How to Install `tiktoken` in Python

v0.12.0 General Purpose Python >=3.9 MIT

tiktoken is a fast BPE tokeniser for use with OpenAI's models

Install pip install tiktoken

What is tiktoken?

tiktoken is a fast BPE tokeniser for use with OpenAI's models

tiktoken is a fast BPE tokeniser for use with OpenAI's models.

The open source version of can be installed from PyPI:

Example code using can be found in the OpenAI Cookbook.

PyPI page → Author: Shantanu Jain

Quick Start

Minimal example to get started with tiktoken:

import tiktoken

print(tiktoken.__version__)

Installation

pip (standard)

pip install tiktoken

Virtual environment (recommended)

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

pip3

pip3 install tiktoken

conda

conda install -c conda-forge tiktoken

Poetry

poetry add tiktoken

Dependencies

Installing tiktoken will also install these packages:

regex requests

Verify the Installation

After installing, confirm the package is available:

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

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tiktoken'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 tiktoken. 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 tiktoken

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 tiktoken

Recent Releases

Version	Released
`0.12.0` latest	2025-10-06
`0.11.0`	2025-08-08
`0.10.0`	2025-08-05
`0.9.0`	2025-02-14
`0.8.0`	2024-10-03

Full release history on PyPI →

Manage tiktoken

Upgrade to latest version

pip install --upgrade tiktoken

Install a specific version

pip install tiktoken==0.12.0

Uninstall

pip uninstall tiktoken

Check what is installed

pip show tiktoken

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

How to Install tiktoken in Python