Borislav Hadzhiev
Wed Apr 20 2022ยท4 min read
Photo by Raychan
The Python "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psycopg2'" occurs when we
forget to install the psycopg2-binary
module before importing it or install it
in an incorrect environment. To solve the error, install the module by running
the pip install psycopg2-binary
command.
Open your terminal in your project's root directory and install the
psycopg2-binary
module.
# ๐๏ธ in a virtual environment or using Python 2 pip install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ for python 3 (could also be pip3.10 depending on your version) pip3 install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you get permissions error sudo pip3 install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip in your PATH environment variable python -m pip install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ for python 3 (could also be pip3.10 depending on your version) python3 -m pip install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ for Anaconda conda install -c conda-forge psycopg2-binary
After you install the psycopg2-binary package, try importing it like:
import psycopg2 # Connect to your postgres DB conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname=test user=postgres") # Open a cursor to perform database operations cur = conn.cursor() # Execute a query cur.execute("SELECT * FROM my_data") # Retrieve query results records = cur.fetchall()
The Python error "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psycopg2'" occurs for multiple reasons:
psycopg2-binary
package installed by running
pip install psycopg2-binary
.psycopg2.py
which would shadow the official module.psycopg2
which would shadow the imported
variable.If the error persists, get your Python version and make sure you are installing the package using the correct Python version.
python --version
For example, my Python version is 3.10.4
, so I would install the
psycopg2-binary package with pip3.10 install psycopg2-binary
.
pip3.10 install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you get permissions error use pip3 (NOT pip3.X) sudo pip3 install psycopg2-binary
Notice that the version number corresponds to the version of pip
I'm using.
If the PATH for pip
is not set up on your machine, replace pip
with
python3 -m pip
:
# ๐๏ธ make sure to use your version of Python, e.g. 3.10 python3 -m pip install psycopg2-binary
If the "No module named 'psycopg2'" error persists, try restarting your IDE and development server / script.
You can check if you have the psycopg2-binary
package installed by running the
pip show psycopg2-binary
command.
# ๐๏ธ check if you have psycopg2-binary installed pip3 show psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip setup in PATH python3 -m pip show psycopg2-binary
The pip show psycopg2-binary
command will either state that the package is not
installed or show a bunch of information about the package, including the
location where the package is installed.
If the package is not installed, make sure your IDE is using the correct version of Python.
psycopg2-binary
package using the incorrect version or your IDE might be setup to use a different version.For example, In VSCode, you can press CTRL + Shift + P
or (โ
+ Shift
+ P
on Mac) to open the command palette.
Then type "Python select interpreter" in the field.
Then select the correct python version from the drop down menu.
If you are using a virtual environment, make sure you are installing
psycopg2-binary
in your virtual environment and not globally.
You can try creating a virtual environment if you don't already have one.
# ๐๏ธ use correct version of Python when creating VENV python3 -m venv venv # ๐๏ธ activate on Unix or MacOS source venv/bin/activate # ๐๏ธ activate on Windows (cmd.exe) venv\Scripts\activate.bat # ๐๏ธ activate on Windows (PowerShell) venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1 # ๐๏ธ install psycopg2-binary in virtual environment pip install psycopg2-binary
Your virtual environment will use the version of Python that was used to create it.
psycopg2.py
because that would shadow the original psycopg2-binary
module.You also shouldn't be declaring a variable named psycopg2
as that would also
shadow the original module.
If the error is not resolved, try to uninstall the psycopg2-binary
package and
then install it.
# ๐๏ธ check if you have psycopg2-binary installed pip3 show psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip setup in PATH python3 -m pip show psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ uninstall psycopg2-binary pip3 uninstall psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip setup in PATH python3 -m pip uninstall psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ install psycopg2-binary pip3 install psycopg2-binary # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip setup in PATH python3 -m pip install psycopg2-binary
Try restarting your IDE and development server / script.
You can also try to upgrade the version of the psycopg2-binary package.
pip3 install psycopg2-binary --upgrade # ๐๏ธ if you don't have pip setup in PATH python3 -m pip install psycopg2-binary --upgrade
This one is for using using virtual environments (VENV) on Windows
:
This one is for using using virtual environments (VENV) on MacOS
and Linux
: