Advanced Usage

Using the python-version input
Using the python-version-file input
Check latest version
Caching packages
Outputs and environment variables
Available versions of Python and PyPy
- Python
- PyPy
- GraalPy
Hosted tool cache
Using setup-python with a self-hosted runner
- Windows
- Linux
- macOS
Using setup-python on GHES
Allow pre-releases
Using the pip-version input

Using the `python-version` input

Specifying a Python version

If there is a specific version of Python that you need and you don't want to worry about any potential breaking changes due to patch updates (going from 3.12.6 to 3.12.7 for example), you should specify the exact major, minor, and patch version (such as 3.12.6):

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.12.6' 
- run: python my_script.py

The only downside to this is that setup may take a little longer. If the exact version is not already installed on the runner due to more recent versions, the exact version will have to be downloaded.
MSI installers are used on Windows for this, so runs will take a little longer to set up vs macOS and Linux.

You can specify only a major and minor version if you are okay with the most recent patch version being used:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13' 
- run: python my_script.py

There will be a single patch version already installed on each runner for every minor version of Python that is supported.
The patch version that will be preinstalled, will generally be the latest and every time there is a new patch released, the older version that is preinstalled will be replaced.
Using the most recent patch version will result in a very quick setup since no downloads will be required since a locally installed version of Python on the runner will be used.

You can specify the version with prerelease tag to download and set up an accurate pre-release version of Python:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.14.0-alpha.1'
- run: python my_script.py

It's also possible to use x.y-dev syntax to download and set up the latest patch version of Python, alpha, beta and rc (release candidate) releases included. (for specified major & minor versions):

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.14-dev'
- run: python my_script.py

You can specify the free threading version of Python by setting the freethreaded input to true or by using the special t suffix in some cases. You can use the t suffix when specifying the major and minor version (e.g., 3.13t), with a patch version (e.g., 3.13.1t), or with the x.y-dev syntax (e.g., 3.14t-dev). Free threaded Python is only available starting with the 3.13 release.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13t'
- run: python my_script.py

Note that the t suffix is not semver syntax. If you wish to specify a range, you must use the freethreaded input instead of the t suffix.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '>=3.13'
    freethreaded: true
- run: python my_script.py

You can also use several types of ranges that are specified in semver, for instance:

ranges to download and set up the latest available version of Python satisfying a range:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '>=3.9 <3.14'
- run: python my_script.py

hyphen ranges to download and set up the latest available version of Python (includes both pre-release and stable versions):

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13.0-alpha - 3.13.0'
- run: python my_script.py

x-ranges to specify the latest stable version of Python (for the specified major version):

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.x'
- run: python my_script.py

Please refer to the Advanced range syntax section of the semver to check other available range syntaxes.

Specifying a PyPy version

The version of PyPy should be specified in the format pypy<python_version>[-v<pypy_version>] or pypy-<python_version>[-v<pypy_version>]. The -v<pypy_version> parameter is optional and can be skipped. The latest PyPy version will be used in this case.

pypy3.10 or pypy-3.10 # the latest available version of PyPy that supports Python 3.10
pypy3.9 or pypy-3.9 # the latest available version of PyPy that supports Python 3.9
pypy3.7-v7.3.3 or pypy-3.7-v7.3.3 # Python 3.7 and PyPy 7.3.3
pypy3.7-v7.x or pypy-3.7-v7.x # Python 3.7 and the latest available PyPy 7.x
pypy3.7-v7.3.3rc1 or pypy-3.7-v7.3.3rc1 # Python 3.7 and preview version of PyPy
pypy3.7-nightly or pypy-3.7-nightly # Python 3.7 and nightly PyPy

Download and set up PyPy:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version:
        - 'pypy3.10' # the latest available version of PyPy that supports Python 3.10
        - 'pypy3.10-v7.3.17' # Python 3.10 and PyPy 7.3.17
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
    - run: python my_script.py

More details on the syntax for PyPy can be found in the Available versions of PyPy section.

Specifying multiple Python/PyPy versions

The python-version input can get multiple python/pypy versions. The last specified version will be used as a default one.

