How to beginner · 3 min read

How to install Weights and Biases

Q: How to install Weights and Biases

Install Weights and Biases by running pip install wandb in your Python environment. Then, initialize it in your code with import wandb and wandb.init() to start tracking experiments.

Quick answer

Install Weights and Biases by running pip install wandb in your Python environment. Then, initialize it in your code with import wandb and wandb.init() to start tracking experiments.

PREREQUISITES

Python 3.8+
pip package manager
Internet connection for package download

Setup

Install the Weights and Biases Python SDK using pip. This package enables experiment tracking, logging, and visualization for machine learning projects.

Set your API key via environment variable WANDB_API_KEY or login interactively after installation.

bash

pip install wandb

Step by step

Here is a minimal example to install and initialize Weights and Biases in a Python script to track a simple metric.

python

import wandb

# Initialize a new run
wandb.init(project="my-project")

# Log a metric
for epoch in range(3):
    wandb.log({"epoch": epoch, "accuracy": 0.8 + epoch * 0.05})

print("Run completed and logged to W&B.")

output

Run completed and logged to W&B.

Common variations

Use wandb.login() to authenticate interactively if you don't want to set the API key as an environment variable.
Integrate with popular ML frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow by adding wandb.watch(model) to log gradients and parameters.
Run asynchronously or in distributed training setups by configuring wandb.init() with appropriate parameters.

Troubleshooting

If you see wandb: ERROR API key not found, set your API key with export WANDB_API_KEY=your_api_key on Linux/macOS or setx WANDB_API_KEY your_api_key on Windows.
For network issues, ensure your firewall allows outbound HTTPS traffic to api.wandb.ai.
If pip install wandb fails, upgrade pip with pip install --upgrade pip and retry.

✅

Key Takeaways

Use pip install wandb to install the Weights and Biases SDK quickly.
Set your API key via the WANDB_API_KEY environment variable for seamless authentication.
Initialize tracking in your Python code with wandb.init() and log metrics with wandb.log().
Use wandb.login() for interactive authentication if preferred over environment variables.
Troubleshoot common errors by verifying API key setup and network connectivity.

Verified 2026-04

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