How to install Python MySQLdb module using pip?

Question

How can I install the MySQLdb module for Python using pip?

If you're looking to use this with Python3 (e.g., with the newest version of Django) you'll need mysqlclient as MysqlDB doesn't support python3. See [This Question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14087598/python-3-importerror-no-module-named-configparser) — T.D. Smith, Apr 25 '16 at 19:31
I'm using mysqlclient with Python 2.7 and MariaDB with no issues so far. — Dave Everitt, May 01 '18 at 21:12

score 579 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 16 '17 at 20:50

579

It's easy to do, but hard to remember the correct spelling:

pip install mysqlclient

If you need 1.2.x versions (legacy Python only), use pip install MySQL-python

Note: Some dependencies might have to be in place when running the above command. Some hints on how to install these on various platforms:

Ubuntu 14, Ubuntu 16, Debian 8.6 (jessie)

sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev libmysqlclient-dev

Fedora 24:

sudo dnf install python python-devel mysql-devel redhat-rpm-config gcc

Mac OS

brew install mysql-connector-c

if that fails, try

brew install mysql

edited Oct 16 '17 at 20:50

Nick T

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answered Sep 16 '14 at 09:31

Marian

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You don't have to remember the whole name, you can use `pip search mysql` and find the one you need in the output. – WKPlus Sep 16 '14 at 10:14
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@WKPlus: right... but I did `pip search mysqldb` and didn't find it. Thus, I +1 this answer. – Dan H Dec 02 '14 at 19:59
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@WKPlus actually it's pretty much a real hassle to find out the right choice after a pip search of mysql – kommradHomer May 30 '15 at 07:31
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I have to google this every time, so damn infurating – SleepyCal Jun 05 '15 at 20:10
On Ubuntu or any debian distribution, you could simply sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb . I tried using pip but it failed on my end. – David Okwii Aug 19 '15 at 09:07
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@DavidOkwii When you're not inside a virtualenv, sudo is required. That might have been your problem. – Marian Aug 19 '15 at 09:10
I wish I could pin this answer to the front page of my SO home. Can that be a feature? I come to this answer at least once a week... – Nostalg.io Oct 07 '15 at 23:30
The intuitive package name would be: `pip install mysqldb`. That doesn't work. – tread Jan 05 '16 at 18:11
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Actually, under Mac OS, pip install fails with mysql-connector-c installed. However, it works with "brew install mysql" instead. – osxdirk May 31 '17 at 09:08
There is a fix for the current problem with Mac OS, brew and mysql-connector-c [here](https://github.com/PyMySQL/mysqlclient-python/issues/169#issuecomment-299778504) – Marian Jul 20 '17 at 21:04
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This update of my mysql_config-file worked! https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43740481/python-setup-py-egg-info-mysqlclient – d_- May 17 '18 at 17:14
On ubuntu, `build-essential` package is also a required dependency – Prince Odame Sep 08 '19 at 07:14
Faced a lot of issues while installing the package for Python 3.6. Got a "Microsoft Visual C++ 14.0 or greater is required" where I have Visual C++ 2015-2022 installed. Copied MySQldb folder from site-package from another system where the MYSQLDB is installed perfectly for python 3.6 and pasting in my current system – Abhishek Roy Jan 03 '22 at 08:46

score 141 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '15 at 17:05

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Starting from a fresh Ubuntu 14.04.2 system, these two commands were needed:

 apt-get install python-dev libmysqlclient-dev
 pip install MySQL-python

Just doing the "pip install" by itself did not work.

From http://codeinthehole.com/writing/how-to-set-up-mysql-for-python-on-ubuntu/

answered Mar 19 '15 at 17:05

Ray Kiddy

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this one worked, for some reason simple pip install doesn't work clean on ubuntu – Dap May 18 '15 at 19:07
In ubuntu 14.04, will get a error "raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (mysql_config.path,)", and the first cmd fixed the problem, thanks , save me some time – zhihong Jun 18 '15 at 10:06
To fix `error: command 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1` use `sudo apt-get install build-essential` – FelikZ Jul 20 '15 at 14:42
I wonder why this is needed. One thing occurs to me. I tested this by installing only and not building. Did you build any of the things you installed rather than just install them? – Ray Kiddy Jul 21 '15 at 18:26
This should be accepted answer of course for Ubuntu. – Roon13 Oct 28 '15 at 15:30
+1 This should be the answer for Ubuntu systems, it worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04.4. Solving my "ImportError: No module named MySQLdb" & ```Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement MySQLdb (from versions: ) No matching distribution found for MySQLdb``` error msgs – Roly Poly Mar 06 '20 at 23:10

score 34 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 18 '19 at 16:48

34

First

pip install pymysql

Then put the code below into __init__.py (projectname/__init__.py)

import pymysql
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

My environment is (python3.5, django1.10) and this solution works for me!

