Qiskit IBMQ Provider
Qiskit is an open-source framework for working with noisy quantum computers at the level of pulses, circuits, and algorithms.
This module contains a provider that allows accessing the IBM Q quantum devices and simulators.
Installation
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.
Setting up the IBMQ provider
Once the package is installed, you can access the provider from Qiskit.
Note: Since November 2019 (and with version
0.4
of thisqiskit-ibmq-provider
package / version0.14
of theqiskit
package) 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.
Configure your IBMQ credentials
-
Create an IBM Q account or log in to your existing account by visiting the IBM Q Experience login page.
-
Copy (and/or optionally regenerate) your API token from your IBM Q Experience 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')
Accessing your IBMQ backends
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 Q 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')
Updating to the new IBM Q Experience
Since November 2019 (and with version 0.4
of this qiskit-ibmq-provider
package), the IBMQProvider only supports the new IBM Q Experience, dropping
support for the legacy Quantum Experience and Qconsole accounts. The new IBM Q
Experience 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 Q Experience
v1
credentials and the programs written for pre-0.3 versions will still be working during the0.3.x
series. From 0.4 onwards, onlyv2
credentials are supported, and it is recommended to upgrade in order to take advantage of the new features. - updating your credentials to the IBM Q Experience
v2
implies that you will need to update your programs. The sections below contain instructions on how to perform the transition.
Updating your IBM Q Experience credentials
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 Q Experience 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 Q
Experience v2 set of credentials. For more complex cases, consider deleting your
previous credentials via IBMQ.delete_accounts()
and follow the instructions
in the IBM Q Experience account page.
Updating your programs
The new IBM Q Experience 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 Q Experience 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 Q Experience 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:
Account management
<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() |
Using backends
<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() |
Contribution Guidelines
If you'd like to contribute to IBM Q 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.
Next Steps
Now you're set up and ready to check out some of the other examples from our Qiskit Tutorial repository.
Authors and Citation
The Qiskit IBM Q 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.