Why does "pip install" inside Python raise a SyntaxError?

Use the command line, not the Python shell (DOS, PowerShell in Windows).

C:\Program Files\Python2.7\Scripts> pip install XYZ

If you installed Python into your PATH using the latest installers, you don't need to be in that folder to run pip

Terminal in Mac or Linux

$ pip install XYZ

As @sinoroc suggested correct way of installing a package via pip is using separate process since pip may cause closing a thread or may require a restart of interpreter to load new installed package so this is the right way of using the API: subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, '-m', 'pip', 'install', 'SomeProject']) but since Python allows to access internal API and you know what you're using the API for you may want to use internal API anyway eg. if you're building own GUI package manager with alternative resourcess like https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/

Following soulution is OUT OF DATE, instead of downvoting suggest updates. see https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/7498 for reference.

UPDATE ca. v.18 get_installed_distributions() has been removed. Instead you may use generator freeze like this:

from pip._internal.operations.freeze import freeze

print([package for package in freeze()])

# eg output ['pip==19.0.3']

import pip

package_names=['selenium', 'requests'] #packages to install
pip.main(['install'] + package_names + ['--upgrade']) 
# --upgrade to install or update existing packages

If you need to update every installed package, use following:

import pip

for i in pip.get_installed_distributions():
    pip.main(['install', i.key, '--upgrade'])

If you want to stop installing other packages if any installation fails, use it in one single pip.main([]) call:

import pip

package_names = [i.key for i in pip.get_installed_distributions()]
pip.main(['install'] + package_names + ['--upgrade'])

Note: When you install from list in file with -r / --requirement parameter you do NOT need open() function.

pip.main(['install', '-r', 'filename'])

Warning: Some parameters as simple --help may cause python interpreter to stop.

Curiosity: By using pip.exe you actually use python interpreter and pip module anyway. If you unpack pip.exe or pip3.exe regardless it's python 2.x or 3.x, inside is the SAME single file __main__.py:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys

from pip import main

if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw?|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(main())

To run pip in Python 3.x, just follow the instructions on Python's page: Installing Python Modules.

python -m pip install SomePackage

or (if python 2 and python 3 are on the same system):

python3 -m pip install SomePackage

Note that this is run from the command line and not the python shell (the reason for syntax error in the original question).

same issue is in jupyter-notebook. if you execute pip install ... in a cell on its own, it executes but if there is a comment line in the beginning it does not work.

I think when Jupyter sees the comment line in the beginning, it treats the cell as a Python interpreter and raises the error.

you need to type it in cmd not in the IDLE. becuse IDLE is not an command prompt if you want to install something from IDLE type this

>>>from pip.__main__ import _main as main
>>>main(#args splitted by space in list example:['install', 'requests'])

this is calling pip like pip <commands> in terminal. The commands will be seperated by spaces that you are doing there to.