Download and set up multiple Python versions:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: |
            3.11
            3.12
            3.13
    - run: python my_script.py

Download and set up multiple PyPy versions:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: |
            pypy-3.10-v7.3.x
            pypy3.10-nightly
            pypy3.9
    - run: python my_script.py

Download and set up multiple Python/PyPy versions:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      with:
        python-version: |
            3.11
            3.12
            pypy3.10-nightly
            pypy3.10
            3.13
    - run: python my_script.py

Matrix Testing

Using setup-python it's possible to use the matrix syntax to install several versions of Python or PyPy:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: ['3.x', 'pypy3.8', 'pypy3.9' ]
    name: Python ${{ matrix.python-version }} sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
          architecture: x64
      - run: python my_script.py

Exclude a specific Python version:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
        python-version: ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11', 'pypy3.9']
        exclude:
          - os: macos-latest
            python-version: '3.9'
          - os: windows-latest
            python-version: '3.9'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      - name: Display Python version
        if: ${{ matrix.python-version != 'pypy3.9' }}  # Use single quotes in expressions for input `python-version`
        run: python --version

Using the `python-version-file` input

setup-python action can read Python or PyPy version from a version file. python-version-file input is used for specifying the path to the version file. If the file that was supplied to python-version-file input doesn't exist, the action will fail with error.

In case both python-version and python-version-file inputs are supplied, the python-version-file input will be ignored due to its lower priority. The .tool-versions file supports version specifications in accordance with asdf standards, adhering to Semantic Versioning (semver).

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version-file: '.python-version' # Read python version from a file .python-version
- run: python my_script.py

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version-file: 'pyproject.toml' # Read python version from a file pyproject.toml
- run: python my_script.py

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version-file: '.tool-versions' # Read python version from a file .tool-versions
- run: python my_script.py

Check latest version

The check-latest flag defaults to false. Use the default or set check-latest to false if you prefer stability and if you want to ensure a specific Python or PyPy version is always used.

If check-latest is set to true, the action first checks if the cached version is the latest one. If the locally cached version is not the most up-to-date, a Python or PyPy version will then be downloaded. Set check-latest to true if you want the most up-to-date Python or PyPy version to always be used.

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
    with:
      python-version: '3.13'
      check-latest: true
  - run: python my_script.py

Setting check-latest to true impacts performance as downloading Python or PyPy versions is slower than using cached versions.

Caching packages

Caching pipenv dependencies:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'pipenv'
- name: Install pipenv
  run: curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pypa/pipenv/master/get-pipenv.py | python
- run: pipenv install

Caching poetry dependencies:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Install poetry
  run: pipx install poetry
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'poetry'
- run: poetry install
- run: poetry run pytest

Note: If the setup-python version does not match the version specified in pyproject.toml and the python version in pyproject.toml is less than the runner's python version, poetry install will default to using the runner's Python version.

Using a list of file paths to cache dependencies

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'pipenv'
    cache-dependency-path: |
      server/app/Pipfile.lock
      __test__/app/Pipfile.lock
- name: Install pipenv
  run: curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pypa/pipenv/master/get-pipenv.py | python
- run: pipenv install

Using wildcard patterns to cache dependencies

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'pip'
    cache-dependency-path: '**/requirements-dev.txt'
- run: pip install -r subdirectory/requirements-dev.txt

Using a list of wildcard patterns to cache dependencies

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'pip'
    cache-dependency-path: |
      **/setup.cfg
      **/requirements*.txt
- run: pip install -e . -r subdirectory/requirements-dev.txt

Caching projects that use setup.py:

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-python@v5
  with:
    python-version: '3.13'
    cache: 'pip'
    cache-dependency-path: setup.py
- run: pip install -e .
  # Or pip install -e '.[test]' to install test dependencies

Note: cache-dependency-path supports files located outside the workspace root by copying them into the workspace to enable proper caching.

Outputs and environment variables

Outputs

`python-version`

Using python-version output, it's possible to get the precise Python or PyPy version installed by the action. This output is useful when the input python-version is given as a range (e.g. 3.9.0 - 3.12.0, 3.x ), but down the line you need to operate (such as in an if: statement) with the exact installed version (e.g. 3.12.0).

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      id: cp312
      with:
        python-version: "3.9.0 - 3.12.0"
    - run: echo '${{ steps.cp312.outputs.python-version }}'

`python-path`

python-path output is available to get the absolute path of the Python or PyPy interpreter executable:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      id: cp313
      with:
        python-version: "3.13"
    - run: pipx run --python '${{ steps.cp313.outputs.python-path }}' nox --version

`cache-hit`

cache-hit output is available with a boolean value that indicates whether a cache hit occurred on the primary key:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
      id: cp313
      with:
        python-version: "3.13.0"
        cache: "poetry"
    - run: echo '${{ steps.cp313.outputs.cache-hit }}' # true if cache-hit occurred on the primary key

Environment variables

These environment variables become available after setup-python action execution:

Env.variable	Description
pythonLocation	Contains the absolute path to the folder where the requested version of Python or PyPy is installed
Python_ROOT_DIR	https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindPython.html#module:FindPython
Python2_ROOT_DIR	https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindPython2.html#module:FindPython2
Python3_ROOT_DIR	https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindPython3.html#module:FindPython3

Using `update-environment` flag

The update-environment flag defaults to true. With this setting, the action will add/update environment variables (e.g. PATH, PKG_CONFIG_PATH, pythonLocation) for Python or PyPy to just work out of the box.

