[Fixed] ModuleNotFoundError: No Module Named 'GPT4All'

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Quick Fix: Python raises the ImportError: No module named 'gpt4all' when it cannot find the library gpt4all. The most frequent source of this error is that you haven’t installed gpt4all explicitly with pip install gpt4all. Alternatively, you may have different Python versions on your computer, and gpt4all is not installed for the particular version you’re using.

Problem Formulation

You’ve just learned about the awesome capabilities of the gpt4all library and you want to try it out, so you start your code with the following statement:

import gpt4all

This is supposed to import the gpt4all library into your (virtual) environment. However, it only throws the following ImportError: No module named gpt4all:

>>> import gpt4all
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
    import gpt4all
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gpt4all'

Solution Idea 1: Install Library gpt4all

The most likely reason is that Python doesn’t provide gpt4all in its standard library. You need to install it first!

Before being able to import the gpt4all module, you need to install it using Python’s package manager pip. Make sure pip is installed on your machine.

To fix this error, you can run the following command in your Windows shell:

$ pip install gpt4all

This simple command installs gpt4all in your virtual environment on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. It assumes that your pip version is updated. If it isn’t, use the following two commands in your terminal, command line, or shell (there’s no harm in doing it anyways):

$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip
$ pip install gpt4all

💡 Note: Don’t copy and paste the $ symbol. This is just to illustrate that you run it in your shell/terminal/command line.

Solution Idea 2: Fix the Path

The error might persist even after you have installed the gpt4all library. This likely happens because pip is installed but doesn’t reside in the path you can use. Although pip may be installed on your system the script is unable to locate it. Therefore, it is unable to install the library using pip in the correct path.

To fix the problem with the path in Windows follow the steps given next.

Step 1: Open the folder where you installed Python by opening the command prompt and typing where python

Step 2: Once you have opened the Python folder, browse and open the Scripts folder and copy its location. Also verify that the folder contains the pip file.

Step 3: Now open the Scripts directory in the command prompt using the cd command and the location that you copied previously.

Step 4: Now install the library using pip install ... command. Here’s an analogous example:

After having followed the above steps, execute our script once again. And you should get the desired output.

Understanding the “import” Statement

import gpt4all

In Python, the import statement serves two main purposes:

Search the module by its name, load it, and initialize it.
Define a name in the local namespace within the scope of the import statement. This local name is then used to reference the accessed module throughout the code.

What’s the Difference Between ImportError and ModuleNotFoundError?

What’s the difference between ImportError and ModuleNotFoundError?

Python defines an error hierarchy, so some error classes inherit from other error classes. In our case, the ModuleNotFoundError is a subclass of the ImportError class.

You can see this in this screenshot from the docs:

You can also check this relationship using the issubclass() built-in function:

>>> issubclass(ModuleNotFoundError, ImportError)
True

Specifically, Python raises the ModuleNotFoundError if the module (e.g., gpt4all) cannot be found. If it can be found, there may be a problem loading the module or some specific files within the module. In those cases, Python would raise an ImportError.

If an import statement cannot import a module, it raises an ImportError. This may occur because of a faulty installation or an invalid path. In Python 3.6 or newer, this will usually raise a ModuleNotFoundError.

How to Fix “ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘gpt4all'” in PyCharm

If you create a new Python project in PyCharm and try to import the gpt4all library, it’ll raise the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/.../main.py", line 1, in <module>
    import gpt4all
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gpt4all'

Process finished with exit code 1

The reason is that each PyCharm project, per default, creates a virtual environment in which you can install custom Python modules. But the virtual environment is initially empty—even if you’ve already installed gpt4all on your computer!

Here’s a screenshot exemplifying this for the pandas library. It’ll look similar for gpt4all.

The fix is simple: Use the PyCharm installation tooltips to install Pandas in your virtual environment—two clicks and you’re good to go!

First, right-click on the pandas (in your case: gpt4all) text in your editor:

Second, click “Show Context Actions” in your context menu. In the new menu that arises, click “Install GPT4All” and wait for PyCharm to finish the installation.

The code will run after your installation completes successfully.

As an alternative, you can also open the Terminal tool at the bottom and type:

$ pip install gpt4all

If this doesn’t work, you may want to set the Python interpreter to another version using the following tutorial: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/2016.1/configuring-python-interpreter-for-a-project.html

You can also manually install a new library such as gpt4all in PyCharm using the following procedure:

Open File > Settings > Project from the PyCharm menu.
Select your current project.
Click the Python Interpreter tab within your project tab.
Click the small + symbol to add a new library to the project.
Now type in the library to be installed, in your example GPT4All, and click Install Package.
Wait for the installation to terminate and close all popup windows.

Here’s an analogous example:

Here’s a full guide on how to install a library on PyCharm.

How to Install a Library on PyCharm

Chris

While working as a researcher in distributed systems, Dr. Christian Mayer found his love for teaching computer science students.

To help students reach higher levels of Python success, he founded the programming education website Finxter.com that has taught exponential skills to millions of coders worldwide. He’s the author of the best-selling programming books Python One-Liners (NoStarch 2020), The Art of Clean Code (NoStarch 2022), and The Book of Dash (NoStarch 2022). Chris also coauthored the Coffee Break Python series of self-published books. He’s a computer science enthusiast, freelancer, and owner of one of the top 10 largest Python blogs worldwide.

His passions are writing, reading, and coding. But his greatest passion is to serve aspiring coders through Finxter and help them to boost their skills. You can join his free email academy here.

[Fixed] ModuleNotFoundError: No Module Named ‘GPT4All’