Installation with pip

Note

PyAutoLens requires Python 3.12 or later. If you are on Python 3.9, 3.10, or 3.11, pip install autolens will fail with a “no matching distribution” error. Upgrade Python to 3.12+ before installing.

JAX & GPU

PyAutoLens runs significantly faster on GPUs — often 50x or more compared to CPUs.

This acceleration is achieved through [JAX](https://docs.jax.dev/en/latest/notebooks/thinking_in_jax.html), which provides GPU and TPU support.

When you install PyAutoLens (see instructions below), JAX will also be installed. However, the default installation may not include GPU support.

To ensure GPU acceleration, it is recommended that you install JAX with GPU support before installing PyAutoLens, by following the official [JAX installation guide](https://jax.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html).

If you install PyAutoLens without a proper GPU setup, a warning will be displayed.

Install

We strongly recommend that you install PyAutoLens in a Python virtual environment, with the link attached describing what a virtual environment is and how to create one.

We upgrade pip to ensure certain libraries install:

pip install --upgrade pip

The latest version of PyAutoLens is installed via pip as follows (specifying the version as shown below ensures the installation has clean dependencies):

pip install autolens

If pip prints warnings about dependency version conflicts, these can usually be ignored — the instructions below will identify clearly if the installation is a success.

If there are no errors PyAutoLens is installed!

If there is an error check out the troubleshooting section.

Workspace

Next, clone the autolens workspace (the line --depth 1 clones only the most recent branch on the autolens_workspace, reducing the download size):

cd /path/on/your/computer/you/want/to/put/the/autolens_workspace
git clone https://github.com/PyAutoLabs/autolens_workspace --depth 1
cd autolens_workspace

Run the welcome.py script to get started!

python3 welcome.py

It should be clear that PyAutoLens runs without issue.

If there is an error check out the troubleshooting section.

Numba

Numba (https://numba.pydata.org) is an optional library which makes PyAutoLens run a lot faster, which we strongly recommend users have installed.

You can install numba via the following command:

pip install numba

Some users have experienced difficulties installing numba, which is why it is an optional library. If your installation is not successful, you can use PyAutoLens without it installed for now, to familiarize yourself with the software and determine if it is the right software for you.

If you decide that PyAutoLens is the right software, then I recommend you commit the time to getting a successful numba install working, with more information provided at this readthedocs page

Optional

For interferometer analysis there are two optional dependencies that must be installed via the commands:

pip install pynufft

PyAutoLens will run without these libraries and it is recommended that you only install them if you intend to do interferometer analysis.

If you run interferometer code a message explaining that you need to install these libraries will be printed, therefore it is safe not to install them initially.

Legacy Python versions

We dropped support for Python 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11 in release 2026.4.5.3 (April 2026). Pre-2026.4.5.3 releases on PyPI have been yanked, so they will not install via the standard pip install autolens command.

If you have an existing project that requires a pre-2026.4.5.3 version, you can still install it explicitly by pinning the version, e.g.:

pip install autolens==2025.10.6.1

Yanked releases remain available for explicit pins; only resolver-driven fallback is blocked.