Chroma "Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3" Error

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Install pysqlite3-binary (Linux)

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   1. Run pip install pysqlite3-binary
   2. At the very top of your app, before importing chromadb, add: __import__("pysqlite3"); import sys; sys.modules["sqlite3"] = sys.modules.pop("pysqlite3")
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Upgrade the base image or Python

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   1. Install the latest Python 3.10 or newer
   2. In Docker use a Debian bookworm or newer base image
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Windows

   Copy steps
   1. Download the latest SQLite from sqlite.org
   2. Replace sqlite3.dll in the DLLs folder of your Python install (find it via os.path.dirname(sys.executable))
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Importing chromadb raises RuntimeError: Your system has an unsupported version of sqlite3. Chroma requires sqlite3 >= 3.35.0.

Why it happens

• Old Python build bundling old SQLite
• Old Linux distro or Debian image
• Hosting platform with outdated system SQLite

This guide also covers

• chroma unsupported version of sqlite3
• chromadb sqlite3 3.35.0
• chromadb sqlite error

The same problem in other apps

All not loading, error messages & connection guides →

• Qdrant "Wrong input: Vector dimension error: expected dim, got" (Qdrant)
• Pinecone 429 Too Many Requests Error (Pinecone)
• Milvus "collection not loaded" Error (Milvus)
• Weaviate Error: Vector Lengths Don't Match (Weaviate)

Other Chroma errors

• Chroma InvalidDimensionException: Embedding Dimension Does Not Match Collection
• Chroma pip install "Failed to build hnswlib" Error
• Chroma Data Disappears After Restart (Persistence Fix)
• Chroma "Collection Not Found" Error
• Chroma "Collection Already Exists" UniqueConstraintError
• Chroma "sqlite3.OperationalError: database is locked"
• Chroma "Could not connect to tenant default_tenant" Error
• Chroma "Cannot return the results in a contiguous 2D array. Probably ef or M is too small"