How To Upgrade Pip In Windows, MacOS & Linux

Users and developers of Python are probably familiar with PIP. It is the official package installer for Python and can be used to install packages that are not included with the standard Python distribution. You can use pip to install packages that have been published in the official Python Package Index (PyPI) as well as other indexes.

Many users question exactly just how to upgrade to the latest version of PIP, given the ever-evolving and fast-moving python ecosystem. The short answer is, pip is just like any other PyPI package and you can upgrade it to newer (or downgrade to older) versions, just as you would upgrade or downgrade any other package.

TL;DR

# Windows Command Prompt
> python -m pip install --upgrade pip

# Linux Terminal
$ pip install --upgrade pip

# MacOS Terminal
$ pip install --upgrade pip

How To Update Your Version Of Pip In Windows

On Windows, you can upgrade pip by opening the Command Prompt, and typing the following command:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

An important thing to note is that this command will only work if you have successfully managed to add Python to Windows path. If you haven't done so, you might get the following error in your command prompt:

> ‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal
> or external command, operable program or batch file

If this error does occur, you must first add Python to Windows path and then update your PIP version.

Upgrade Or Downgrade Pip To A Specific Version on Windows

If you want to upgrade or downgrade Pip to an exact version, there is a way to do that. If you know which version you want, just add a flag: pip==<version> to the command above.

For example, if you want to downgrade to version 19.2, the final command would look something like this,

> python -m pip install pip==19.2

How To Update Your Version Of Pip In Linux

The process of updating pip in Linux is pretty straightforward. The first thing you need to do is to check your version of pip typing the following command:

$ pip --version

Once you know your current version and you are sure that you want to upgrade, you can use the pip install upgrade command in the terminal and hit enter.

$ pip install -U pip
or
$ pip install --upgrade pip

This will upgrade your pip version to the latest.

If you run into permission issues, you may also try the following commands. When you use sudo you might also have to enter your root password.

$ sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip
$ sudo -H pip2 install --upgrade pip

How To Update Your Version Of Pip In MacOS

The command to upgrade PIP on MacOS is the same as in Linux.

$ pip install --upgrade pip

If you get an error: pip command not found, you can instead use the following command:

$ python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Note, these commands also work for pip3. Moreover, if you have pip3 installed, you can use the pip3 alias and it will work the same way.

$ pip3 install --upgrade pip

Upgrade Or Downgrade To Specific Pip Version

If you want to upgrade or downgrade your version of pip to a specific version on a Mac, you can do this by adding a pip==<version> flag to the end of your update command.

$ pip3 install --upgrade pip==20.2.2
or 
$ pip install --upgrade pip==20.2.2

When using Python, it is important to make sure to keep your dependencies up to date, and this goes for versions of pip as well. This guide will make sure that you are always on the right version no matter what your operating system is.