Hope this helps!!

edited Apr 18 '19 at 16:48

NickD

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answered Jul 02 '17 at 15:59

放課後

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Woow, I have waisted over 5hrs trying to fix this without success. This is the only solution that worked on Ubuntu 16.04/python 3.5/Django 1.11. Thanks for sharing this. – Paullo Nov 16 '17 at 17:57
this not work for me, My environment is python 3.7 and django 2.2. Please help me out. – Rajen K Bhagat Apr 19 '19 at 18:40
This should be up there. I've been browsing for a solution for hours. I have a virtualenv with python 2.7 running django 1.6. I was not able to install MySQL-python nor mysqlclient. No matter whatever I tried I was getting a "fatal error: mysql.h". This one did the trick. – rolandsaven Nov 02 '19 at 18:04

score 23 · Answer 4 · edited May 31 '23 at 14:38

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I had problems installing the 64-bit version of MySQLdb on Windows via Pip (problem compiling sources) [32bit version installed ok]. Managed to install the compiled MySQLdb from the .whl file available from http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/

Alternative link: https://archive.linux.duke.edu/pypi/simple/mysqlclient/

The .whl file can then be installed via pip as document in https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/user_guide/#installing-from-wheels

For example if you save in C:/ the you can install via

pip install c:/MySQL_python-1.2.5-cp27-none-win_amd64.whl

Follow-up: if you have a 64bit version of Python installed, then you want to install the 64-bit AMD version of MySQLdb from the link above [i.e. even if you have a Intel processor]. If you instead try and install the 32-bit version, I think you get the unsupported wheel error in comments below.

edited May 31 '23 at 14:38

panofish

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answered Nov 17 '15 at 21:55

kyrenia

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Total fail. Unsupported wheel – Menachem Hornbacher Mar 21 '16 at 19:38
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I needed MySQL client. `pip install mysqlclient-1.3.7-cp27-none-win_amd64.whl` working great. – arsenik Jul 15 '16 at 13:14
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Went to [http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#mysql-python](http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#mysql-python) to download `whl` file (I dl'd 64 bit to match my 64 bit Python install). Saved file into `c:/` directory and ran `pip install c:/MySQL_python-1.2.5-cp27-none-win_amd64.whl` It installed in seconds and was good to go. Too easy! – curtisp Oct 11 '16 at 18:43
Worked for me as well, as pip install by name was failing. – Artem Russakovskii Jul 10 '17 at 23:43
the link to www.lfd.uci.edu is dead.. this appears to be a good alternative... https://archive.linux.duke.edu/pypi/simple/mysqlclient/ – panofish May 31 '23 at 14:37

score 20 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 18 '17 at 09:02

20

well this worked for me:

pip install mysqlclient

this is for python 3.x

answered Mar 18 '17 at 09:02

kinsley kajiva

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This is the first solution that worked for me for python 3.5 / django 1.11 – Braden Holt Oct 13 '17 at 21:07
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You could run into trouble with a mysql_config file missing. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7475223/mysql-config-not-found-when-installing-mysqldb-python-interface – zwep Dec 28 '18 at 12:53

score 9 · Answer 6 · edited May 05 '18 at 20:36

9

Go to pycharm then go to default setting --> pip (double click) -- pymsqldb..-- > install --after installing use in a program like this

import pymysql as MySQLdb

# Open database connection
db = MySQLdb.connect("localhost","root","root","test" )

# prepare a cursor object using cursor() method
cursor = db.cursor()

# execute SQL query using execute() method.
cursor.execute("show tables")

# Fetch a single row using fetchone() method.
data = cursor.fetchall()
print (data)

# disconnect from server
db.close()

edited May 05 '18 at 20:36

Benoît Latinier

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answered May 05 '18 at 15:04

