How to Install OpenAI in Python?

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The OpenAI Python library is a mind-blowing 🤯 tool that lets you easily access the OpenAI API from your Python applications. It may easily be the single most powerful Python library. Period.

One of the coolest things about it is that it comes with a pre-defined set of classes for API resources. These classes are designed to initialize themselves dynamically from API responses, which makes them compatible with a wide range of versions of the OpenAI API.

So, if you’re looking for a convenient and efficient way to work with the OpenAI API in Python, this library is definitely worth checking out! 🚀

Overview

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to install it easily and quickly so you can use it in your own Python code bases.

👉 Recommended: I Created a ChatGPT-Powered Website Creator with ChatGPT – Here’s What I Learned

pip install openai

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

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

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

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

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

💡 If you have Linux with apt
sudo apt install openai

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

💡 If you have Anaconda
conda install -c anaconda openai

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

Let’s dive into the installation guides for the different operating systems and environments!

How to Install OpenAI on Windows?

To install the updated openai framework on your Windows machine, run the following code in your command line or Powershell:

  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

Here’s the code for copy&pasting:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

I really think not enough coders have a solid understanding of PowerShell. If this is you, feel free to check out the following tutorials on the Finxter blog.

Related Articles:

How to Install OpenAI on Mac?

Open Terminal (Applications/Terminal) and run:

  • xcode-select -install (You will be prompted to install the Xcode Command Line Tools)
  • sudo easy_install pip
  • sudo pip install openai
  • pip install openai

As an alternative, you can also run the following two commands to update pip and install the openai library:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

These you have already seen before, haven’t you?

Related Article:

How to Install OpenAI on Linux?

To upgrade pip and install the openai library, you can use the following two commands, one after the other.

  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

Here’s the code for copy&pasting:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

How to Install OpenAI on Ubuntu?

Upgrade pip and install the openai library using the following two commands, one after the other:

  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  • python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

Here’s the code for copy&pasting:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade openai

How to Install OpenAI in PyCharm?

The simplest way to install openai in PyCharm is to open the terminal tab and run the pip install openai command.

This is shown in the following code:

pip install openai

Here’s a screenshot of the two steps:

  1. Open Terminal tab in Pycharm
  2. Run pip install openai in the terminal to install openai in a virtual environment.
Install openai
Analogous example – replace “Pillow” with “openai”

s an alternative, you can also search for openai in the package manager.

However, this is usually an inferior way to install packages because it involves more steps.

How to Install OpenAI in Anaconda?

You can install the openai package with Conda using the command conda install -c anaconda openai in your shell or terminal.

Like so:

 conda install -c anaconda openai

This assumes you’ve already installed conda on your computer. If you haven’t check out the installation steps on the official page.

How to Install OpenAI in VSCode?

You can install OpenAI in VSCode by using the same command pip install openai in your Visual Studio Code shell or terminal.

pip install openai

If this doesn’t work — it may raise a No module named 'openai' error — chances are that you’ve installed it for the wrong Python version on your system.

To check which version your VS Code environment uses, run these two commands in your Python program to check the version that executes it:

import sys
print(sys.executable)

The output will be the path to the Python installation that runs the code in VS Code.

Now, you can use this path to install openai particularly for that Python version:

/path/to/vscode/python -m pip install openai

Wait until the installation is complete and run your code using openai again. It should work now!

Programmer Humor

❓ Question: How did the programmer die in the shower? ☠️

❗ Answer: They read the shampoo bottle instructions:
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.