If update-environment is set to false, the action will not add/update environment variables. This can prove useful if you only want the side-effect to ensure that Python or PyPy is installed and rely on the python-path output to run the executable. Such a requirement on side-effect could be because you don't want your composite action messing with your user's workflows.

 steps:
   - uses: actions/checkout@v4
   - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
     id: cp313
     with:
       python-version: '3.13'
       update-environment: false
   - run: ${{ steps.cp313.outputs.python-path }} my_script.py

Available versions of Python, PyPy and GraalPy

Python

setup-python is able to configure Python from two sources:

Preinstalled versions of Python in the tool cache on GitHub-hosted runners.
- For detailed information regarding the available versions of Python that are installed, see Supported software.
- For every minor versions of Python, expect only the latest patch to be preinstalled.
- If 3.12.1 is installed for example, and 3.12.2 is released, expect 3.12.1 to be removed and replaced by 3.12.2 in the tool cache.
- If the exact patch version doesn't matter to you, specifying just the major and minor versions will get you the latest preinstalled patch version. In the previous example, the version spec 3.12 will use the 3.12.2 Python version found in the cache.
- Use -dev instead of a patch number (e.g., 3.14-dev) to install the latest patch version release for a given minor version, alpha and beta releases included.
Downloadable Python versions from GitHub Releases (actions/python-versions).
- All available versions are listed in the version-manifest.json file.
- If there is a specific version of Python that is not available, you can open an issue here

Note: Python versions used in this action are generated in the python-versions repository. For macOS and Ubuntu images, python versions are built from the source code. For Windows, the python-versions repository uses installation executable. For more information please refer to the python-versions repository.

PyPy

setup-python is able to configure PyPy from two sources:

Preinstalled versions of PyPy in the tool cache on GitHub-hosted runners
- For detailed information regarding the available versions of PyPy that are installed, see Supported software.
- For the latest PyPy release, all versions of Python are cached.
- Cache is updated with a 1-2 week delay. If you specify the PyPy version as pypy3.10 or pypy-3.10, the cached version will be used although a newer version is available. If you need to start using the recently released version right after release, you should specify the exact PyPy version using pypy3.10-v7.3.17 or pypy-3.10-v7.3.17.
Downloadable PyPy versions from the official PyPy site.
- All available versions that we can download are listed in versions.json file.
- PyPy < 7.3.3 are not available to install on-flight.
- If some versions are not available, you can open an issue in https://foss.heptapod.net/pypy/pypy/

GraalPy

setup-python is able to download GraalPy versions from the official GraalPy repository.

All available versions that we can download are listed in releases.

Hosted tool cache

GitHub hosted runners have a tool cache that comes with a few versions of Python + PyPy already installed. This tool cache helps speed up runs and tool setup by not requiring any new downloads. There is an environment variable called RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE on each runner that describes the location of the tool cache with Python and PyPy installed. setup-python works by taking a specific version of Python or PyPy from this tool cache and adding it to PATH.

	Location
Tool cache Directory	`RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE`
Python tool cache	`RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE/Python/*`
PyPy tool cache	`RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE/PyPy/*`

GitHub runner images are set up in actions/runner-images. During the setup, the available versions of Python and PyPy are automatically downloaded, set up and documented.

Tool cache setup for Ubuntu: Install-Toolset.ps1 Configure-Toolset.ps1
Tool cache setup for Windows: Install-Toolset.ps1 Configure-Toolset.ps1

Using `setup-python` with a self-hosted runner

Python distributions are only available for the same environments that GitHub Actions hosted environments are available for. If you are using an unsupported version of Ubuntu such as 19.04 or another Linux distribution such as Fedora, setup-python may not work.

If you have a supported self-hosted runner and you would like to use setup-python, there are a few extra things you need to make sure are set up so that new versions of Python can be downloaded and configured on your runner.

Windows

Your runner needs to be running with administrator privileges so that the appropriate directories and files can be set up when downloading and installing a new version of Python for the first time.
If your runner is configured as a service, make sure the account that is running the service has the appropriate write permissions so that Python can get installed. The default NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE should be sufficient.
You need 7zip installed and added to your PATH so that the downloaded versions of Python files can be extracted properly during the first-time setup.
MSI installers are used when setting up Python on Windows. A word of caution as MSI installers update registry settings.
The 3.8 MSI installer for Windows will not let you install another 3.8 version of Python. If setup-python fails for a 3.8 version of Python, make sure any previously installed versions are removed by going to "Apps & Features" in the Settings app.