Java By Kiran

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So for me MySQLdb was not working because virtual environment was referring to incorrect library. Using `import pymysql as MySQLdb` solved that. – darth vader Jan 27 '21 at 02:46

score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 24 '20 at 16:43

9

Many of the given answers here are quite confusing so I will try to put it simply. It helped me to install this

pip install pymysql

and then use the following command in the python file

import pymysql as MySQLdb

This way you can use MySQLdb without any problems.

answered Mar 24 '20 at 16:43

DovaX

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your answer does not make any sense since those are two diffrent models – urek mazino Sep 23 '22 at 22:20

score 8 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 26 '16 at 09:01

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I tried all the option but was not able to get it working on Redhat platform. I did the following to make it work:-

yum install MySQL-python -y

Once the package was installed was able to import module as follows in the interpreter:-

>>> import MySQLdb
>>>

answered Sep 26 '16 at 09:01

Ashwin

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The question was specificly mentioning `pip`. What distribution are you using? On Fedora 24, this works to install the module via pip: `sudo dnf install python python-devel mysql-devel redhat-rpm-config gcc`, `sudo pip install MySQL-python` – Marian Sep 26 '16 at 13:23
I understand the question is via pip but I personally wasn't able to solve it by using pip. Hence i just shared my workaround which fixed the issue for me. I am using centos 6.8. pip list does not show anything related to mysql and when i do "pip install MySQL-python" it threw an error. Now interestingly I figured out that once we install through yum i:e "yum install MySQL-python" I am able to import MySQLdb. Also once done with yum installation I was able to install via pip without any errors. – Ashwin Sep 26 '16 at 13:35

score 4 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 24 '18 at 14:51

4

If you are unable to install mysqlclient you can also install pymysql:

pip install pymysql

This works same as MySqldb. After that use pymysql all over instead of MySQLdb

edited Jul 24 '18 at 14:51

quinz

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answered Jul 24 '18 at 09:46

Aniket Babhulkar

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This should be the answer. – JayJay123 Aug 26 '19 at 06:53

score 3 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 18 '16 at 10:38

3

If you are use Raspberry Pi [Raspbian OS]

There are need to be install pip command at first

apt-get install python-pip

So that just install Sequently

apt-get install python-dev libmysqlclient-dev

apt-get install python-pip

pip install MySQL-python

edited Apr 18 '16 at 10:38

Héctor Valverde

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answered Apr 18 '16 at 10:03

Tanakorn Lueangkajonvit

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Raspberry is not mentioned in the question – Héctor Valverde Apr 18 '16 at 10:09

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Sep 29 '17 at 12:57

3

You can go to this website to download the package.

edited Sep 29 '17 at 12:57

hg8

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answered Sep 29 '16 at 02:54

bob90937

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score 2 · Answer 12 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

I had the same problem too.Follow these steps if you are on Windows. Go to: 1.My Computer 2.System Properties 3.Advance System Settings 4. Under the "Advanced" tab click the button that says "Environment Variables" 5. Then under System Variables you have to add / change the following variables: PYTHONPATH and Path. Here is a paste of what my variables look like: python path:

C:\Python27;C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages;C:\Python27\Lib;C:\Python27\DLLs;C:\Python27\Lib\lib-tk;C:\Python27\Scripts

path:

C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Utilities 1.3.5\;C:\Python27;C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages;C:\Python27\Lib;C:\Python27\DLLs;C:\Python27\Lib\lib-tk;C:\Python27\Scripts

See this link for reference

kesari007 · Answer 13 · 2018-10-10T15:03:07.230

2

If you have Windows installed on your system then type the following command on cmd :

pip install mysql-connector

if the above command does not work try using:

pip install mysql-connector-python

Now,if the above commands do not get the work done, try using:

pip install mysql-connector-python-rf

That's it you are good to go now.

edited Oct 10 '18 at 15:03

answered Oct 09 '18 at 21:03

kesari007

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Vast · Answer 14 · 2016-10-19T14:47:29.097

The above answer is great, but there may be some problems when we using pip to install MySQL-python in Windows

for example,It needs some files that are associated with Visual Stdio .One solution is installing VS2008 or 2010……Obviously,it cost too much.

Another way is the answer of @bob90937 . I am here to do something to add.

with http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs, u can download many Windows binaries of many scientific open-source extension packages for the official CPython distribution of the Python programming language.

