How to Install `duckdb` in Python

v1.5.1 Data & Science Python >=3.10.0

DuckDB in-process database

Install pip install duckdb

What is duckdb?

DuckDB in-process database

DuckDB.org | User Guide (Python) - API Docs (Python)

DuckDB: A Fast, In-Process, Portable, Open Source, Analytical Database System

Simple: DuckDB is easy to install and deploy. It has zero external dependencies and runs in-process in its host application or as a single binary. Portable: DuckDB runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS and all popular hardware architectures. It has idiomatic client APIs for major programming languages. Feature-rich: DuckDB offers a rich SQL dialect. It can read and write file formats such as CSV, Parquet, and JSON, to and from the local file system and remote endpoints such as S3 buckets. Fast: DuckDB runs analytical queries at blazing speed thanks to its columnar engine, which supports parallel execution and can process larger-than-memory workloads. Extensible: DuckDB is extensible by third-party features such as new data types, functions, file formats and new SQL syntax. User contributions are available as community extensions. Free: DuckDB and its core extensions are open-source under the permissive MIT License. The intellectual property of the project is held by the DuckDB Foundation.

PyPI page → Author: DuckDB Foundation

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with duckdb:

import duckdb

print(duckdb.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install duckdb

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install duckdb

conda

conda install -c conda-forge duckdb

Poetry

poetry add duckdb

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

python -c "import duckdb; print(duckdb.__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 duckdb with pip.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'duckdb'

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

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'duckdb' (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 duckdb to install into the interpreter you are running.

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

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

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

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 duckdb. 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 duckdb

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 duckdb

MemoryError when loading data

Cause: Dataset is too large to fit in RAM.

Fix: Read in chunks, filter columns on load, or consider Polars/Dask for out-of-core processing.

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`1.5.2.dev54`	2026-04-11
`1.5.2.dev52`	2026-04-10
`1.5.2.dev42`	2026-04-08
`1.5.2.dev40`	2026-04-05
`1.4.5.dev25`	2026-04-03

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage duckdb

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade duckdb

Install a specific version

pip install duckdb==1.5.1

Uninstall

pip uninstall duckdb

Check what is installed

pip show duckdb

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

How to Install duckdb in Python