How to Upgrade PIP on Windows

April 22, 2024

In order to upgrade PIP on Windows, you’ll need to open the Windows Command Prompt, and then type/copy the following command:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Note that the above method would only work if you already added Python to Windows path. Otherwise, check the full steps to upgrade PIP in the section below.

The Steps

(1) First, type Command Prompt in the Windows search box

(2) Next, open the Command Prompt, and you’ll see the following screen with your user name (to avoid any permission issues, you may consider to run the Command Prompt as an administrator):

C:\Users\Ron>

(3) Locate your Python application path, which is the folder where you originally installed Python.

You can find the Python application path by following these steps:

  • Type “Python” in the Windows Search Bar
  • Right-click on the Python App, and then select “Open file location“
  • Right-click again on the Python shortcut, and then select “Open file location“

Here is an example of a Python application path:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311

(4) Once you retrieved the Python application path, type the following command in the Command Prompt:

“cd”, followed by space, and then your Python application path

For our example:

C:\>cd C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311

(5) Press Enter, and you’ll see:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311>

(6) To upgrade PIP, type/copy this command, and then press Enter:

python -m pip install --upgrade pip

This is how the command would look like in the Command Prompt:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311>python -m pip install ––upgrade pip

(7) You’ll notice that the latest version of PIP would be installed:

Successfully installed pip-23.2.1

Steps to check the version of PIP on Windows

To check the version of PIP at any time, you’ll need to navigate to the Python Scripts path, rather than the Python application path.

(1) First, locate your Python Scripts path. The Scripts folder is located within the Python application path.

For our example, the Python Scripts path is:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Scripts

(2) Type “cd”, followed by space, and then the Python Scripts path (then press Enter):

C:\>cd C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Scripts

(3) Finally, type the following command to check the version of PIP:

pip --version

For our example:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311\Scripts>pip ––version

(4) Press Enter, and you’ll see the PIP version:

pip 23.2.1

Now, what if you’d like to revert back to a previous version of PIP?

You can easily downgrade to a previous version of PIP by following the steps below.

Steps to downgrade PIP to a previous version

(1) Point back the Python application path. If you are currently set to the Python Scripts path, you can simply type “cd..” (and then press Enter), and you’ll revert back to the Python application path:

C:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python311>

(2) Let’s say that you want to downgrade the PIP version to 23.0.1

To do that, simply type the following command, and then press Enter:

python -m pip install pip==23.0.1

(3) You should now see the version of PIP that you specified:

Successfully installed pip-23.0.1

Final Words

If you’re using Anaconda, you may want to check the following tutorial that explains how to upgrade PIP in Anaconda.

Finally, if you need to install PIP, you may review the PIP documentation.