Install PyQt5 on Ubuntu Linux

Install PyQt5 on Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions
by Martin Fitzpatrick Last updated PyQt5 Installation Guides

This tutorial is also available for PyQt6 , PySide2 , PySide6 and Tkinter

Heads up! You've already completed this tutorial.

Before you start the PyQt5 tutorial you will need to have a working installation of PyQt5 on your system. If you don't have either set up yet, the following steps will guide you through how to do this on Linux.

This guide is also available for macOS and Windows.

Note that the following instructions are only for installation of the GPL licensed version of PyQt. If you need to use PyQt in a non-GPL project you will need to purchase an alternative license from Riverbank Computing to release your software.

Table of Contents

Install PyQt5 with pip

The simplest way to install PyQt5 on Linux is to use Python's pip packaging tool, just as for other packages. For Python3 installations this is usually called pip3.

bash 
pip3 install pyqt5

Install PyQt5 via apt

Packages for PyQt5 are available in the repositories of most distributions, although they may sometimes be out of date. Check first to ensure you're getting an up to date version, and if not use the pip method above. In Ubuntu you can install either from the command line or via "Software Center". The package you are looking for is named python3-pyqt5.

You can also install these from the command line as follows --

bash 
sudo apt install python3-pyqt5

After install is finished, you should be able to run python (or python3) and import PyQt5 without errors.

Packaging Python Applications with PyInstaller by Martin Fitzpatrick — This step-by-step guide walks you through packaging your own Python applications from simple examples to complete installers and signed executables.

More info Get the book

python 
Python 3.7.6
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import PyQt5
>>>

You can now start creating Python GUI applications with PyQt5.

Well done, you've finished this tutorial! Mark As Complete
[[ user.completed.length ]] completed [[ user.streak+1 ]] day streak

Install PyQt5 on Ubuntu Linux was written by Martin Fitzpatrick with contributions from Punition Chaetognathan .

Martin Fitzpatrick has been developing Python/Qt apps for 8 years. Building desktop applications to make data-analysis tools more user-friendly, Python was the obvious choice. Starting with Tk, later moving to wxWidgets and finally adopting PyQt.

Install PyQt5 on Ubuntu Linux was published in installation on (updated ) . Feedback & Corrections welcome in our public issue tracker.

installation linux  pyqt5 python qt qt5