How to Install `Kivy` in Python

v2.3.1 Data & Science Python >=3.8 MIT

An open-source Python framework for developing GUI apps that work cross-platform, including desktop, mobile and embedded platforms.

Install pip install Kivy

What is Kivy?

An open-source Python framework for developing GUI apps that work cross-platform, including desktop, mobile and embedded platforms.

Kivy is an open-source Python framework for developing GUI apps that work cross-platform, including desktop, mobile and embedded platforms. The aim is to allow for quick and easy interaction design and rapid prototyping whilst making your code reusable and deployable: Innovative user interfaces made easy. Kivy is written in Python and Cython and is built on OpenGL ES 2.0. It supports various input devices and has an extensive (and extensible) widget library. With the same codebase, you can target Windows, macOS, Linux (including Raspberry Pi OS), Android, and iOS. All Kivy widgets are built with multitouch support. Kivy is MIT licensed, actively developed by a great community and is supported by many projects managed by the Kivy Organization. [](#backers) [](#sponsors) [](CODEOFCONDUCT.md) []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( []( Installation, Documentation and Examples

Extensive installation instructions as well as tutorials and general documentation, including an API reference, can be found at A PDF version is also available. Kivy ships with many examples which can be found in the folder. Support

Are you having trouble using the Kivy framework, or any of its related projects? Is there an error you don’t understand? Are you trying to figure out how to use it? We have volunteers who can help! The best channels to contact us for support are listed in the latest Contact Us document. Contributing

Documentation → PyPI page → Author: Kivy Team and other contributors

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with Kivy:

import kivy

print(kivy.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install Kivy

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install Kivy

conda

conda install -c conda-forge Kivy

Poetry

poetry add Kivy

Dependencies

Installing Kivy will also install these packages:

Kivy-Garden docutils pygments requests filetype kivy-deps.angle kivy-deps.sdl2 kivy-deps.glew pypiwin32

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'kivy'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Kivy. 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 Kivy

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 Kivy

MemoryError when loading data

Cause: Dataset is too large to fit in RAM.

Fix: Read in chunks, filter columns on load, or consider Polars/Dask for out-of-core processing.

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`2.3.1` latest	2024-12-26
`2.3.1rc1`	2024-12-26
`2.3.1.dev0`	2024-11-30
`2.3.0`	2024-01-05
`2.3.0rc3`	2024-01-01

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage Kivy

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade Kivy

Install a specific version

pip install Kivy==2.3.1

Uninstall

pip uninstall Kivy

Check what is installed

pip show Kivy

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

How to Install Kivy in Python