Iterable is an object, which one can iterate over. It generates an Iterator when passed to iter() method. Iterator is an object, which is used to iterate over an iterable object using __next__() method. Iterators have __next__() method, which returns the next item of the object.

Note that every iterator is also an iterable, but not every iterable is an iterator. For example, a list is iterable but a list is not an iterator. An iterator can be created from an iterable by using the function iter(). To make this possible, the class of an object needs either a method __iter__, which returns an iterator, or a __getitem__ method with sequential indexes starting with 0.

In Python, an iterable is any object that can return an iterator, while an iterator is an object that can be iterated (looped) upon. In simpler terms, an iterable is anything that can be looped over, while an iterator is the actual object that performs the iteration.

Iterables can be anything that can be looped over, including strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets. To make an object iterable, it must implement the iter() method. This method returns an iterator object which is used to iterate through the object.

An iterator, on the other hand, is an object that implements the next() method. This method returns the next value in the sequence or raises a StopIteration exception when there are no more values to return. The iter() method returns the iterator object itself, making it iterable as well.

In Python, many built-in functions and methods, such as for loops, list comprehensions, and the map() and filter() functions, expect an iterable object. They use the iterable to produce an iterator that can be looped over.

Understanding the difference between iterable and iterator is important in Python because it can help you write more efficient and memory-friendly code. By using iterators, you can avoid loading entire datasets into memory, and only load what you need when you need it.