ImportError: urllib3 v2.0 only supports OpenSSL 1.1.1+, currently the 'ssl' module is compiled with LibreSSL 2.8.3

After pip install openai, when I try to import openai, it shows this error:

the 'ssl' module of urllib3 is compile with LibreSSL not OpenSSL

I just followed a tutorial on a project about using API of OpenAI. But when I get to the first step which is the install and import OpenAI, I got stuck. And I tried to find the solution for this error but I found nothing.

Here is the message after I try to import OpenAI:

Python 3.9.6 (default, Mar 10 2023, 20:16:38)
[Clang 14.0.3 (clang-1403.0.22.14.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> import openai

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/yule/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/openai/__init__.py", line 19, in <module>
    from openai.api_resources import (
  File "/Users/mic/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/openai/api_resources/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from openai.api_resources.audio import Audio  # noqa: F401
  File "/Users/mic/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/openai/api_resources/audio.py", line 4, in <module>
    from openai import api_requestor, util
  File "/Users/mic/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/openai/api_requestor.py", line 22, in <module>
    import requests
  File "/Users/mic/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/requests/__init__.py", line 43, in <module>
    import urllib3
  File "/Users/mic/Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages/urllib3/__init__.py", line 38, in <module>
    raise ImportError(
ImportError: urllib3 v2.0 only supports OpenSSL 1.1.1+, currently the 'ssl' module is compiled with LibreSSL 2.8.3. See: https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/issues/2168

I tried to --upgrade the urllib3, but it is still not working. The result is:

pip3 install --upgrade urllib3
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Requirement already satisfied: urllib3 in ./Library/Python/3.9/lib/python/site-packages (2.0.2)

Solution

The reason why the error message mentioned OpenSSL 1.1.1+ and LibreSSL 2.8.3 is that urllib3 v2.0 (the version you've installed) requires OpenSSL 1.1.1+ to work properly, as it relies on some new features of OpenSSL 1.1.1.

The issue is that the version of the 'ssl' module that is currently installed in your environment is compiled with LibreSSL 2.8.3, which is not compatible with urllib3 v2.0.

To use urllib3 v2.0, you need an 'ssl' module compiled with OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later, by trying:

brew install openssl@1.1

Or you could use an older version of urllib3 that is compatible suc. For example urllib3 v1.26.6, which does not have a strict OpenSSL version requirement. You can force the version installing with this command:

pip install urllib3==1.26.6