pip install fails on Windows + Python 3.13

[naXa777]

$ pip --version
pip 25.0.1 from D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip (python 3.13)

$ python --version
Python 3.13.2

$ pip install -r requirements.txt
output:

Collecting Flask==2.0.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 1))
  Downloading Flask-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.8 kB)
Collecting numpy==1.21.0 (from -r requirements.txt (line 2))
  Downloading numpy-1.21.0.zip (10.3 MB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 10.3/10.3 MB 94.4 kB/s eta 0:00:00
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
ERROR: Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 106, in _run_wrapper
    status = _inner_run()
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 97, in _inner_run
    return self.run(options, args)
           ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\req_command.py", line 67, in wrapper
    return func(self, options, args)
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\install.py", line 386, in run
    requirement_set = resolver.resolve(
        reqs, check_supported_wheels=not options.target_dir
    )
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\resolver.py", line 95, in resolve
    result = self._result = resolver.resolve(
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        collected.requirements, max_rounds=limit_how_complex_resolution_can_be
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\resolvelib\resolvers.py", line 546, in resolve
    state = resolution.resolve(requirements, max_rounds=max_rounds)
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\resolvelib\resolvers.py", line 397, in resolve
    self._add_to_criteria(self.state.criteria, r, parent=None)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\resolvelib\resolvers.py", line 173, in _add_to_criteria
    if not criterion.candidates:
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\resolvelib\structs.py", line 156, in __bool__
    return bool(self._sequence)
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\found_candidates.py", line 174, in __bool__
    return any(self)
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\found_candidates.py", line 162, in <genexpr>
    return (c for c in iterator if id(c) not in self._incompatible_ids)
                       ^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\found_candidates.py", line 53, in _iter_built
    candidate = func()
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\factory.py", line 187, in _make_candidate_from_link
    base: Optional[BaseCandidate] = self._make_base_candidate_from_link(
                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        link, template, name, version
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\factory.py", line 233, in _make_base_candidate_from_link
    self._link_candidate_cache[link] = LinkCandidate(
                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        link,
        ^^^^^
    ...<3 lines>...
        version=version,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\candidates.py", line 304, in __init__
    super().__init__(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        link=link,
        ^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<4 lines>...
        version=version,
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\candidates.py", line 159, in __init__
    self.dist = self._prepare()
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\candidates.py", line 236, in _prepare
    dist = self._prepare_distribution()
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\resolution\resolvelib\candidates.py", line 315, in _prepare_distribution
    return preparer.prepare_linked_requirement(self._ireq, parallel_builds=True)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\operations\prepare.py", line 527, in prepare_linked_requirement
    return self._prepare_linked_requirement(req, parallel_builds)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\operations\prepare.py", line 642, in _prepare_linked_requirement
    dist = _get_prepared_distribution(
        req,
    ...<3 lines>...
        self.check_build_deps,
    )
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\operations\prepare.py", line 72, in _get_prepared_distribution
    abstract_dist.prepare_distribution_metadata(
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        finder, build_isolation, check_build_deps
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\distributions\sdist.py", line 56, in prepare_distribution_metadata
    self._install_build_reqs(finder)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\distributions\sdist.py", line 126, in _install_build_reqs
    build_reqs = self._get_build_requires_wheel()
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\distributions\sdist.py", line 103, in _get_build_requires_wheel
    return backend.get_requires_for_build_wheel()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\utils\misc.py", line 702, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
    return super().get_requires_for_build_wheel(config_settings=cs)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_impl.py", line 196, in get_requires_for_build_wheel
    return self._call_hook(
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
        "get_requires_for_build_wheel", {"config_settings": config_settings}
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    )
    ^
  File "D:\dev\tools\Python3\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_impl.py", line 402, in _call_hook
    raise BackendUnavailable(
    ...<4 lines>...
    )
pip._vendor.pyproject_hooks._impl.BackendUnavailable: Cannot import 'setuptools.build_meta'

What have I tried?

I faced a similar error with Python 3.11, so I decided to reinstall Python. And now I get the above error with Python 3.13.

[naXa777]

The fix that worked for me:

1. install the latest numpy pip install numpy. output:

   Collecting numpy
   Downloading numpy-2.2.4-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl.metadata (60 kB)
   Downloading numpy-2.2.4-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl (12.6 MB)
      ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 12.6/12.6 MB 96.9 kB/s eta 0:00:00
   Installing collected packages: numpy
   Successfully installed numpy-2.2.4
   

2. edit requirements.txt to remove version:

   Flask==2.0.1
   numpy
   Werkzeug>=2,<3
   

3. run pip install -r requirements.txt again. output:

   Collecting Flask==2.0.1 (from -r requirements.txt (line 1))
     Using cached Flask-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (3.8 kB)
   Requirement already satisfied: numpy in d:\dev\tools\python3\lib\site-packages (from -r requirements.txt (line 2)) (2.2.4)
   Collecting Werkzeug<3,>=2 (from -r requirements.txt (line 3))
     Downloading werkzeug-2.3.8-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
   Collecting Jinja2>=3.0 (from Flask==2.0.1->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
     Downloading jinja2-3.1.6-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.9 kB)
   Collecting itsdangerous>=2.0 (from Flask==2.0.1->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
     Downloading itsdangerous-2.2.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (1.9 kB)
   Collecting click>=7.1.2 (from Flask==2.0.1->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
     Downloading click-8.1.8-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.3 kB)
   Collecting MarkupSafe>=2.1.1 (from Werkzeug<3,>=2->-r requirements.txt (line 3))
     Downloading MarkupSafe-3.0.2-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl.metadata (4.1 kB)
   Collecting colorama (from click>=7.1.2->Flask==2.0.1->-r requirements.txt (line 1))
     Downloading colorama-0.4.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl.metadata (17 kB)
   Downloading Flask-2.0.1-py3-none-any.whl (94 kB)
   Downloading werkzeug-2.3.8-py3-none-any.whl (242 kB)
   Downloading click-8.1.8-py3-none-any.whl (98 kB)
   Downloading itsdangerous-2.2.0-py3-none-any.whl (16 kB)
   Downloading jinja2-3.1.6-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
   Downloading MarkupSafe-3.0.2-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl (15 kB)
   Downloading colorama-0.4.6-py2.py3-none-any.whl (25 kB)
   Installing collected packages: MarkupSafe, itsdangerous, colorama, Werkzeug, Jinja2, click, Flask
   Successfully installed Flask-2.0.1 Jinja2-3.1.6 MarkupSafe-3.0.2 Werkzeug-2.3.8 click-8.1.8 colorama-0.4.6 itsdangerous-2.2.0
   

After this I was able to run the app locally!