How to Install `cryptography` in Python

v46.0.7 General Purpose Python !=3.9.0,!=3.9.1,>=3.8

cryptography is a package which provides cryptographic recipes and primitives to Python developers.

Install pip install cryptography

What is cryptography?

cryptography is a package which provides cryptographic recipes and primitives to Python developers.

`` is a package which provides cryptographic recipes and primitives to Python developers. Our goal is for it to be your "cryptographic standard library". It supports Python 3.8+ and PyPy3 7.3.11+.

`` includes both high level recipes and low level interfaces to common cryptographic algorithms such as symmetric ciphers, message digests, and key derivation functions. For example, to encrypt something with ``'s high level symmetric encryption recipe:

>>> from cryptography.fernet import Fernet >>> # Put this somewhere safe! >>> key = Fernet.generatekey() >>> f = Fernet(key) >>> token = f.encrypt(b"A really secret message. Not for prying eyes.") >>> token b'...' >>> f.decrypt(token) b'A really secret message. Not for prying eyes.'

PyPI page → Author: The Python Cryptographic Authority and individual contributors <cryptography-dev@python.org>

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with cryptography:

import cryptography

print(cryptography.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install cryptography

Virtual environment (recommended)

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install cryptography

pip3

pip3 install cryptography

conda

conda install -c conda-forge cryptography

Poetry

poetry add cryptography

Dependencies

Installing cryptography will also install these packages:

cffi cffi typing-extensions

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

python -c "import cryptography; print(cryptography.__version__)"

If this prints a version number, installation succeeded. If you see a ModuleNotFoundError, see the errors section below.

Installation Errors

Common errors when installing cryptography with pip.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cryptography'

Cause: The package is not installed in the current Python environment.

Fix: Run pip install cryptography. If using a virtual environment, ensure it is activated first.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'cryptography' (installed but still failing)

Cause: pip installed the package into a different Python than the one running your script.

Fix: Use python -m pip install cryptography to install into the interpreter you are running.

ImportError: cannot import name 'X' from 'cryptography'

Cause: The function or class does not exist in the installed version.

Fix: Check the version with pip show cryptography and upgrade with pip install --upgrade cryptography.

pip: command not found

Cause: pip is not in PATH or Python was not added to PATH during installation.

Fix: Try python -m pip install cryptography. On macOS/Linux try pip3.

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied

Cause: No write access to the system Python package directory.

Fix: Use a virtual environment, or add --user: pip install --user cryptography

SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED

Cause: pip cannot verify PyPI's SSL certificate — common behind corporate proxies.

Fix: Try: pip install --trusted-host pypi.org --trusted-host files.pythonhosted.org cryptography

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`46.0.7` latest	2026-04-08
`46.0.6`	2026-03-25
`46.0.5`	2026-02-10
`46.0.4`	2026-01-28
`46.0.3`	2025-10-15

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage cryptography

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade cryptography

Install a specific version

pip install cryptography==46.0.7

Uninstall

pip uninstall cryptography

Check what is installed

pip show cryptography

Last updated: 2026-04-11 • Data from PyPI

How to Install cryptography in Python