---
title: Install Prefect 
icon: arrow-down-to-line
---

import Installation from '/snippets/installation.mdx'

Prefect is published as a Python package, which requires Python 3.10 or newer. We recommend installing Prefect in a Python virtual environment. 

<Installation />

To confirm that Prefect was installed successfully, run:

<CodeGroup>

```bash pip
prefect version
```

```bash uv
uv run prefect version
```

</CodeGroup>

You should see output similar to:

```bash
Version:              3.4.24
API version:          0.8.4
Python version:       3.12.8
Git commit:           2428894e
Built:                Mon, Oct 13, 2025 07:16 PM
OS/Arch:              darwin/arm64
Profile:              local
Server type:          server
Pydantic version:     2.11.7
Server:
  Database:           sqlite
  SQLite version:     3.47.1
```

<Accordion title="More commands for power users">


### If you use `uv`

start an `ipython` shell with python 3.12 and `prefect` installed:

```bash
uvx --python 3.12 --with prefect ipython
```

install prefect into a `uv` virtual environment:

```bash
uv venv --python 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate
uv add prefect
```

add prefect to a project:

```bash
uv add prefect
```

run prefect server in an ephemeral python environment with `uvx`:

```bash
uvx prefect server start
```

### If you use `docker`

run prefect server in a container port-forwarded to your local machine's 4200 port:

```bash
docker run -d -p 4200:4200 prefecthq/prefect:3-latest -- prefect server start --host 0.0.0.0
```

</Accordion>

## Windows installation

You can install and run Prefect via Windows PowerShell, the Windows Command Prompt, or [conda](https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/windows.html). After installation, you may need to manually add the Python local packages `Scripts` folder to your `Path` environment variable.

The `Scripts` folder path looks something like:

```bash
C:\Users\MyUserNameHere\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.11_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python311\Scripts
```

Review the `pip install` output messages for the `Scripts` folder path on your system.

## Minimal Prefect installation

The `prefect-client` library is a minimal installation of Prefect designed for interacting with Prefect Cloud or a remote self-hosted Prefect server instance.

`prefect-client` enables a subset of Prefect's capabilities with a smaller installation size, making it ideal for use in lightweight, resource-constrained, or ephemeral environments.
It omits all CLI and server components found in the `prefect` library.

To install the latest release of `prefect-client`, run:

```bash
pip install -U prefect-client
```

## Next steps

You also need an API server, either:

* [Prefect Cloud](/v3/how-to-guides/cloud/connect-to-cloud/), a managed solution that provides strong scaling, performance, and security, or
* [Self-hosted Prefect server](/v3/concepts/server/), an API server that you run on your own infrastructure where you are responsible for scaling and any authentication and authorization.

Now that you have Prefect installed, go through the [quickstart](/v3/get-started/quickstart/) to try it out.

See the full history of [Prefect releases](https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/releases) on GitHub.

See our [Contributing docs](/contribute/dev-contribute/) for instructions on installing Prefect for development.
