Installing pip for Python

Installing pip for Python 3

Ubuntu 18.04 ships with Python 3, as the default Python installation. Complete the following steps to install pip (pip3) for Python 3:

Start by updating the package list using the following command:

$ sudo apt update

Use the following command to install pip for Python 3:

$sudo apt install python3-pip

The command above will also install all the dependencies required for building Python modules.

Once the installation is complete, verify the installation by checking the pip version:

$ pip3 --version

The version number may vary, but it will look something like this:

pip 9.0.1 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages (python 3.6)

Installing pip for Python 2

Python 2 is not installed by default in Ubuntu 18.04. To install Python 2 and pip for Python 2, complete the following steps:

Update the package index by running the following command:

$ sudo apt update

Install pip for Python 2 with:

$ sudo apt install python-pip

The command above will install Python2, Pip and all the dependencies required for building Python modules.

Verify the installation by printing the pip version number:

$ pip --version

The version number may vary, but it will look something like this:

pip 9.0.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

How to Use Pip
When installing python modules globally it is highly recommended to install distribution provided python modules using the apt package manager because they are tested to work properly on Ubuntu systems.

You should install Python modules globally using pip only if there is no package available through the package manager.


In most cases, you should use pip within a virtual environment only. Python Virtual Environments allows you to install Python modules in an isolated location for a specific project, rather than being installed globally. This way you do not have to worry about affecting other Python projects.

In this section, we show you a few useful basic pip commands. With pip, we can install packages from PyPI, version control, local projects, and from distribution files but in most cases, you will install packages from PyPI.

To view the list of all pip commands and options, type:

$ pip3 --help