49

I've installed openai on my laptop with pip install openai.

Have installed on my laptop and after installed on the same folder where my code file is. But when I try to run the code I get ImportError: No module named openai

This is the code from the file. Pretty simple:

import openai

openai.api_key = API_KEY

prompt = "Say this is a test"

response = openai.Completion.create(
    engine="text-davinci-001", prompt=prompt, max_tokens=6
)

print(response)

What am I doing wrong?

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15
  • 1
    Do you have multiple versions of python installed on your machine - not a virtual environment? Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 14:25
  • how are you running this code? Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 14:25
  • 3
    @Zaesar you almost certainly are running you code in a different install of python than where pip is installing your packages. Assuming you are using pip in the terminal do which python or where python on widows to see if it is the same install of python you are using to run your code. Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 14:38
  • 5
    @Zaesar make sure you are using the correct python interpreter in VS Code. FYI - all Macs come with python2 installed by default so if you are not using conda make sure to use pip3 and python3 Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 14:52
  • 1
    When I write on the terminal python3 main.py (the name of the file) It works. It has to be something with VS but can't figure out what Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 16:17

17 Answers 17

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53

I encountred the same problem and all what I did was:

First uninstall the openai package with :

pip uninstall openai

Then I upgraded pip with :

pip install --upgrade pip

And i re-installed the openapi package with

pip install openai

And it worked.

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4 Comments

Saved my day! But how?
same here... new to python.. dont even know where pip came from lol
Good nugget of info here. Also using macOS and python3 is the default. So for me doing @clicmolette's idea and trying python3 for the commands helped
In my case, I got an ARM Mac and had to reinstall dependencies.... or the root cause was I overwrote the previous python environment (I can see I have two in the directory.) :-\
22

This can happen if you have multiple versions of python

to show where pip has installed openai package, you can run this command

pip show openai

you will have an output like this

Name: openai
Version: 0.26.4
Summary: Python client library for the OpenAI API
Home-page: https://github.com/openai/openai-python
Author: OpenAI
Author-email: [email protected]
License: None
Location: /home/${USER}/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages
Requires: requests, tqdm, aiohttp
Required-by:

as you see, for me pip installs the package openai for the python version 3.8.

so if the default python version is 2.7 for example, when running python then making import openai, this will not work.

you can change the default python version to the same verion of the package openai, use

sudo update-alternatives --config python

Then select the correct version (3.8 for me).

you can also try to install openai for your default python version:

python -m pip install openai
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3 Comments

Thanks for this. Lots of answers sending me round in circles but this was the first one that helped diagnose and solve the issue.
Thanks a lot. Your answer helped me. If anyone else is experiencing the same issue, please check that your Python version matches that of OpenAI.
This was the solution to my problem as well. Thanks!
6

Top answer didn't work for me, but this did:

I am using VS code on a mac. I had to select the correct Python interpreter. I am using Python 3 and pip3 instead of pip.

Uninstall the openai package with :

pip uninstall openai

Upgraded pip with (be sure to use pip3):

pip3 install --upgrade pip

And i re-installed the openapi package with (be sure to use pip3):

pip3 install openai
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3

After you run the following command

pip install openai

If you are using visual studio code restart your kernal.it worked for me.

enter image description here

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3

For the one who tries to run it on macOS (Please install Flask first), then use

sudo flask run

and it works.

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5 Comments

flash is not a valid command on macOS.
@WebDev-SysAdmin My apologies, you need to go into the openai-quickstart-python and type 'sudo flask run'. Make sure for any dependencies for flask are installed
This was the solution that worked for me, and I hate it. (As of May '23, the OpenAI Quickstart tutorial seems well written and maintained, so it seems there must be some quirk of my setup that means I need to run flask under sudo where others don't, and one day I'll determine why.)
sudo: flask: command not found
@IgorGanapolsky Please remember to install Flask first: flask.palletsprojects.com/en/3.0.x
2

Try it works for me , replace 3.10 for your python version

sudo pip3.10 install openai
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0

Try putting --user after the snippet.

pip install openai --user

After this, the error doesn't show up & the code works fine for me.

