Installing pip — Python: Setting up the environment

When you install Python on macOS or Windows and follow our recommendations, pip installs with the interpreter. On Ubuntu, you have to install it separately with this command:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip

Running pip

You can call pip directly with the pip command, but it is better to use a longer one. It guarantees to bring up the latest installed pip version for the desired version of Python.

So, let us call pip:

python3 -m pip --version

pip 20.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.8)

When showing its version, pip also tells you where it locates and what version of Python it runs on.

Note the structure of the command we called. This command means «python3, run the -m module named pip as a program with the --version parameter».

If you later see commands like pip help in the pip documentation, you can call python3 -m pip help. The result will be the same.