Recently we wrote a detailed tutorial on how to create your own AI chatbot with the ChatGPT API. And for this project, we used Python and Pip to run several essential libraries. So, if you are also new to Python for a project, make sure to install Pip on your Windows PC. You will be able to download many dependencies and libraries in seconds. On that note, let’s go ahead and learn how to install Pip on Windows 11 and 10.
Install Pip on Windows 11 and 10 (2023)
Here you can learn more about Pip and find out how to install it on Windows with Python. We also added fixes for a few errors, mostly related to path misconfiguration. You can expand the table below and jump to the section of your choice.
What is Pip?
Pip is the package manager for Python. Simply put, it basically lets you install and manage millions of Python packages and libraries from the command line. It connects to the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository where you can find thousands of projects, applications, SDKs, clients, and more. If you are developing a project and need dependencies that are not part of the standard Python distribution, Pip can add them for you effortlessly. Simply put, Pip is an integral part of Python and to get started you need to install both.
Check if Pip is already installed on Windows
If you have Python installed, you may already have Pip installed on your system. So, before moving to the installation steps, let’s check if Pip is already installed on Windows or not.
1. Open Command Prompt or Windows Terminal. After that run the below command. If you get the Pip version as output, it means that Pip is already installed on your PC. You can scroll down and learn how to upgrade Pip to the latest version on Windows.
pip --version
2. In case you get errors like “Order not found” or “’Pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, executable program or batch file.”, it means that Pip is not correctly installed on your PC. Follow the steps below to install Pip and configure its path as well.
How to Install Pip on Windows PCs
Install Pip with Python
To install Pip on Windows, you only need to install Python. When you install Python using the desktop configuration file, Pip is also loaded on Windows. Here’s how to configure Pip on Windows.
1. First, go to this link and download latest version of Python for Windows.
2. After that, double click on the installation file. Once the installer appears, make sure to enable the checkbox next to “Add Python.exe to PATH“.
2. After that, click “Customize the installationand make sure “pip” is enabled along with other options. Click “Next” and then “Install”.
3. Now Python with Pip, both will get installed on your Windows computer.
Install Pip via command line
You can also manually install Pip on Windows from the command line using CMD or Windows Terminal. Follow the steps below.
1. Right-click on this link and choose “Save link as…”.
2. Now save it as “get-pip.pyin the “Downloads” folder.
3. Next, right-click on the “get-pip.py” and choose “Copy as path”.
4. Finally, open the terminal and run it as below. Enter python, add a space, and then paste the path. After that press Enter and Pip will be installed on your Windows 11/10 computer.
python "C:\Users\mearj\Downloads\get-pip.py"
5. Apart from this you can also run this command to download and install pip on a Windows PC using the “ensurepip” module.
python -m ensurepip --upgrade
Verify pip installation
1. For check if everything went well, open windows terminal or command prompt and run below commands. If the installation was successful, the first command will show the version of Python and the second command will show the version of Pip currently installed on your PC.
python --version pip --version
2. You can also type below command to find all commands that pip takes like argument. If it returns a long list of command options, you’re good to go.
python --help pip --help
Upgrade or Downgrade Pip on Windows
1. After installation, run the below command in terminal to upgrade to the latest version on Windows. Here’s what the syntax looks like:
python -m pip install -U pip
2. If you wish demote pip to a specific version, run the command below:
python -m pip install pip==19.0
How to Add Python and Pip to PATH on Windows 11 and 10
After installing and running Python or Pip command on Windows, if you get errors like “Pip is not recognized as an internal or external command,” or “Python is not recognized as an internal or external command”, or simply “Python not found”, don’t worry. This means that Python or Pip may have been installed on your Windows PC, but their paths were not configured correctly. We need to add their directories as a global Windows environment variable. Here’s how.
1. First press “Windows+R” to open the Run prompt and paste the path below, then press Enter.
%localappdata%\Programs\Python
2. After that, open another folder “Python3XX”. Now copy the full path from the address bar. It is Python’s path you need to add as an environment variable.
3. Next, go to the “Scripts” folder and click on the “address bar”. Now copy all the way again. It is Pip’s Path you need to add as an environment variable.
4. After getting the paths for Python and Pip, open the Run prompt again by pressing “Windows + R”. Here, type sysdm.cpl and press Enter. This will directly open advanced system settings.
5. Go to the “Advanced” tab, and click “Environment variables” basically.
6. Then under the “User variables for …”, select “Path” and click on the “Edit…” button.
7. Here, click on “New” and add the two paths you copied above on the left side. Now click “OK”. Keep in mind that the paths will be different for each PC. This will add python And pip as global environment variables on your PC.
7. Finally, open the Windows Command Prompt or Terminal and run a Python/Pip command. For example – You can use the pip command to install the OpenAPI on your Windows PC, and it will not show an error.
python --version pip install openai
Download and Install Pip on Windows with Python
So here is how you can download and install Pip on Windows 11 or 10. I would suggest to download the official installer from Python website and install it to avoid any error. It works for me 100% of the time. Anyway, it all comes from us. If you want to learn how to install Python in Ubuntu Linux, check out our guide for more details. And to find the best Python learning courses, we have a curated list ready for you. Finally, if you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.