How to install Scrapy using pip

Installing Scrapy with pip provides a repeatable way to deploy the same Python crawling stack across multiple machines while tracking releases published on PyPI.

The pip installer downloads the Scrapy distribution and its dependencies, then registers the scrapy console command as a script entry point in the active Python environment. For a user-scoped install on Linux, that script commonly lands in /home/user/.local/bin, while virtual environments place it under the environment directory.

Some distributions also provide Scrapy as an OS package, which can be tightly integrated but may lag behind PyPI. On platforms enforcing PEP 668, pip can refuse to modify the system Python and require a virtual environment or another supported install target.

1. Install pip for the operating system.

   Related: How to install pip on Ubuntu and Debian
   Related: How to install pip on CentOS, Red Hat, or Fedora
   Related: pip installation documentation

2. Create a virtual environment for the Scrapy install.

   $ python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/scrapy

   On PEP 668 systems, installing into a venv avoids modifying the system Python.

3. Activate the virtual environment.

   $ source ~/.venvs/scrapy/bin/activate

   For zsh, the same source command applies.

4. Install Scrapy with pip inside the virtual environment.

   $ pip install scrapy
   Collecting scrapy
     Downloading scrapy-2.13.4-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.4 kB)
   Collecting cryptography>=37.0.0 (from scrapy)
     Downloading cryptography-46.0.3-cp311-abi3-manylinux_2_34_aarch64.whl.metadata (5.7 kB)
   Collecting cssselect>=0.9.1 (from scrapy)
     Downloading cssselect-1.3.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.6 kB)
   ##### snipped #####
   Installing collected packages: pydispatcher, zope-interface, w3lib, urllib3, typing-extensions, queuelib, pycparser, pyasn1, protego, packaging, lxml, jmespath, itemadapter, idna, filelock, defusedxml, cssselect, constantly, charset_normalizer, certifi, automat, attrs, requests, pyasn1-modules, parsel, incremental, hyperlink, cffi, twisted, requests-file, itemloaders, cryptography, tldextract, service-identity, pyopenssl, scrapy
   Successfully installed attrs-25.4.0 automat-25.4.16 certifi-2025.11.12 cffi-2.0.0 charset_normalizer-3.4.4 constantly-23.10.4 cryptography-46.0.3 cssselect-1.3.0 defusedxml-0.7.1 filelock-3.20.1 hyperlink-21.0.0 idna-3.11 incremental-24.11.0 itemadapter-0.13.0 itemloaders-1.3.2 jmespath-1.0.1 lxml-6.0.2 packaging-25.0 parsel-1.10.0 protego-0.5.0 pyasn1-0.6.1 pyasn1-modules-0.4.2 pycparser-2.23 pydispatcher-2.0.7 pyopenssl-25.3.0 queuelib-1.8.0 requests-2.32.5 requests-file-3.0.1 scrapy-2.13.4 service-identity-24.2.0 tldextract-5.3.1 twisted-25.5.0 typing-extensions-4.15.0 urllib3-2.6.2 w3lib-2.3.1 zope-interface-8.1.1

5. Run scrapy to confirm the command is available.

   $ scrapy
   Scrapy 2.13.4 - 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