How to Install tenacity in Python

v9.1.4 CLI & Utilities Python >=3.10 Apache 2.0

Retry code until it succeeds

Install pip install tenacity

What is tenacity?

Retry code until it succeeds

Tenacity is a general-purpose retrying library to simplify the task of adding retry behavior to just about anything.

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with tenacity:

import tenacity

print(tenacity.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install tenacity

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install tenacity

conda

conda install -c conda-forge tenacity

Poetry

poetry add tenacity

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tenacity'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 tenacity. 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 tenacity

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 tenacity

Recent Releases

VersionReleased
9.1.4 latest 2026-02-07
9.1.3 2026-02-05
9.1.2 2025-04-02
9.0.0 2024-07-29
8.5.0 2024-07-05

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage tenacity

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade tenacity

Install a specific version

pip install tenacity==9.1.4

Uninstall

pip uninstall tenacity

Check what is installed

pip show tenacity

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