Installation

Usually, pip is automatically installed if you are:

• working in a virtual environment

• using Python downloaded from python.org

• using Python that has not been modified by a redistributor to remove ensurepip

Supported Methods

If your Python environment does not have pip installed, there are 2 mechanisms to install pip supported directly by pip’s maintainers:

• ensurepip

• get-pip.py

ensurepip

Python comes with an ensurepip module1, which can install pip in a Python environment.

Linux

$ python -m ensurepip --upgrade

MacOS

$ python -m ensurepip --upgrade

Windows

C:> py -m ensurepip --upgrade

More details about how ensurepip works and how it can be used, is available in the standard library documentation.

get-pip.py

This is a Python script that uses some bootstrapping logic to install pip.

• Download the script, from https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py.

• Open a terminal/command prompt, cd to the folder containing the get-pip.py file and run:

  Linux

  $ python get-pip.py
  

  MacOS

  $ python get-pip.py
  

  Windows

  C:> py get-pip.py
  

More details about this script can be found in pypa/get-pip’s README.

Alternative Methods

Depending on how you installed Python, there might be other mechanisms available to you for installing pip such as using Linux package managers.

These mechanisms are provided by redistributors of pip, who may have modified pip to change its behaviour. This has been a frequent source of user confusion, since it causes a mismatch between documented behaviour in this documentation and how pip works after those modifications.

If you face issues when using Python and pip installed using these mechanisms, it is recommended to request for support from the relevant provider (eg: Linux distro community, cloud provider support channels, etc).

Upgrading pip

Upgrading your pip by running:

Linux

$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip

MacOS

$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Windows

C:> py -m pip install --upgrade pip

Compatibility

The current version of pip works on:

• Windows, Linux and MacOS.

• CPython 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10 and latest PyPy3.

pip is tested to work on the latest patch version of the Python interpreter, for each of the minor versions listed above. Previous patch versions are supported on a best effort approach.

pip’s maintainers do not provide support for users on older versions of Python, and these users should request for support from the relevant provider (eg: Linux distro community, cloud provider support channels, etc).

---

1

The ensurepip module was added to the Python standard library in Python 3.4.