How to install Python on Windows, Linux and macOS

If you want to install Python, the easiest way is to use the official in­stall­a­tion packages of the popular scripting language. You can choose between different older and newer versions for various platforms. We’ll show you how to find the right edition to install and set up Python on your system.

If you want to work with Python, you need two things: a code editor, which ideally offers syntax high­light­ing, as well as the ap­pro­pri­ate version of Python for the re­spect­ive system and purpose. Your device doesn’t have to fulfil any special hardware or software re­quire­ments to install Python.

When deciding on a version, two questions in par­tic­u­lar need to be answered:

1. Which operating system do you want to use Python on?
2. What’s the purpose of your pro­gram­ming efforts?

In principle, you have great freedom in the choice of platform. The open-source language is available for Windows, Linux and macOS. Depending on the system, however, a different in­stall­a­tion package must be chosen.

The back­ground for the use or in­stall­a­tion of Python therefore plays a role because different versions are re­com­men­ded depending on the intended use. For example, if you want to learn to program with Python, you can simply install the current version of Python. If you are pro­gram­ming a specific ap­plic­a­tion and want to ensure com­pat­ib­il­ity with third-party modules, it’s often better to use older versions. Therefore, before even setting up Python, find out which version is best suited to your project.

There are various options for down­load­ing and setting up Python for different platforms. However, the best place to download all the different versions is, without doubt, the official Python website. Here you can find current and older versions, Docker images and de­vel­op­ment versions in the test phase for Windows, Linux/UNIX and macOS, or other platforms such as iOS, IBM i, AIX or Solaris.

Al­tern­at­ively, you can download Python, which is one of the most popular internet pro­gram­ming languages, in other ways. Users of Linux or macOS, for example, can also obtain the in­stall­a­tion files directly via the package manager. To install Python on newer Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 10 or 11, you can use the Microsoft Store. This is installed by default and has various Python versions available for direct download.

In­stalling Python on a Microsoft system can be done in just a few steps. The only thing to note is that newer versions, from Python 3.9.x onwards, only run on Windows 8 or higher.

On the official Python website, you’ll find all relevant releases of Python 2 and Python 3 for Windows. For practice or work purposes, down­load­ing a ‘stable’ version is re­com­men­ded.

With all download packages, you have the choice between 32- and 64-bit. Choose the variant that suits your system ar­chi­tec­ture. Use the ‘Windows installer’ for an ordinary in­stall­a­tion (re­com­men­ded for beginners).

With Linux dis­tri­bu­tions, you install Python con­veni­ently via the terminal — if the scripting language is not already installed on the system. For example, Ubuntu 20.04 and later versions of the de­riv­at­ive come with Python 3.9 by default. Read the steps below to find out if Python is already installed and how to install it manually on Linux if not. As an example, we use Ubuntu 22.04 in this case.

Open the terminal and enter this command:

If no version of Python is installed yet, you can always initiate the in­stall­a­tion using the package man­age­ment system apt. First, update the package manager with the following command:

Then, install Python using this command:

Once Python is set up, you can use the pro­gram­ming language at any time from the terminal. To do so, simply enter the following command:

Apple operating systems have come with Python pre­in­stalled for a long time, however, never with a version newer than Python 2.7. In­stalling a newer Python variant is therefore strongly re­com­men­ded, even if your system already has a version. The best way is via the Homebrew package manager, which has to be installed first.

After suc­cess­ful in­stall­a­tion, you’ll find two more commands under ‘Next steps’, both of which you should also run. In this way, you add Homebrew to the PATH en­vir­on­ment variable to be able to use the package manager from the command line.

Once Homebrew is installed, you can set up Python. To do this, enter the following command in the terminal:

As with Linux/UNIX, you can now run Python from the terminal at any time by typing the following command: