The difference between pip freeze and pip list in Python

# The difference between pip freeze and pip list in Python

The difference between pip freeze and pip list is that:

pip freeze outputs the installed by the user packages in a requirements format that can be used to generate a requirements.txt file.
pip list outputs all installed packages, including editables.

# `pip freeze` is used to generate a `requirements.txt` file

You will most often use the pip freeze command to generate a requirements.txt file.

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pip freeze > requirements.txt
pip3 freeze > requirements.txt

The command redirects the output of pip freeze to a file called requirements.txt.

The requirements.txt file can be used to install the packages and recreate the environment.

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pip install -r requirements.txt
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

A requirements.txt file can only be generated from the output of the pip freeze command, not from the output of pip list.

pip freeze output

The names of packages and the specific versions are separated by two equal signs which is the syntax used by pip to install a specific version of a package.

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pip install requests==2.28.0
pip3 install requests==2.28.0

# The `pip list` command outputs the packages in a different format

The pip list command also shows the installed packages and their versions but in a different format.

pip list output

The pip freeze command doesn't output packages that pip depends on by default, e.g. wheel and setuptools, whereas the pip list command does.

You can use the --all option if you need to include the pip, setuptools, distrubute and wheel packages in the output of pip freeze.

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pip freeze --all

The pip list outputs all installed packages, including editables, whereas pip freeze shows the packages the user installed and their dependencies.

If you don't use a virtual environment, it is recommended to create one as they make management of packages much easier.

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# 👇️ optionally store currently installed packages in a file
pip freeze > requirements.txt
pip3 freeze > requirements.txt

# 👇️ Use the correct version of Python when creating VENV
python -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 the package in your virtual environment
pip install requests

# 👇️ Optionally install packages from a `requirements.txt` file
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

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

python3 -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.

Note that the name requirements.txt is just a convention. You can use any to store the output of the pip freeze command and you can have as many requirements files as necessary.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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The difference between pip freeze and pip list in Python