Could not find version that satisfies the requirement PIL

# Could not find version that satisfies the requirement PIL

The error "Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PIL" occurs when we try to pip install the PIL package.

To solve the error, install Pillow which is a maintained fork of PIL and can be used as a drop-in replacement.

Copied!
ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PIL (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for PIL

# Uninstall PIL before installing Pillow

Open your terminal in your project's root directory and install the Pillow module which is a maintained fork of PIL.

If you have PIL installed, make sure to uninstall it first as the two packages cannot co-exist in the same environment.

Copied!
# 👇️ Before installing Pillow, uninstall PIL.
pip uninstall PIL

# 👇️ In a virtual environment or using Python 2
pip install Pillow

# 👇️ For python 3 (could also be pip3.10 depending on your version)
pip3 install Pillow

# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
sudo pip3 install Pillow

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python -m pip install --upgrade Pillow

# 👇️ For python 3 (could also be pip3.10 depending on your version)
python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow

# 👇️ For Anaconda
conda install -c conda-forge pillow

Notice that we made sure to uninstall PIL before installing Pillow.

After you install the Pillow package, try importing it as follows.

Copied!
from PIL import Image

im = Image.open("hopper.ppm")

print(im.format, im.size, im.mode)

# Upgrade your version of pip

If the error persists, upgrade pip and try to re-run the pip install Pillow command.

Here are the commands for upgrading pip on all operating systems.

Which command works depends on your operating system and your version of Python.

Copied!
# 👇️ If you have pip already installed
pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If your pip is aliased as pip3 (Python 3)
pip3 install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python -m pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you have easy_install
easy_install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
sudo easy_install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ If you get a permissions error when upgrading `pip`
pip install --upgrade pip --user

# 👇️ Upgrade pip scoped to the current user (if you get a permissions error)
python -m pip install --user --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --user --upgrade pip

# 👇️ Installing directly from get-pip.py (MacOS and Linux)
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python

# 👇️ If you get permissions issues
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | sudo python

# 👇️ Alternative for Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade python-pip

# 👇️ Alternative for Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora
sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install python-pip
sudo yum update python-pip

If you get the error "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip' in Python", check out my other article:

• Install pip in Python

Try running the pip install Pillow command after upgrading pip.

Copied!
pip install Pillow --upgrade

pip3 install Pillow --upgrade

python3 -m pip install Pillow --upgrade

# Check if your Python version is supported by Pillow

If that didn't help, check if your Python version is supported by Pillow.

The Pillow package supports Python versions 3.7+.

You can open the pypi page of Pillow and view the supported Python versions in the sidebar on the left, under Meta > Requires.

You can check your Python version with the python --version command.

Copied!
python --version

python3 --version

If you have an older Python version than 3.7, download the latest version from the official python.org website and run the installer.

Make sure to tick the following options if you get prompted:

• Install launcher for all users (recommended)
• Add Python to PATH (this adds Python to your PATH environment variable)

Once you have a Python version in the supported range, try installing Pillow.

Copied!
pip install Pillow --upgrade

pip3 install Pillow --upgrade

python3 -m pip install Pillow --upgrade

If that didn't help, try installing the package in a virtual environment scoped to Python 3.

# Try installing the package in a virtual environment

Another thing that might help is to create a virtual environment if you don't already have one.

Copied!
# 👇️ Use the correct version of Python when creating VENV
python3 -m venv venv

# 👇️ Activate on Unix or MacOS
source venv/bin/activate

# 👇️ Activate on Windows (cmd.exe)
venv\Scripts\activate.bat

# 👇️ Activate on Windows (PowerShell)
venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

# 👇️ Upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade pip

# 👇️ Install Pillow in your virtual environment
pip install Pillow

If the python3 -m venv venv command doesn't work, try running one of the following 2 commands:

• python -m venv venv
• py -m venv venv

Make sure to use the correct activation command depending on your operating system.

Your virtual environment will use the version of Python that was used to create it.

If that didn't help, try to scope the command to the specific user.

The --user option installs the package in the user's home directory.

Copied!
pip install Pillow --user

pip3 install Pillow --user

python3 -m pip install Pillow --user

If you get a permissions error, try running the command with the --user flag or with sudo.

Copied!
sudo pip install Pillow

sudo pip3 install Pillow

sudo python3 -m pip install Pillow

If that didn't help, try running the command in verbose mode.

# Try running pip install Pillow in verbose mode

If none of the suggestions helped, try running the pip install command in verbose mode.

Copied!
pip install Pillow -vvv

pip3 install Pillow -vvv

python -m pip install Pillow -vvv

The -v option stands for verbose mode and can be used up to 3 times.

When the pip install command is run in verbose mode, the command shows more output and how the error occurred.