How do I search for an available Python package using pip?

Question

I would like to be able to search for an available Python package using pip (on the terminal). I would like a functionality similar to apt-cache in Ubuntu. More specifically, I would like to

1. be able to search for packages given a term (similar to apt-cache search [package-name]), and
2. list all available packages.

Answer 1

As of Dec 2020, pip search will not work (more).

The current feasible solution is to search online, on: https://pypi.org/ (reference also provided by previous comments).

If anyone hitting the following error:

xmlrpc.client.Fault: <Fault -32500: "RuntimeError: PyPI's XMLRPC API has been temporarily disabled due to unmanageable load and will be deprecated in the near future. See https://status.python.org/ for more information."> 

as stated in #5216:

As an update: XMLRPC search does still remain disabled.

because:

As noted in #5216 (comment), a group of servers are hitting the pip search entry point, to an extent that PyPI cannot sustain that load with the current architecture of how pip search works.

Update: As a CLI alternative to pip, that uses PyPI registry, one can use poetry:

$ poetry search <package> 

Answer 2

To search for a package, issue the command

pip search [package-name]