Pip is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

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• How to Fix PIP Is Not Recognized in Windows Command Prompt?

By Vera | Follow | Last Updated November 29, 2020

When installing Python packages in Command Prompt, you may get the error message saying “'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”. How can you fix the issue? MiniTool will show you some methods in this post.

PIP Is Not Recognized

PIP, Pip Installs Package, is a standard package management system. It is used to install and handle software packages written in Python. By default, most versions of Python have PIP installed.

When installing Python packages in the Command Prompt window, Windows will show you an error saying “’pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”.

The main reasons for PIP not recognized are because PIP installation is not added to the system variable or the installation is incorrectly added in your PATH. To fix this issue, you can follow some methods below.

Tip: Not recognized as an internal or external command is a common issue and it doesn’t only occur with PIP. This related article may be helpful to you - Not recognized Fix “Not Recognized As an Internal or External Command” Win 10.

Fixes for PIP Not Recognized

Check if PIP Is Added to the PATH Variable

Firstly you should know if your PIP installation is added to your PATH variable. Just do this thing through the following steps:

Step 1: Launch Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: Type echo %PATH% and press Enter. You can see a list of all the locations added to the PATH variable.

Step 3: Try to search for something similar to C:\Python37\Scripts. If you find one, this means the installation path has already been added to the PATH variable. If not, you need to add it to the variable.

Add PIP to the PATH Variable

Here are three options for you to do this work – use Windows GUI, a command line, and a Python executable installer.

Windows GUI

Step 1: Press Win + X, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and click OK.

Step 2: Under the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables.

Step 3: Go to System variables, click Path > Edit.

Step 4: Click New and type in C:\Python34\Scripts.

CMD

A quick way to add PIP to the PATH variable is using Command Prompt and now let’s see it.

Step 1: Run Command Prompt.

Step 2: Type setx PATH “%PATH%;C:\Python37\Scripts” and press Enter. Replace Python37 with your Python version.

Step 3: Then, run a Python installation package to see if “PIP is not recognized as an internal or external command” is fixed.

Use Python Executable Installer

Step 1: Run python –version in the CMD window to check the Python version installed.

Step 2: Go to Python.org to download the same version of the executable installer.

Step 3: Run the setup and choose Modify.

Step 4: Make sure the option of pip is selected.

Step 5: In the Advanced Options window, choose Add Python to environment variables and click Install.

Final Words

Have you got “PIP is not a recognized command”? Try to fix it by following the above methods and we hope you can easily get rid of the trouble.

About The Author

Position: Columnist

Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 5 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.

On: June 30, 2022 Views: 54 Author: adminxy

• When Does The Error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” Happen?
• How To Solve The Error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”
  • Option 1: Use pip to install modules
  • Option 2: Utilize the following command.
  • Option 3: Follow these steps
  • Option 4: Use CMD to add PIP to the PATH environment variable 
• Conclusion

The Error “pip is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” is a common error that can show up in many ways. In this blog, we will go through some of the ways you can fix this issue.

When Does The Error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” Happen?

When attempting to utilize the pip command to install a Python module, you may get the following error.

'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

You have encountered the error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” because of 2 reasons:

The system variable does not contain the Pip Install.
The path to your pip installation must be added to your PATH system variable in order for Python commands to be executed from a Windows Command Prompt. If you installed Python using the installation file, it ought to be immediately added.
The Installation Was Incorrectly Added to Your PATH.
The issue might just be a typo if the path was manually added. A mistake will be made if there is an extra space or a semicolon lacking before the new path.

How To Solve The Error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file”

Option 1: Use pip to install modules

Here, you will walk you through the entire installation process for pip on the system.

1. Get the get-pip.py file and save it in the same directory where you installed Python. 

2. Then, simply run this command in the same folder as get-pip.py: py python get-pip.py. 

3. Now, that pip is installed on your system, run the following command in the same directory as get-pip.py: pip -V. 

4. Next, in your PATH variable, include the path to your pip installation. This is the command to utilize: setx PATH “%PATH%;C:\Python34\Scripts”. 

5. The Scripts folder must be added to your Path. 

6. You can now use pip to install modules without encountering any issues.

Option 2: Utilize the following command.

Utilize the following command whenever you’re installing packages with the pip command.

python -m pip install [packagename]

Option 3: Follow these steps

Another solution to solve the error “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” is following these steps:

1. Navigate to the Control Panel.

2. Select Uninstall Program.

3. Next, double-click on Modify Install after finding Python and clicking on Change.

4. Ensure the PIP component is working and then install it.

Option 4: Use CMD to add PIP to the PATH environment variable 

Directly from a CMD window is a quicker way to establish the PIP path environment variable. This will save you some time, but if you’re not accustomed to using the terminal, it might feel a little more frightening.
An easy tutorial for configuring the PiP path environment directly from a Command Prompt window is provided below:
1. To bring up the Run dialog box, press Windows key + R. The Command Prompt window will then open once you input “cmd” and hit Enter.
2. Run the following command in the Command Prompt window to add the PIP installation to the environment variable:

setx PATH “%PATH%;C:\Python37\Scripts”

3. Run a Python installation package (one that uses PIP) from the same CMD window to verify that this procedure worked successfully.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our article about the error. With this knowledge, we know that you can fix your “‘pip’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file” error quickly by following these steps! If you still have any other questions about fixing this syntax error, please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading!

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