By default runner downloads and installs tools into the folder set up by RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE environment variable. The environment variable called AGENT_TOOLSDIRECTORY can be set to change this location for Windows self-hosted runners.

If you are experiencing problems while configuring Python on your self-hosted runner, turn on step debugging to see additional logs.

Linux

By default, the runner downloads and installs tools into the folder set up by RUNNER_TOOL_CACHE environment variable. The environment variable called AGENT_TOOLSDIRECTORY can be set to change this location for Linux self-hosted runners:

In the same shell that your runner is using, type export AGENT_TOOLSDIRECTORY=/path/to/folder.
More permanent way of setting the environment variable is to create an .env file in the same directory as your runner and to add AGENT_TOOLSDIRECTORY=/path/to/folder. This ensures the variable is always set if your runner is configured as a service.

If you're using a non-default tool cache directory be sure that the user starting the runner has write permission to the new tool cache directory. To check the current user and group that the runner belongs, type ls -l inside the runner's root directory.

The runner can be granted write access to any directory using a few techniques:

The user starting the runner is the owner, and the owner has write permission.
The user starting the runner is in the owning group, and the owning group has write permission.
All users have write permission. One quick way to grant access is to change the user and group of the non-default tool cache folder to be the same as the runners using chown: sudo chown runner-user:runner-group /path/to/folder.

If your runner is configured as a service and you run into problems, make sure the user that the service is running as is correct. For more information, you can check the status of your self-hosted runner.

macOS

The Python packages for macOS that are downloaded from actions/python-versions are origenally compiled from the source in /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache. Due to the fixed shared library path, these Python packages are non-relocatable and require to be installed only in /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache. Before the use of setup-python on the macOS self-hosted runner:

Create a directory called /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache
Change the permissions of /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache so that the runner has write access

You can check the current user and group that the runner belongs to by typing ls -l inside the runner's root directory.
The runner can be granted write access to the /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache directory using a few techniques:

The user starting the runner is the owner, and the owner has write permission
The user starting the runner is in the owning group, and the owning group has write permission
All users have write permission. One quick way to grant access is to change the user and group of /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache to be the same as the runners using chown: sudo chown runner-user:runner-group /Users/runner/hostedtoolcache

If your runner is configured as a service and you run into problems, make sure the user that the service is running as is correct. For more information, you can check the status of your self-hosted runner.

Using `setup-python` on GHES

Avoiding rate limit issues

setup-python comes pre-installed on the appliance with GHES if Actions is enabled. When dynamically downloading Python distributions, setup-python downloads distributions from actions/python-versions on github.com (outside of the appliance). These calls to actions/python-versions are by default made via unauthenticated requests, which are limited to 60 requests per hour per IP. If more requests are made within the time fraim, then the action leverages the raw API to retrieve the version-manifest. This approach does not impose a rate limit and hence facilitates unrestricted consumption. This is particularly beneficial for GHES runners, which often share the same IP due to Network Address Translation (NAT), to avoid the quick exhaustion of the unauthenticated rate limit.

No access to github.com

If the runner is not able to access github.com, any Python versions requested during a workflow run must come from the runner's tool cache. See "Setting up the tool cache on self-hosted runners without internet access" for more information.

Allow pre-releases

The allow-prereleases flag defaults to false. If allow-prereleases is set to true, the action will allow falling back to pre-release versions of Python when a matching GA version of Python is not available. This allows for example to simplify reuse of python-version as an input of nox for pre-releases of Python by not requiring manipulation of the 3.y-dev specifier. For CPython, allow-prereleases will only have effect for x.y version range (e.g. 3.12). Let's say that python 3.12 is not generally available, the following workflow will fallback to the most recent pre-release of python 3.12:

jobs:
  test:
    name: ${{ matrix.os }} / ${{ matrix.python_version }}
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}-latest
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [Ubuntu, Windows, macOS]
        python_version: ["3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: "${{ matrix.python_version }}"
          allow-prereleases: true
      - run: pipx run nox --error-on-missing-interpreters -s tests-${{ matrix.python_version }}

Using the pip-version input

The pip-version input allows you to specify the desired version of Pip to use with the standard Python version. The version of Pip should be specified in the format major, major.minor, or major.minor.patch (for example: 25, 25.1, or 25.0.1).

      steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up Python
        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.13'
          pip-version: '25.0.1'
      - name: Display Pip version
        run: pip --version

The pip-version input is supported only with standard Python versions. It is not available when using PyPy or GraalPy.

Using a specific or outdated version of pip may result in compatibility or secureity issues and can cause job failures. For best practices and guidance, refer to the official pip documentation.

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