Installing GDAL for Python

Question

I'm looking to install GDAL for Python. The first thing I did is installing Python, then I install OSGeo including its library GDAL, then in CMD when I type pip install gdal I get this error

ERROR: Could not build wheels for GDAL, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

then I tried to download the wheel required in this link https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ but I didn't find it.

Does anyone know what could be the solution of my issue?

• PDash: That page is no longer supported, but Christoph Gohlke has kindly opened an alternative for these binary wheels, I guess: cgohlke.com Please check and drop a line if it worked for you.

Answer 1

An alternative option is to use the conda package/environment manager. You can

1. install e.g. miniforge
2. start the installed "Miniforge prompt"
3. create a new environment with e.g. the name gdal with the command conda create --name gdal
4. activate this new environment with conda activate gdal
5. install gdal with: conda install gdal

Answer 2

I found the version I needed here: https://download.lfd.uci.edu/pythonlibs/archived/GDAL-3.4.3-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl

Note this needs Python 3.11 and it will not work with Python 3.12.

After downloading I placed the wheel file at the project root and installed it using pip.

Answer 3

If you already use OSGeo4W, just install its python-gdal package.

Otherwise you are mixing potentially (or rather, probably) incompatible packages.

Also, OSGeo4W comes with its own, isolated Python installation, so your installation of a system-wide Python did nothing useful if you are planning to use OSGeo4W.