Qiskit is an open-source SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of circuits, algorithms, and application modules.

Qiskit Runtime is a new architecture offered by IBM Quantum that streamlines quantum computations. It is designed to use classical compute resources to execute quantum circuits with more efficiency on quantum processors.

Using Qiskit Runtime, for example, a research team at IBM Quantum was able to achieve 120x speed up in their lithium hydride simulation. For more information, see the IBM Research blog.

Qiskit Runtime allows authorized users to upload quantum programs. A quantum program, also called a Qiskit runtime program, is a piece of Python code that takes certain inputs, performs quantum and classical computation, and returns the processing results. The users can then invoke these quantum programs by simply passing in the required input parameters.

This module provides the interface to access Qiskit Runtime.

You can install this package using pip:

pip install qiskit-ibm-runtime

Qiskit Runtime is now part of the IBM Quantum Services on IBM Cloud. To use this service, you'll need to create an IBM Cloud account and a quantum service instance. This guide contains step-by-step instructions on setting this up, including directions to find your IBM Cloud API key and Cloud Resource Name (CRN), which you will need for authentication.

Prior to becoming an IBM Cloud service, Qiskit Runtime was offered on IBM Quantum. If you have an existing IBM Quantum account, you can continue using Qiskit Runtime on IBM Quantum.

You will need your IBM Quantum API token to authenticate with the Qiskit Runtime service:

1. Create an IBM Quantum account or log in to your existing account by visiting the IBM Quantum login page.

2. Copy (and optionally regenerate) your API token from your IBM Quantum account page.

Once you have the account credentials, you can save them on disk, so you won't have to input them each time. The credentials are saved in the $HOME/.qiskit/qiskit-ibm.json file, where $HOME is your home directory.

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService

# Save an IBM Cloud account.
QiskitRuntimeService.save_account(channel="ibm_cloud", token="MY_IBM_CLOUD_API_KEY", instance="MY_IBM_CLOUD_CRN")

# Save an IBM Quantum account.
QiskitRuntimeService.save_account(channel="ibm_quantum", token="MY_IBM_QUANTUM_TOKEN")

Once the account is saved on disk, you can instantiate the service without any arguments:

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
service = QiskitRuntimeService()

Alternatively, the service can discover credentials from environment variables:

export QISKIT_IBM_TOKEN="MY_IBM_CLOUD_API_KEY"
export QISKIT_IBM_INSTANCE="MY_IBM_CLOUD_CRN"

Then instantiate the service without any arguments:

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
service = QiskitRuntimeService()

As another alternative, you can also enable an account just for the current session by instantiating the service with your credentials.

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService

# For an IBM Cloud account.
ibm_cloud_service = QiskitRuntimeService(channel="ibm_cloud", token="MY_IBM_CLOUD_API_KEY", instance="MY_IBM_CLOUD_CRN")

# For an IBM Quantum account.
ibm_quantum_service = QiskitRuntimeService(channel="ibm_quantum", token="MY_IBM_QUANTUM_TOKEN")

To list all available programs:

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
service = QiskitRuntimeService()
service.pprint_programs()

pprint_programs() prints the summary metadata of the first 20 programs visible to you. A program's metadata consists of its ID, name, description, input parameters, return values, interim results, and other information that helps you to know more about the program. pprint_programs(detailed=True, limit=None) will print all metadata for all programs visible to you.

To run a program, specify the program ID, input parameters, as well as any execution options:

from qiskit.test.reference_circuits import ReferenceCircuits
from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService

service = QiskitRuntimeService()
program_inputs = {
    'circuits': ReferenceCircuits.bell(),
    'circuit_indices': [0]
}
options = {'backend_name': 'ibmq_qasm_simulator'}
job = service.run(
    program_id="sampler",
    options=options,
    inputs=program_inputs)
print(f"job ID: {job.job_id}")
result = job.result()

A backend is a quantum device or simulator capable of running quantum circuits or pulse schedules.

You can query for the backends you have access to. Attributes and methods of the returned instances provide information, such as qubit counts, error rates, and statuses, of the backends.

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
service = QiskitRuntimeService()

# Display all backends you have access.
print(service.backends())

# Get a specific backend.
backend = service.backend('ibmq_qasm_simulator')

Now you're set up and ready to check out some of the tutorials.

If you'd like to contribute to qiskit-ibm-runtime, please take a look at our contribution guidelines. This project adheres to Qiskit's code of conduct. By participating, you are expected 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.

Apache License 2.0.