diff --git a/pymc3/progressbar.py b/pymc3/progressbar.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 68931e30af..0000000000
--- a/pymc3/progressbar.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,140 +0,0 @@
-"""
-A simple progress bar to monitor MCMC sampling progress.
-Modified from original code by Corey Goldberg (2010)
-"""
-
-from __future__ import print_function
-
-import warnings
-warnings.simplefilter(action="ignore", category=FutureWarning)
-import sys
-import time
-import datetime
-import uuid
-try:
-    __IPYTHON__
-    from IPython.core.display import HTML, Javascript, display
-except (NameError, ImportError):
-    pass
-
-__all__ = ['progress_bar']
-
-
-class ProgressBar(object):
-
-    def __init__(self, iterations, animation_interval=.5):
-        self.iterations = iterations
-        self.start = time.time()
-        self.last = 0
-        self.animation_interval = animation_interval
-
-    def percentage(self, i):
-        return 100 * i / float(self.iterations)
-
-    def update(self, i):
-        elapsed = time.time() - self.start
-        i += 1
-
-        if elapsed - self.last > self.animation_interval:
-            self.animate(i, elapsed)
-            self.last = elapsed
-        elif i == self.iterations and i != 1:
-            self.animate(i, elapsed)
-
-
-class TextProgressBar(ProgressBar):
-
-    def __init__(self, iterations, printer):
-        self.fill_char = '-'
-        self.width = 20
-        self.printer = printer
-
-        super(TextProgressBar, self).__init__(iterations)
-        self.update(0)
-
-    def animate(self, i, elapsed):
-        self.printer(self.progbar(i, elapsed))
-
-    def progbar(self, i, elapsed):
-        bar = self.bar(self.percentage(i))
-        sps = i / float(elapsed)
-        eta = (self.iterations / sps) - elapsed
-        its = self.iterations
-
-        prog_str = "[{bar}] {it} of {its} in {s_elapsed} sec. " \
-                   "| SPS: {sps} | ETA: {eta}" \
-                   "".format(bar=bar, it=i, its=its,
-                             s_elapsed=round(elapsed, 1),
-                             sps=round(sps, 1), eta=round(eta, 1))
-
-        return(prog_str)
-
-    def bar(self, percent):
-        all_full = self.width - 2
-        num_hashes = int(percent / 100 * all_full)
-
-        bar = self.fill_char * num_hashes + ' ' * (all_full - num_hashes)
-
-        info = '%d%%' % percent
-        loc = (len(bar) - len(info)) // 2
-        return replace_at(bar, info, loc, loc + len(info))
-
-
-def replace_at(str, new, start, stop):
-    return(str[:start] + new + str[stop:])
-
-
-def consoleprint(s):
-    if sys.platform.lower().startswith('win'):
-        print(s, '\r', end='')
-    else:
-        print(s)
-
-
-def ipythonprint(s):
-    print('\r', s, end='')
-    sys.stdout.flush()
-
-
-class IPythonNotebookPB(ProgressBar):
-
-    def __init__(self, iterations):
-        self.divid = str(uuid.uuid4())
-        self.sec_id = str(uuid.uuid4())
-
-        pb = HTML(
-            """
-            <div style="float: left; border: 1px solid black; width:500px">
-              <div id="%s" style="background-color:blue; width:0%%">&nbsp;</div>
-            </div>
-            <label id="%s" style="padding-left: 10px;" text = ""/>
-            """ % (self.divid, self.sec_id))
-        display(pb)
-
-        super(IPythonNotebookPB, self).__init__(iterations)
-
-    def animate(self, i, elapsed):
-        percentage = int(self.fraction(i))
-
-        display(Javascript(
-            "$('div#%s').width('%i%%')" % (self.divid, percentage)))
-        display(Javascript("$('label#%s').text('%i%% in %.1f sec')" %
-                           (self.sec_id, fraction, round(elapsed, 1))))
-
-
-def run_from_ipython():
-    try:
-        __IPYTHON__
-        return True
-    except NameError:
-        return False
-
-
-def progress_bar(iters):
-    if run_from_ipython():
-        if None:
-            return NotebookProgressBar(iters)
-        else:
-            return TextProgressBar(iters, ipythonprint)
-    else:
-        return TextProgressBar(iters, consoleprint)
diff --git a/pymc3/sampling.py b/pymc3/sampling.py
index caf013ce2d..656de2dc1d 100644
--- a/pymc3/sampling.py
+++ b/pymc3/sampling.py
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
+from collections import defaultdict
+
+from joblib import Parallel, delayed
+from numpy.random import randint, seed
+from numpy import shape, asarray
+
 from . import backends
 from .backends.base import merge_traces, BaseTrace, MultiTrace
 from .backends.ndarray import NDArray
-from joblib import Parallel, delayed
 from .model import modelcontext, Point
 from .step_methods import (NUTS, HamiltonianMC, Metropolis, BinaryMetropolis,
                            BinaryGibbsMetropolis, Slice, ElemwiseCategorical, CompoundStep)
-from .progressbar import progress_bar
-from numpy.random import randint, seed
-from numpy import shape, asarray
-from collections import defaultdict
+from tqdm import tqdm
 
 import sys
 sys.setrecursionlimit(10000)
@@ -159,11 +161,11 @@ def _sample(draws, step=None, start=None, trace=None, chain=0, tune=None,
             progressbar=True, model=None, random_seed=-1):
     sampling = _iter_sample(draws, step, start, trace, chain,
                             tune, model, random_seed)
-    progress = progress_bar(draws)
+    if progressbar:
+        sampling = tqdm(sampling, total=draws)
     try:
-        for i, strace in enumerate(sampling):
-            if progressbar:
-                progress.update(i)
+        for strace in sampling:
+            pass
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
         strace.close()
     return MultiTrace([strace])
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index a856b8dcc7..fc6625c5d9 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ theano>=0.8.2
 pandas>=0.18.0
 patsy>=0.4.0
 joblib>=0.9
+tqdm>=4.8.4
 CommonMark==0.5.4
 recommonmark
 sphinx
diff --git a/scripts/create_testenv.sh b/scripts/create_testenv.sh
index 868550245c..736e164c05 100755
--- a/scripts/create_testenv.sh
+++ b/scripts/create_testenv.sh
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ if [ ${PYTHON_VERSION} == "2.7" ]; then
   conda install --yes mock enum34;
 fi
 
+pip install tqdm
 pip install --no-deps numdifftools
 pip install git+https://github.com/Theano/Theano.git
 pip install git+https://github.com/mahmoudimus/nose-timer.git