How to Speed Up pip Package Downloads

Introduction

One reason Python is so useful and widely loved is its rich ecosystem of high-quality third-party packages. Common examples include requests for web scraping, pandas for data analysis, and scikit-learn for machine learning.

• pandas
• numpy
• matplotlib
• scipy
• scikit-learn
• …

Upgrade pip itself:

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pip install pip -U

Install a third-party package:

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pip install pandas

Upgrade an installed package:

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pip install --upgrade pandas

The problem is that downloads from the default PyPI servers outside mainland China can be slow and may time out. The simplest solution is to use a domestic PyPI mirror.

PyPI Mirrors in China

These mainstream mirrors are actively maintained. Tsinghua University and Alibaba Cloud are good first choices:

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Tsinghua University: https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple
Alibaba Cloud:       https://mirrors.aliyun.com/pypi/simple/
Tencent Cloud:       https://mirrors.cloud.tencent.com/pypi/simple/
Huawei Cloud:        https://repo.huaweicloud.com/repository/pypi/simple/
USTC:                https://pypi.mirrors.ustc.edu.cn/simple/

Older mirrors once recommended by Douban, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Shandong University of Technology have largely been discontinued or unavailable for long periods, so I do not recommend them. Mirrors can also lag behind PyPI. If a newly released package version is not available yet, temporarily switch back to the official index at https://pypi.org/simple.

Temporary Use

Use -i to specify a mirror for one command:

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pip install -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple some-package

Set a Permanent Default

Upgrade to a recent version of pip (10.0.0 or later), then set the default index:

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pip install pip -U
pip config set global.index-url https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple

After the command succeeds, pip writes the setting to its configuration file. The location depends on the operating system:

On Windows, the generated pip.ini looks like this:

Its contents are approximately:

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[global]
index-url = https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple

[install]
trusted-host = pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn

The hostname in trusted-host must match the hostname in index-url. trusted-host skips SSL verification for non-HTTPS sources. Because the Tsinghua mirror above uses HTTPS, this setting is usually unnecessary. Add it only when using an HTTP source or troubleshooting an SSL error, and always use the matching hostname.

Upgrade pip Through a Mirror

If the default connection is too slow even to upgrade pip, use the Tsinghua mirror for that command:

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pip install -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple pip -U

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