NameError: name 'pip' is not defined in Python [Solved]

# NameError: name 'pip' is not defined in Python [Solved]

The "NameError: name 'pip' is not defined" occurs for multiple reasons:

1. Trying to use a pip command in an interactive shell session.
2. Trying to use a pip command inside of a Python module.

# Exit the interactive shell session before using pip

If you entered an interactive shell session by typing "python", "python3" or "py" in your terminal, use the exit(), exit or press CTRL + D to quit the shell session.

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exit()

Once you exit the shell session, you can issue any pip command.

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pip install requests

# 👇️ Or with pip3
pip3 install requests

# Trying to run a pip command from inside a Python module

Another common cause of the error is trying to run a pip command from a Python module.

Here is an example of how you would install a module in a Python script.

The following file is named main.py.

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import sys
import subprocess

python = sys.executable
subprocess.check_call(
    [python, '-m', 'pip', 'install', 'requests'],
    stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL
)

You can run the file with python main.py, python3 main.py or py main.py to install the requests module.

You can also remove the stdout keyword argument if you want to see the output of the pip command when running python main.py.

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# ✅ Shows output of the pip install command
import sys
import subprocess

python = sys.executable
subprocess.check_call(
    [python, '-m', 'pip', 'install', 'requests']
)

# Installing a package from your shell using pip

Here is an example of how you would install a package from your shell (e.g. CMD, PowerShell, bash, etc).

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pip install requests
pip3 install requests

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

# 👇️ Using py alias (Windows)
py -m pip install requests

# 👇️ If you get a permissions error
pip install requests --user

Make sure to replace requests with the name of the package you're trying to install.

# Upgrading your version of pip

If the error persists, try to run the following command to upgrade pip.

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# 👇️ On Linux or macOS
python -m ensurepip --upgrade

# 👇️ Using python 3
python3 -m ensurepip --upgrade

# 👇️ On Windows
py -m ensurepip --upgrade

If you get an error that pip is not found or "no module named pip", check out my other article with instructions on how to install and upgrade pip.

• ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip' in Python

# Conclusion

To solve the "NameError: name 'pip' is not defined", make sure:

1. You aren't trying to use a pip command in an interactive shell session.
2. You aren't trying to use a pip command directly in a Python module.