How to Install `openpyxl` in Python

v3.1.5 General Purpose Python >=3.8 MIT

A Python library to read/write Excel 2010 xlsx/xlsm files

Install pip install openpyxl

What is openpyxl?

A Python library to read/write Excel 2010 xlsx/xlsm files

openpyxl is a Python library to read/write Excel 2010 xlsx/xlsm/xltx/xltm files.

It was born from lack of existing library to read/write natively from Python the Office Open XML format.

All kudos to the PHPExcel team as openpyxl was initially based on PHPExcel.

Documentation → PyPI page → Author: See AUTHORS

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with openpyxl:

from openpyxl import Workbook

wb = Workbook()
ws = wb.active
ws.title = "Sales"
ws["A1"] = "Month"
ws["B1"] = "Revenue"
ws.append(["January", 12500])
ws.append(["February", 14200])
wb.save("report.xlsx")

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install openpyxl

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install openpyxl

conda

conda install -c conda-forge openpyxl

Poetry

poetry add openpyxl

Dependencies

Installing openpyxl will also install these packages:

et-xmlfile

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'openpyxl'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 openpyxl. 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 openpyxl

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 openpyxl

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`3.1.5` latest	2024-06-28
`3.1.4`	2024-06-12
`3.1.3`	2024-05-29
`3.1.2`	2023-03-11
`3.1.1`	2023-02-13

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage openpyxl

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade openpyxl

Install a specific version

pip install openpyxl==3.1.5

Uninstall

pip uninstall openpyxl

Check what is installed

pip show openpyxl

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

How to Install openpyxl in Python