Pip

Pip is the standard package installer for Python, maintained by the Python Packaging Authority (PyPA), and it ships bundled with every modern Python install. It's the #4 most-used dev tool in the world, reported in roughly 40.9% of developer surveys, and nearly every Python project depends on it directly or through a higher-level wrapper like Poetry or pipenv. Developers use it because it's the default gateway to PyPI, the Python Package Index, which hosts hundreds of thousands of open-source libraries.

Example

Most Python projects pin their dependencies in a requirements.txt file, then install them all with a single pip command.

# requirements.txt
requests==2.32.3
flask==3.0.3
python-dotenv==1.0.1

# install a single package
pip install requests

# install everything listed in requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt

# freeze current environment into a requirements file
pip freeze > requirements.txt

Getting started

Pip is included automatically with Python 3.4+ — install Python and pip is ready to use, ideally inside a virtual environment to keep project dependencies isolated.

# create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

# confirm pip is available and up to date
pip --version
python -m pip install --upgrade pip