How to Install `s3transfer` in Python

v0.16.0 General Purpose Python >=3.9 Apache License 2.0

An Amazon S3 Transfer Manager

Install pip install s3transfer

What is s3transfer?

An Amazon S3 Transfer Manager

s3transfer - An Amazon S3 Transfer Manager for Python

S3transfer is a Python library for managing Amazon S3 transfers. This project is maintained and published by Amazon Web Services.

This project is not currently GA. If you are planning to use this code in production, make sure to lock to a minor version as interfaces may break from minor version to minor version. For a basic, stable interface of s3transfer, try the interfaces exposed in __

Documentation → PyPI page → Author: Amazon Web Services

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with s3transfer:

import s3transfer

print(s3transfer.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install s3transfer

Virtual environment (recommended)

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate
pip install s3transfer

pip3

pip3 install s3transfer

conda

conda install -c conda-forge s3transfer

Poetry

poetry add s3transfer

Dependencies

Installing s3transfer will also install these packages:

botocore

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

python -c "import s3transfer; print(s3transfer.__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 s3transfer with pip.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 's3transfer'

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

Fix: Run pip install s3transfer. If using a virtual environment, ensure it is activated first.

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 's3transfer' (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 s3transfer to install into the interpreter you are running.

ImportError: cannot import name 'X' from 's3transfer'

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

Fix: Check the version with pip show s3transfer and upgrade with pip install --upgrade s3transfer.

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 s3transfer. 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 s3transfer

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 s3transfer

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`0.16.0` latest	2025-12-01
`0.15.0`	2025-11-20
`0.14.0`	2025-09-09
`0.13.1`	2025-07-18
`0.13.0`	2025-05-22

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage s3transfer

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade s3transfer

Install a specific version

pip install s3transfer==0.16.0

Uninstall

pip uninstall s3transfer

Check what is installed

pip show s3transfer

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

How to Install s3transfer in Python