How to Install jinja2 in Python?

by 
pip install jinja2

The Python jinja2 library is among the top 100 Python libraries, with more than 58,284,436 downloads. This article will show you everything you need to get this installed in your Python environment.

Alternatively, you may use any of the following commands to install jinja2, depending on your concrete environment. One is likely to work!

💡 If you have only one version of Python installed:
pip install jinja2

💡 If you have Python 3 (and, possibly, other versions) installed:
pip3 install jinja2

💡 If you don't have PIP or it doesn't work
python -m pip install jinja2
python3 -m pip install jinja2

💡 If you have Linux and you need to fix permissions (any one):
sudo pip3 install jinja2
pip3 install jinja2 --user

💡 If you have Linux with apt
sudo apt install jinja2

💡 If you have Windows and you have set up the py alias
py -m pip install jinja2

💡 If you have Anaconda
conda install -c anaconda jinja2

💡 If you have Jupyter Notebook
!pip install jinja2
!pip3 install jinja2

How to Install jinja2 on Windows?

  1. Type "cmd" in the search bar and hit Enter to open the command line.
  2. Type “pip install jinja2” (without quotes) in the command line and hit Enter again. This installs jinja2 for your default Python installation.
  3. The previous command may not work if you have both Python versions 2 and 3 on your computer. In this case, try "pip3 install jinja2" or “python -m pip install jinja2“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully. It is now installed on your Windows machine.

Here’s how to open the command line on a (German) Windows machine:

Open CMD in Windows

First, try the following command to install jinja2 on your system:

pip install jinja2

Second, if this leads to an error message, try this command to install jinja2 on your system:

pip3 install jinja2

Third, if both do not work, use the following long-form command:

python -m pip install jinja2

The difference between pip and pip3 is that pip3 is an updated version of pip for Python version 3. Depending on what’s first in the PATH variable, pip will refer to your Python 2 or Python 3 installation—and you cannot know which without checking the environment variables. To resolve this uncertainty, you can use pip3, which will always refer to your default Python 3 installation.

How to Install jinja2 on Linux?

You can install jinja2 on Linux in four steps:

  1. Open your Linux terminal or shell
  2. Type “pip install jinja2” (without quotes), hit Enter.
  3. If it doesn’t work, try "pip3 install jinja2" or “python -m pip install jinja2“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully.

The package is now installed on your Linux operating system.

How to Install jinja2 on macOS?

Similarly, you can install jinja2 on macOS in four steps:

  1. Open your macOS terminal.
  2. Type “pip install jinja2” without quotes and hit Enter.
  3. If it doesn’t work, try "pip3 install jinja2" or “python -m pip install jinja2“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully.

The package is now installed on your macOS.

How to Install jinja2 in PyCharm?

Given a PyCharm project. How to install the jinja2 library in your project within a virtual environment or globally? Here’s a solution that always works:

  • 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 "jinja2" without quotes, and click Install Package.
  • Wait for the installation to terminate and close all pop-ups.

Here’s the general package installation process as a short animated video—it works analogously for jinja2 if you type in “jinja2” in the search field instead:

Make sure to select only “jinja2” because there may be other packages that are not required but also contain the same term (false positives):

How to Install jinja2 in a Jupyter Notebook?

To install any package in a Jupyter notebook, you can prefix the !pip install my_package statement with the exclamation mark "!". This works for the jinja2 library too:

!pip install my_package

This automatically installs the jinja2 library when the cell is first executed.

How to Resolve ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘jinja2’?

Say you try to import the jinja2 package into your Python script without installing it first:

import jinja2
# ... ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'jinja2'

Because you haven’t installed the package, Python raises a ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'jinja2'.

To fix the error, install the jinja2 library using “pip install jinja2” or “pip3 install jinja2” in your operating system’s shell or terminal first.

See above for the different ways to install jinja2 in your environment.

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