Python SDK Quickstart - Mem0

Get started with Mem0's Python SDK in under 5 minutes. This guide shows you how to install Mem0 and store your first memory.

Prerequisites

Python 3.10 or higher
OpenAI API key (Get one here)

Set your OpenAI API key:

bash

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-openai-api-key"

<Note> Uses OpenAI by default. Want to use Ollama, Anthropic, or local models? See [Configuration](/open-source/configuration). </Note>

Installation

<Steps> <Step title="Install via pip"> ```bash pip install mem0ai ``` </Step> <Step title="Initialize Memory"> ```python from mem0 import Memory

m = Memory()

</Step>

<Step title="Add a memory">
```python
messages = [
    {"role": "user", "content": "Hi, I'm Alex. I love basketball and gaming."},
    {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hey Alex! I'll remember your interests."}
]
m.add(messages, user_id="alex")

</Step> <Step title="Search memories"> ```python results = m.search("What do you know about me?", filters={"user_id": "alex"}) print(results) ```

Output:

json

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "mem_123abc",
      "memory": "Name is Alex. Enjoys basketball and gaming.",
      "user_id": "alex",
      "categories": ["personal_info"],
      "created_at": "2025-10-22T04:40:22.864647-07:00",
      "score": 0.89
    }
  ]
}

</Step> </Steps> <Snippet file="star-on-github.mdx" /> <Note> By default `Memory()` wires up: - OpenAI `gpt-5-mini` for fact extraction and updates - OpenAI `text-embedding-3-small` embeddings (1536 dimensions) - Qdrant vector store with on-disk data at `/tmp/qdrant` - SQLite history at `~/.mem0/history.db` - No reranker (add one in the config when you need it) </Note>

What's next?

<CardGroup cols={3}> <Card title="Memory operations" icon="database" href="/core-concepts/memory-operations/add"> Search, update, and manage memories with the full CRUD API. </Card> <Card title="Configure for production" icon="sliders" href="/open-source/configuration"> Swap in your own LLM, embedder, and vector store. </Card> <Card title="Add to your framework" icon="plug" href="/integrations"> Wire Mem0 into LangChain, CrewAI, LangGraph, and 20+ more. </Card> </CardGroup>

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out: