How to Install matplotlib in Python?

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pip install matplotlib

The Python matplotlib library is among the top 100 Python libraries, with more than 29,248,362 downloads. This article will show you everything you need to get this installed in your Python environment.

How to Install matplotlib on Windows?

  1. Type "cmd" in the search bar and hit Enter to open the command line.
  2. Type “pip install matplotlib” (without quotes) in the command line and hit Enter again. This installs matplotlib 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 matplotlib" or “python -m pip install matplotlib“.
  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 matplotlib on your system:

pip install matplotlib

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

pip3 install matplotlib

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

python -m pip install matplotlib

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 matplotlib on Linux?

You can install matplotlib on Linux in four steps:

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

The package is now installed on your Linux operating system.

How to Install matplotlib on macOS?

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

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

The package is now installed on your macOS.

How to Install matplotlib in PyCharm?

Given a PyCharm project. How to install the matplotlib 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 "matplotlib" 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 matplotlib if you type in “matplotlib” in the search field instead:

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

How to Install matplotlib 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 matplotlib library too:

!pip install my_package

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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