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0

I was trying to run my openai python script through VS Code on a Mac with python3 installed. When I tried to run my script by pressing the play button supplied by VS Code's Pylance Python extension I kept getting the error message No module named openai.

What helped me was, to install openai with the standard prompt pip install openai and by executing my script through the terminal prompt python3 script.py.

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0

in case you are running the python script as admin (or sudo) it throws the error ImportError: No module named openai. but with out admin (or sudo) it just runs fine

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0

This might be a temporary VS code error. Try closing the app and trying it again. It worked well for me on pycharm.

I used this:

pip3 install openai
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0

If anyone runs into this problem when running Firebase on an emulator:

You have to make sure this config is set to 'true' on pyvenv.cfg:

include-system-site-packages = true
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0

I did pip install openai on the macOS terminal at the root and the project worked afterwards.

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0

On your IDE , manually add the openai module to the interpreter . The issue will be resolved !

For Pycharm ,

Go to File -> settings -> project -> python interpreter -> add the module (look for + symbol ) Tadaa !

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0

Was facing this issue with using pyCharm, turned out pyCharm maintains separate execution environment for each of the projects.

I tried to run the same code in VSCode, it ran without any error.

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0

In my case I uninstalled and installed openai again, however, I was still getting the same error. I found out that I had 2 python versions installed on my machine. So executing

python main.py

Gave me an error, however, using

python3 main.py

Solved the issue. Please check if this is the problem in your case too. Note: I was using a virtual env but I was still getting this error.

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0

If you have Jupyter lab/notebook running just close it all, shut down the terminal, install the module via pip and restart Jupyter.

Because installing the module while Jupyter was running from another terminal session didn't work for me.

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4 Comments

Yes, when the import doesn't work after what seems like a good install, elevating things to where you shutdown and restart Jupyter and everything associated is advisable, even the machine itself. Also a good hard refresh of the browser page you are running Jupyter is also a good strategy in general when you know the installation was good in the right environment. However, I think since you are running in Jupyter you have a better path for addressing what seems to be causing the issue for most users in this thread, who are not involving Jupyter (or at least didn't seem to be from a quick scan.)
<continued> Before you went off dealing with the terminal, to ensure it was installed in the correct environment (which, in a manner of speaking, seemed to be the issue with most of this thread), you can use Jupyter's magic install command from within the running Jupyter Notebook where you expect to do the import. Make a new cell and run the magic command %pip install openai. The symbol is important. Then when it completes successfully, shutdown everything and restart everything & refresh the browser page. See more about the modern %pip install command ...
<continued> here. (Note there is a %conda install equivalent if you ever switch to using Anaconda/conda and need that since at that point Anaconda/conda will become your primary package manager by opting in and you should do your best to only stick with that from then forward.) Note that for a lot of packages you'll install, you don't need to even restart the kernel after using the magic install command, but it is a good practice to do it as several do and even some need more. ...
<continued> From your answer and the other posts, it seems the current version of openai may be one, too. ipywidgets and ipympl are ones that need way more than just that. You'l want to know about the browser refresh for those. The thing is those two use javascript and browser components to do what they do and so if you are using packages that mess around with how things display and connect to the page, you may need these elevated steps. To summarize: glad your approach worked, but alternatively you could use magic install in the running .ipynb file & it may help you later in a pinch.
0

I also encountered a similar issue.

First, confirm my current Conda environment and then reinstall it.

conda info
pip show openai 
pip uninstall openai
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install openai

Still not working.

Then check the current Python path.

whereis python3

Confirm that it is not the Python path of the current Conda environment.

After inspection, it was found that the issue was caused by dependencies installed via brew. After uninstalling them and rechecking the Python path, it reverted to Conda.

But I don't understand why pip install openai runs the Python from the Conda environment, while executing python xxx.py uses the Python overwritten by brew. That's quite strange.

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1 Comment

This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review

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