How to Install `psutil` in Python

v7.2.2 CLI & Utilities Python >=3.6 BSD-3-Clause

Cross-platform lib for process and system monitoring.

Install pip install psutil

What is psutil?

Cross-platform lib for process and system monitoring.

psutil (process and system utilities) is a cross-platform library for retrieving information on running processes and system utilization (CPU, memory, disks, network, sensors) in Python. It is useful mainly for system monitoring, profiling and limiting process resources and management of running processes. It implements many functionalities offered by classic UNIX command line tools such as ps, top, iotop, lsof, netstat, ifconfig, free and others. psutil currently supports the following platforms:

- Linux - Windows - macOS - FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD - Sun Solaris - AIX

Supported Python versions are cPython 3.6+ and . Latest psutil version supporting Python 2.7 is .

Documentation → PyPI page → Author: Giampaolo Rodola

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with psutil:

import psutil

print(f"CPU: {psutil.cpu_percent()}%")
mem = psutil.virtual_memory()
print(f"RAM: {mem.used / 1e9:.1f}GB / {mem.total / 1e9:.1f}GB")
disk = psutil.disk_usage("/")
print(f"Disk free: {disk.free / 1e9:.0f}GB")

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install psutil

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install psutil

conda

conda install -c conda-forge psutil

Poetry

poetry add psutil

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'psutil'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 psutil. 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 psutil

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 psutil

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`7.2.2` latest	2026-01-28
`7.2.1`	2025-12-29
`7.2.0`	2025-12-23
`7.1.3`	2025-11-02
`7.1.2`	2025-10-25

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage psutil

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade psutil

Install a specific version

pip install psutil==7.2.2

Uninstall

pip uninstall psutil

Check what is installed

pip show psutil

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

How to Install psutil in Python