PLEASE NOTE: As of version 0.20.0, released in January 2023, qiskit-ibmq-provider has been deprecated
with its support ending and eventual archival being no sooner than 3 months from that date. The
function provided by qiskit-ibmq-provider is not going away rather it has being split out to separate repositories.
Please see the Migration Guides section below for more detail. We encourage you
to migrate over at your earliest convenience.
Qiskit is an open-source SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of circuits, algorithms, and application modules.
This module contains a provider that allows accessing the IBM Quantum systems and simulators.
All the functionality that qiskit-ibmq-provider provides has been migrated to other packages:
| Formerly | Current package | Details | Migration Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
qiskit.providers.ibmq.experiment |
qiskit-ibm-experiment(docs) |
For the features related with the IBM Quantum experiment database service. | guide |
qiskit.providers.ibmq.runtime |
qiskit-ibm-runtime(docs) |
Use this package if you prefer getting high quality probability distribution or expectation values without having to optimize the circuits or mitigate results yourself. | guide |
Rest of qiskit.providers.ibmq |
qiskit-ibm-provider(docs) |
Use this package if you need direct access to the backends to do experiments like device characterization. | guide |
These packages can be installed by themselves (via the standard pip install command, e.g. pip install qiskit-ibm-provider) and are not part of the Qiskit metapackage.
We encourage installing Qiskit via the PIP tool (a python package manager), which installs all Qiskit elements and components, including this one.
pip install qiskit
PIP will handle all dependencies automatically for us and you will always install the latest (and well-tested) version.
To install from source, follow the instructions in the contribution guidelines.
Once the package is installed, you can access the provider from Qiskit.
Note: Since November 2019 (and with version
0.4of thisqiskit-ibmq-providerpackage / version0.14of theqiskitpackage) legacy Quantum Experience or QConsole (v1) accounts are no longer supported. If you are still using a v1 account, please follow the steps described in update instructions to update your account.
-
Create an IBM Quantum account or log in to your existing account by visiting the IBM Quantum login page.
-
Copy (and/or optionally regenerate) your API token from your IBM Quantum account page.
-
Take your token from step 2, here called
MY_API_TOKEN, and run:from qiskit import IBMQ IBMQ.save_account('MY_API_TOKEN')The command above stores your credentials locally in a configuration file called
qiskitrc. By default, this file is located in$HOME/.qiskit, where$HOMEis your home directory. If you are still usingQconfig.py, please delete that file and run the command above.
After calling IBMQ.save_account(), your credentials will be stored on disk.
Once they are stored, at any point in the future you can load and use them
in your program simply via:
from qiskit import IBMQ
provider = IBMQ.load_account()
backend = provider.get_backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')
Alternatively, if you do not want to save your credentials to disk and only intend to use them during the current session, you can use:
from qiskit import IBMQ
provider = IBMQ.enable_account('MY_API_TOKEN')
backend = provider.get_backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')
By default, all IBM Quantum accounts have access to the same, open project
(hub: ibm-q, group: open, project: main). For convenience, the
IBMQ.load_account() and IBMQ.enable_account() methods will return a provider
for that project. If you have access to other projects, you can use:
provider_2 = IBMQ.get_provider(hub='MY_HUB', group='MY_GROUP', project='MY_PROJECT')
Since November 2019 (and with version 0.4 of this qiskit-ibmq-provider
package), the IBM Quantum Provider only supports the new IBM Quantum, dropping
support for the legacy Quantum Experience and Qconsole accounts. The new IBM Quantum is also referred as v2, whereas the legacy one and Qconsole as v1.
This section includes instructions for updating your accounts and programs. Please note that:
- the IBM Quantum Experience
v1credentials and the programs written for pre-0.3 versions will still be working during the0.3.xseries. From 0.4 onwards, onlyv2credentials are supported, and it is recommended to upgrade in order to take advantage of the new features. - updating your credentials to the IBM Quantum
v2implies that you will need to update your programs. The sections below contain instructions on how to perform the transition.
If you have credentials for the legacy Quantum Experience or Qconsole stored in
disk, you can make use of IBMQ.update_account() helper. This helper will read
your current credentials stored in disk and attempt to convert them:
from qiskit import IBMQ
IBMQ.update_account()
Found 2 credentials.
The credentials stored will be replaced with a single entry with token "MYTOKEN"
and the new IBM Quantum v2 URL (https://auth.quantum-computing.ibm.com/api).
In order to access the provider, please use the new "IBMQ.get_provider()" methods:
provider0 = IBMQ.load_account()
provider1 = IBMQ.get_provider(hub='A', group='B', project='C')
Note you need to update your programs in order to retrieve backends from a
specific provider directly:
backends = provider0.backends()
backend = provider0.get_backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')
Update the credentials? [y/N]
Upon confirmation, your credentials will be overwritten with a valid IBM Quantum
v2 set of credentials. For more complex cases, consider deleting your
previous credentials via IBMQ.delete_accounts() and follow the instructions
in the IBM Quantum account page.
The new IBM Quantum support also introduces a more structured approach for accessing backends. Previously, access to all backends was centralized through:
IBMQ.backends()
IBMQ.get_backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')
In version 0.3 onwards, the preferred way to access the backends is via a
Provider for one of your projects instead of via the global IBMQ instance
directly, allowing for more granular control over
the project you are using:
my_provider = IBMQ.get_provider()
my_provider.backends()
my_provider.get_backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')
In a similar spirit, you can check the providers that you have access to via:
IBMQ.providers()
In addition, since the new IBM Quantum provides only one set of
credentials, the account management methods in IBMQ are now in singular form.
For example, you should use IBMQ.load_account() instead of
IBMQ.load_accounts(). An IBMQAccountError exception is raised if you
attempt to use the legacy methods with an IBM Quantum v2 account.
The following tables contains a quick reference for the differences between the two versions. Please refer to the documentation of each method for more in depth details:
| <0.3 / v1 credentials | >=0.3 and v2 credentials |
|---|---|
| N/A | IBMQ.update_account() |
IBMQ.save_account(token, url) |
IBMQ.save_account(token) |
IBMQ.load_accounts() |
provider = IBMQ.load_account() |
IBMQ.enable_account() |
provider = IBMQ.enable_account() |
IBMQ.disable_accounts() |
IBMQ.disable_account() |
IBMQ.active_accounts() |
IBMQ.active_account() |
IBMQ.stored_accounts() |
IBMQ.stored_account() |
IBMQ.delete_accounts() |
IBMQ.delete_account() |
| <0.3 / v1 credentials | >=0.3 and v2 credentials |
|---|---|
| N/A | providers = IBMQ.providers() |
backend = IBMQ.get_backend(name, hub='HUB') |
provider = IBMQ.get_provider(hub='HUB') |
backend = provider.get_backend(name) |
|
backends = IBMQ.backends(hub='HUB') |
provider = IBMQ.get_provider(hub='HUB') |
backends = provider.backends() |
If you'd like to contribute to IBM Quantum Provider, please take a look at our contribution guidelines. This project adheres to Qiskit's code of conduct. By participating, you are expect to uphold to this code.
We use GitHub issues for tracking requests and bugs. Please use our slack
for discussion and simple questions. To join our Slack community use the
invite link at Qiskit.org. For questions that are more suited for a forum we
use the Qiskit tag in Stack Exchange.
Now you're set up and ready to check out some of the other examples from our Qiskit Tutorial repository.
The Qiskit IBM Quantum Provider is the work of many people who contribute to the project at different levels. If you use Qiskit, please cite as per the included BibTeX file.