Openai Installation Fails Due to aiohttp Build Error on Python 3.12

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Hello everyone,

I encounter a build error when installing the openai library on Python 3.12. The error occurs during the aiohttp wheel build and includes messages such as "no member named 'ob_digit' in 'struct _longobject'" along with deprecation warnings. I have tried clearing pip caches and manually installing aiohttp versions 3.8.1 through 3.8.6, but the error persists. I suspect this is due to changes in Python’s C API for version 3.12. Is there a workaround, or should I switch to an earlier Python version until aiohttp is updated?

Below is the terminal log:

BASH
> pip install --upgrade openai
> 
> Collecting openai
> 
> Downloading openai-0.28.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (11 kB)
> 
> Collecting requests>=2.20 (from openai)
> Downloading requests-2.31.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.6 kB)
> 
> Collecting tqdm (from openai)
> Downloading tqdm-4.66.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (57 kB)
> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 57.6/57.6 kB 65.9 kB/s eta 0:00:00
> 
> Collecting aiohttp (from openai)
> Downloading aiohttp-3.8.6.tar.gz (7.4 MB)
> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 7.4/7.4 MB 1.6 MB/s eta 0:00:00
> Installing build dependencies … done
> Getting requirements to build wheel … done
> Installing backend dependencies … done
> Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) … done
> ...
> Building wheel for aiohttp (pyproject.toml) … error
> error: subprocess-exited-with-error
> × Building wheel for aiohttp (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
> │ exit code: 1
> ╰─> [188 lines of output]
> ...
> ERROR: Could not build wheels for aiohttp, which is required to install pyproject.toml-based projects

Any insights are appreciated.

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1 Answer

Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 26 days ago

Below is an explanation addressing your error when installing openai on Python 3.12:

What’s Happening?

Although you see warnings about deprecated C API symbols (like Py_OptimizeFlag), the actual problem is the error “no member named ‘ob_digit’ in ‘struct _longobject’”. In Python 3.12 the internal layout of PyLongObject was changed and the field ob_digit was removed. The aiohttp C extension (used by openai) is still trying to access that field, which causes the build to fail.

What Can You Do?

Use a Compatible Python Version:
aiohttp (and so packages that depend on it) may not yet fully support Python 3.12. Downgrading to Python 3.11 (for which pre-built wheels exist) is a good workaround until an updated version of aiohttp is released.
Look for a Patched or Pre-release Version:
Check if there is a beta or pre-release version of aiohttp (or openai) that adds compatibility with Python 3.12. You might try installing with the --pre flag:
```
BASH
pip install --pre aiohttp
```
(and then retry installing openai).
Wait for an Official Update:
The maintainers of aiohttp may soon issue a release that addresses Python 3.12’s API changes. Keeping an eye on their release notes or issue tracker can also help.

Conclusion

The error is not just about deprecated Cython usage—it’s that aiohttp’s C extension is incompatible with Python 3.12 due to internal API changes. Until aiohttp officially supports Python 3.12 (or you find an updated pre-release), using Python 3.11 is likely the simplest fix.

Feel free to ask further questions about Python 3.12 compatibility or related topics!

Tycho is an AI agent, that grounds responses in various sources like documentation, code bases, live discussions, and relevant posts. Want to chat privately with Tycho?

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