This happens if you forget to put a , after adding rest_framework to INSTALLED_APPS, like this:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'rest_framework'
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
]

Also, check for the possibility of a tiny typo:

It's rest_framework with an underscore (_) in between!

Took me a while to figure out that I was using a dash instead... 😅

If you're using some sort of virtual environment do this!

1. Exit from your virtual environment.

2. Activate your virtual environment.

After you've done this you can try running your command again and this time it probably won't have any ImportErrors.

if after installing and adding it to your INSTALLED_APPS it persist, then it's most likely because you're using python3 to run the server and thats okay. So what you do while installing is use python3 -m pip install djangorestframework .

The command which worked for me is

python -m pip install djangorestframework

Maybe you install DRF is for python2, not for python3.

You can use python console to check your module:

import rest_framework

Actually you use pip to install module, it will install python2 module.

You should install the pip for python3:

sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools
sudo easy_install3 pip

So, you can install python3 module.

When using a virtual environment like virtualenvwithout having django-rest-framework installed globally you might as well have the error. The solution would be:

• activate the environment first with {{your environment name}}/bin/activate for Linux or {{your environment name}}/Scripts/activate for Windows

• and then run the command again.

If you are working with PyCharm, I found that restarting the program and closing all prompts after adding 'rest_framework' to my INSTALLED_APPS worked for me.

Yeh for me it was the python version as well ...
much better to use pipenv ...
create a virtual env using using python 3 ...

install pipenv : pip3 install pipenv
create the virtualenv: pipenv --python 3
activate the virtual env: pipenv shell

Also, if you're getting this error while running docker-compose up. Make sure to run docker-compose up --build because docker needs to install the djangorestframework dependency as well.

I have faced the same issue and And solve it with upgrading the pip and install rest_framework after that.(update everything)

Windows Command Prompt

> python -m pip install --upgrade pip

Linux Terminal

$ pip install --upgrade pip

MacOS Terminal

$ pip install --upgrade pip

Install Django and Django REST framework

pip install django
pip install djangorestframework

if you used pipenv:

if you installed rest_framework thru the new pipenv, you need to run it thru the virtual environment:

1.pipenv shell

2.(env) now, run your command(for example python manage.py runserver)

First installing the framework globally on the system solved my problem.

machine@debian:/$ sudo pip install djangorestframework
or;
root@debian:/# pip install djangorestframework

(I would assume that folks using containers know what they're doing, but here's my two cents)

Let's say you setup your project using cookiecutter-django and enabled the docker container support, be sure to update the pip requirements file with djangorestframework==<x.yy.z> (or whichever python dependency you're trying to install) and re-build the docker images (local and production).

I know there is an accepted answer for this question and many other answers also but I just wanted to add an another case which happened with me was Updating the django and django rest framework to the latest versions to make them work properly without any error.

So all you have to do is just uninstall both django and django rest framework using:

pip uninstall django pip uninstall djangorestframework

and then install it again using:

pip install django pip install djangorestframework

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'rest_framework',
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
#apps
'apps.endpoints',

]

maybe forgot the comma "," or while pasting packing name it might have extra whitespace "packagename "check for that

In my case, I had installed it in the virtualenv but forgot to activate the virtualenv while running the command

 python3 manage.py makemigrations 

So in my case I had to just activate the environment and then run the command

source [virtualenv folder-name]/bin/activate
python3 manage.py makemigrations

This solved my problem.

Install the missing module separately using pip installer

pip3 install djangorestframework-jsonapi

This worked for me.

After installing the necessary packages with python3/pip3 inside my virtual environment, it all came down to running my server with python manage.py runserver instead of python3 manage.py runserver. This was because the virtual environment and other packages were installed using python3/pip3 and not python2/pip2, hence running the server with python3 again resulted in the error. Am sure this will help someone else.

Make sure you are using the same language interpreter which you have used in your Django project, which can be an interpreter in the virtual environment, or like me, I have a normal python installed and an anaconda python too. So, try switching the interpreter. See this image for reference

try this if you are using JWT pip install djangorestframework-jwt

In my case, my problem was different. I was creating in my bash_profile an alias like:

alias python=/usr/local/bin/python3

And even if I activate my environment, when I ran the command, the python interpreter accessed was from the system and not from my environment.

I just removed the alias from bash_profile and it worked fine.

I've faced the same problem, followed these instructions and it worked for me:

1. python -m pip install --upgrade pip (to upgrade pip)
2. pip3 install djangorestframework

3. Added rest_framework as first app:

   INSTALLED_APPS = [
       'rest_framework',
       'django.contrib.admin',
       'django.contrib.auth',
       'django.contrib.contenttypes',
       'django.contrib.sessions',
       'django.contrib.messages',
       'django.contrib.staticfiles',
       #apps
       'apps.endpoints',
   ]
   

I recently installed the latest Django 3.1 and Django Rest Framework 3.11.1 libraries only to eventually realize Django 3.1 is not supported by DRF as of 11 April 2020. I did not realize that the exact releases mentioned need to be used.

If you're pulling your hair out because you can't understand why DRF is not importing check these requirements and make sure your app is compatible.

I face the same problem. In my case, I solved it by update Windows Defender configuration.

activate the whole virtual environment

cd django_apps
source /root/django-apps/env/bin/activate

Install pip3 install djangorestframework first and add rest_framework in the settings.py. This is how I have a shout out the problem.

The best solution for MAC or LINUX as I tried:

1. Open your project path ( where the settings.py is located )
2. Copy the path from the explorer
3. Open your terminal
4. Type cd[space][paste your path location that you copied before]

then try this:

pip install djangorestframework

it's gonna solve.

REMEMBER: ON YOUR TERMINAL OF MAC OS OR LINUX OS NOT VsCode

point: it also worked for all the other libraries like: cors-headers

On Windows, with PowerShell, I had to close and reopen the console and then reactive the virtual environment.