_black.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# check black formatting on all files
+
+if black --check .; then
+  echo -e "\nBlack found no formatting errors."
+else
+  echo -e "\nBlack found formatting errors."
+
+  echo "Please run 'pre-commit run -a' to format the code (install pre-commit with pip)"
+
+  echo -e "\nAlternatively, you can run 'black .' (black v23.1.0) in source directory to format the code."
+  echo "You can run 'black --check --diff --color .' to see the difference with expected formatting."
+
+  echo -e "\nNote: Black is configurated in 'pyproject.toml' to have a 120 character line length."
+  echo "It is equivalent than using the 'l120' argument: 'black -l120 .'"
+
+  exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b51802b05..95e5682eb 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,2 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = ["setuptools", "Cython"]
+
+[tool.black]
+line-length = 120
+exclude = 'venv'