Back to topic,we can choose the MySQL-python(py2) or Mysqlclient(py3) and use pip install to install. it gives us Great convenience!

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered May 15 '17 at 06:23

1

For Python3 I needed to do this:

python3 -m pip install MySQL

answered May 15 '17 at 06:23

Frank Harb

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score 1 · Answer 16 · edited Jul 12 '17 at 16:27

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If pip3 isn't working, you can try:

sudo apt install python3-mysqldb

edited Jul 12 '17 at 16:27

Frank T

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answered Jul 12 '17 at 15:12

Marc Gottlieb

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Not very good answer. You assume Python version is 3 and OS is Debian/Ubuntu, but you don't know that. Please wait until the author adds more details. – phd Jul 12 '17 at 16:30

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jun 15 '18 at 18:42

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pip install mysql-connector-python as noted in the documentation:

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/connector-python/en/connector-python-installation-binary.html

answered Jun 15 '18 at 18:42

matthewpark319

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score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Sep 07 '18 at 08:22

1

on RHEL 7:

sudo yum install yum-utils mariadb-devel python-pip python-devel gcc

sudo /bin/pip2 install MySQL-python

answered Sep 07 '18 at 08:22

wired00

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score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 10:57

actually, follow @Nick T's answer doesn't work for me, i try apt-get install python-mysqldb work for me

root@2fb0da64a933:/home/test_scrapy# apt-get install python-mysqldb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libmariadbclient18 mysql-common
Suggested packages:
  default-mysql-server | virtual-mysql-server python-egenix-mxdatetime python-mysqldb-dbg
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libmariadbclient18 mysql-common python-mysqldb
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 29 not upgraded.
Need to get 843 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4611 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 mysql-common all 5.8+1.0.2 [5608 B]
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libmariadbclient18 amd64 10.1.38-0+deb9u1 [785 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 python-mysqldb amd64 1.3.7-1.1 [52.1 kB]                    
Fetched 843 kB in 23s (35.8 kB/s)                                                                                 
debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed
Selecting previously unselected package mysql-common.
(Reading database ... 13223 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../mysql-common_5.8+1.0.2_all.deb ...
Unpacking mysql-common (5.8+1.0.2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libmariadbclient18:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libmariadbclient18_10.1.38-0+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libmariadbclient18:amd64 (10.1.38-0+deb9u1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package python-mysqldb.
Preparing to unpack .../python-mysqldb_1.3.7-1.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking python-mysqldb (1.3.7-1.1) ...
Setting up mysql-common (5.8+1.0.2) ...
update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/my.cnf.fallback to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode
Setting up libmariadbclient18:amd64 (10.1.38-0+deb9u1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u3) ...
Setting up python-mysqldb (1.3.7-1.1) ...
root@2fb0da64a933:/home/test_scrapy# python 
Python 2.7.13 (default, Nov 24 2017, 17:33:09) 
[GCC 6.3.0 20170516] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import MySQLdb
>>>

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Aug 09 '23 at 10:57

You can follow the readme of mysqlclient.
For example on MAC OS: as per the readme for mysqlclient,
you will need to install pkg-config and (mysql or mysql-client):

# Assume you are activating Python 3 venv
$ brew install mysql pkg-config
$ pip install mysqlclient

If you don't want to install MySQL server, you can use mysql-client instead:

# Assume you are activating Python 3 venv
$ brew install mysql-client pkg-config
$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/mysql-client/lib/pkgconfig"
$ pip install mysqlclient

score -1 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 21 '18 at 01:23

My environment are:

Windows 10 Pro,
Python 3.7 (python-3.7.1-amd64.exe),
MySQL 8.0 (mysql-installer-web-community-8.0.13.0.msi)

pip install mysqlclient-1.3.13-cp37-cp37m-win_amd64.whl

works for me.

import MySQLdb, sys


# --------------------------------------------------
# Connect to MySQL
# --------------------------------------------------
try:
    db = MySQLdb.connect(host="localhost", user="user", passwd="pass", db="database", charset='cp1251')
except MySQLdb.Error as e:
    print ("Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1]))
    sys.exit()

# Creating cursor 
cursor = db.cursor()

How to install Python MySQLdb module using pip?

21 Answers21

Ubuntu 14, Ubuntu 16, Debian 8.6 (jessie)

Fedora 24:

Mac OS

Linked