ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tkinter' in Python

# ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tkinter' in Python

The Python "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tkinter'" occurs when tkinter is not installed in our Python environment.

To solve the error, install the module and import it as import tkinter as tk.

# Installing the tkinter module

Open your terminal and run the following command to install tkinter.

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# 👇️ === UBUNTU / DEBIAN ===
sudo apt-get install python3-tk

# 🚨 Make sure to specify the correct Python version.
# For example, my Python v is 3.10, so I would install as
sudo apt-get install python3.10-tk

# 👇️ === MacOS ===
brew install python-tk@3.10

# 🚨 Make sure to specify the correct Python version.
# For example, if you run Python v3.9 run adjust command to
brew install python-tk@3.9

# 👇️ === Fedora ===
sudo dnf install python3-tkinter

# 👇️ === CentOS ===
sudo yum install python3-tkinter

# 👇️ === Arch Linux (Manjaro, Antegros) ===
sudo pacman -S tk

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

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python --version

# For macOS and Linux
python3 --version

# Py alias for Windows
py --version

Make sure to specify the correct Python version when running the installation command as shown in the code sample above.

For example, if your Python version is 3.10.5, you would specify 3.10 as your version when running the suitable command from the code sample above.

# Tick the tcl/tk and IDLE option on Windows

If you are on Windows, you have to make sure to tick the checkbox tcl/tk and IDLE when installing Python.

If you already installed Python, download the installer, run it and click Modify.

Then check the tcl/tk and IDLE checkbox to install tkinter for your Python version.

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

• tcl/tk and IDLE (installs tkinter and the IDLE development environment)
• Install launcher for all users (recommended)
• Add Python to PATH (this adds Python to your PATH environment variable)

# Tkinter is a built-in module in Python 3

Tkinter comes as a built-in module in Python 3 and is made available without requiring installation.

Now you should be able to import and use the tkinter module.

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import tkinter as tk

from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()
frm = ttk.Frame(root, padding=10)
frm.grid()

ttk.Label(frm, text="Hello World!").grid(column=0, row=0)
ttk.Button(frm, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).grid(column=1, row=0)

root.mainloop()

When you run your code with python file_name.py, you might be running the script with Python 2.

Use the python --version command if you need to check your Python version.

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python --version

You can try to run the script with python3 file_name.py to have the command scoped to Python 3.

If you get the error "AttributeError: module 'tkinter' has no attribute 'Tk'", click on the following article.

# An import statement that works in both Python 3 and Python 2

If your code can be run using both Python 3 and 2, use a try/except statement for a universal import.

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try:
    import tkinter as tk  # Using Python 3
    from tkinter import ttk
except ImportError:
    import Tkinter as tk  # Falls back to import from Python 2

We try to import the tkinter module (Python 3) and if we get an ImportError, we know the file is run in Python 2, so we import using an uppercase T and alias the import to tk.

If you aren't sure what version of Python you're using, run the python --version command.

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python --version

# Using the tkinter module in a virtual environment

If you are in a virtual environment, the version of Python corresponds to the version that was used to create the virtual environment.

Here is an example of creating a virtual environment using Python 3 where tkinter is available without installation required.

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# 👇️ 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

If the python3 -m venv venv command doesn't work, try 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.

Once you activate the virtual environment, try running your script directly with python script_name.py.

# Make sure you haven't named your file tkinter.py

If the error persists, make sure you haven't named a module in your project as tkinter.py because that would shadow the original tkinter module.

You also shouldn't be declaring a variable named tkinter as that would also shadow the original module.

# NameError: name 'tk' is not defined in Python

If you get an error such as "NameError: name 'tk' is not defined", then you have forgotten to import tkinter before using it.

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root = tk.Tk()

NameError: name 'tk' is not defined. Did you mean 'ttk'?

We have to import the tkinter module to solve the error.

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# ✅ Import tkinter as tk first
import tkinter as tk

from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()
frm = ttk.Frame(root, padding=10)
frm.grid()

ttk.Label(frm, text="Hello World!").grid(column=0, row=0)
ttk.Button(frm, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).grid(column=1, row=0)

root.mainloop()

Even though the tkinter module is in the Python standard library, we still have to import it before using it.

An alternative to importing the entire tkinter module is to import only the classes and methods that your code uses.

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# ✅ Importing tkinter first
from tkinter import Tk, ttk


root = Tk()
frm = ttk.Frame(root, padding=10)
frm.grid()

ttk.Label(frm, text="Hello World!").grid(column=0, row=0)
ttk.Button(frm, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).grid(column=1, row=0)

root.mainloop()

The example shows how to only import the Tk class and ttk module from tkinter.

Instead of accessing the members on the module, e.g. tk.Tk(), we now access them directly.

This should be your preferred approach because it makes your code easier to read.

Conversely, when we import specific functions, it is much easier to see which classes from the tkinter module are being used.

You can view all of the classes and modules tkinter provides by visiting the official docs.