How to install Scrapy using pip

Installing Scrapy with pip adds the crawler CLI, project generator, and interactive shell from the current PyPI package instead of waiting for a distro package to catch up. A dedicated virtual environment also keeps crawler dependencies away from unrelated automation and system tools.

The python -m pip install scrapy command installs Scrapy and its runtime dependencies into the active interpreter. In a virtual environment, that keeps the scrapy command, the installed libraries, and later package upgrades tied to one isolated Python environment.

Scrapy currently requires Python 3.10 or later. Installing into a distro-managed or system interpreter can fail under an externally managed environment policy or overwrite OS-owned packages, so creating a virtual environment first remains the safer path. On Windows, upstream documentation still prefers Anaconda or Miniconda over a raw pip install because some dependencies may need Microsoft C++ Build Tools.

Steps to install Scrapy using pip:

Create a dedicated virtual environment for Scrapy.
```
$ python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/scrapy
```
Use a Python 3.10+ interpreter for the virtual environment so the install matches current Scrapy support.
Activate the virtual environment.
```
$ source ~/.venvs/scrapy/bin/activate
```
The shell prompt usually changes to show the environment name after activation.

Install Scrapy from PyPI with the active interpreter.

(scrapy) $ python -m pip install scrapy
Collecting scrapy
  Downloading scrapy-2.15.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.3 kB)
Collecting cryptography>=37.0.0 (from scrapy)
  Downloading cryptography-46.0.7-...whl.metadata (5.7 kB)
Collecting lxml>=4.6.4 (from scrapy)
  Downloading lxml-6.1.0-...whl.metadata (4.0 kB)
##### snipped #####
Installing collected packages: attrs, automat, certifi, cryptography, cssselect, itemadapter, itemloaders, lxml, parsel, pyopenssl, scrapy, service-identity, tldextract, twisted, w3lib
Successfully installed attrs-26.1.0 automat-25.4.16 certifi-2026.2.25 ##### snipped ##### scrapy-2.15.0 service-identity-24.2.0 tldextract-5.3.1 twisted-25.5.0 w3lib-2.4.1

If pip falls back to building lxml or cryptography locally and fails, install the platform compiler and development headers first, then rerun the same command inside this virtual environment.

Check the installed Scrapy version.
```
(scrapy) $ scrapy version
Scrapy 2.15.0
```
The version follows the current PyPI release at install time, so the number can differ from this example.

Run the Scrapy CLI outside a project directory to confirm the command is ready.

(scrapy) $ scrapy
Scrapy 2.15.0 - no active project

Usage:
   scrapy <command> [options] [args]
 Available commands:

  bench         Run quick benchmark test
  fetch         Fetch a URL using the Scrapy downloader
  genspider     Generate new spider using pre-defined templates
  runspider     Run a self-contained spider (without creating a project)
  settings      Get settings values
  shell         Interactive scraping console
  startproject  Create new project
  version       Print Scrapy version
  view          Open URL in browser, as seen by Scrapy

   [ more ]      More commands available when run from project directory

 Use "scrapy <command> -h" to see more info about a command

The no active project message is expected until the command is run from a Scrapy project directory. Related: How to use Scrapy shell
Related: How to create a Scrapy spider