Migration guide from qiskit-ibmq-provider to qiskit-ibm-provider¶

Background¶

qiskit-ibmq-provider was the original implementation of the Provider interface in qiskit-terra and the main entry point for accessing IBM Quantum’s systems, simulators, and services. As IBM Quantum expanded, different disjoint services were added to qiskit-ibmq-provider, often causing confusion among users, and making new features difficult to find.

With the introduction of Qiskit Runtime, we decided it was time to restructure the provider:

The access to backend services (most of the submodules in the previous qiskit.providers.ibmq), is replaced by this qiskit-ibm-provider package. It has a similar interface as the original qiskit-ibmq-provider (with ibm- instead of ibmq-) and gives direct access to the IBM Quantum compute resources. If you need lower-level access to do experiments like device characterization or to research new error correction routines, qiskit-ibm-provider is more suitable for you.
The access to Qiskit Runtime service (formerly in qiskit.providers.ibmq.runtime), goes into qiskit-ibm-runtime package (documentation). It provides access to managed services through the Qiskit Runtime primitives which are integrated with the latest quantum computing technologies, such as error mitigation and correction. If you prefer getting high quality probability distribution or expectation values without having to optimize the circuits yourself, you may want to start here.
The access to the experiment service (formerly in qiskit.providers.ibmq.experiment) goes into qiskit-ibm-experiment package (documentation.

This migration guide focuses on moving from qiskit-ibmq-provider to qiskit-ibm-provider. For the rest of the migration guides, see https://ibm.biz/provider_migration_guide

Quick Start¶

[1]:

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit, transpile
from qiskit_ibm_provider import IBMProvider

# Save account credentials.
# IBMProvider.save_account(token=MY_API_TOKEN)

# Load previously saved account credentials.
provider = IBMProvider()

# Create a circuit
qc = QuantumCircuit(2)
qc.h(0)
qc.cx(0, 1)
qc.measure_all()

# Select a backend.
backend = provider.get_backend("ibmq_qasm_simulator")

# Transpile the circuit
transpiled = transpile(qc, backend=backend)

# Submit a job.
job = backend.run(transpiled)
# Get results.
print(job.result().get_counts())

{'11': 2047, '00': 1953}

Summary of main changes¶

While the interfaces stay mostly the same, there are a few major changes that require your actions.

qiskit-ibm-provider is no longer part of the Qiskit meta package and will need to be installed separately.
Importing and initializing a provider is different.
Some infrequently used methods are no longer supported.
qiskit-ibm-provider uses the Qiskit Runtime API under the cover.

Installation¶

You can install qiskit-ibm-provider using pip:

pip install qiskit-ibm-provider

Initializing an account¶

When using qiskit-ibmq-provider, one usually manages accounts and gets a provider using the IBMQ global variable. In qiskit-ibm-provider the provider is created using the IBMProvider class.

Previously:

[ ]:

from qiskit import IBMQ

# Enable an account without saving.
# IBMQ.enable_account(token=MY_API_TOKEN)

# Save account credentials.
# IBMQ.save_account(token=MY_API_TOKEN)

# Load a previously saved account.
provider = IBMQ.load_account()

# Select a different hub/group/project.
provider = IBMQ.get_provider(hub="ibm-q", group="open", project="main")

New:

[17]:

from qiskit_ibm_provider import IBMProvider

# Save account credentials.
# IBMProvider.save_account(token=MY_API_TOKEN)

# Load a previously saved account.
provider = IBMProvider()

# Select a different hub/group/project.
provider = IBMProvider(instance="ibm-q/open/main")

Loading account from environment variables¶

The environment variables used for account credentials have changed:

QE_TOKEN is replaced by QISKIT_IBM_TOKEN
QE_HUB, QE_GROUP, and QE_PROJECT is replaced by QISKIT_IBM_INSTANCE

Basic usage¶

We demonstrate the basic flow for using the provider, which is essentially the same. We begin by creating a demonstration circuit generating a 2-qubit bell pair:

[3]:

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit

qc = QuantumCircuit(2)
qc.h(0)
qc.cx(0, 1)
qc.measure_all()

The basic flow of getting a backend, running the circuit using it, getting a job, and obtaining the job results is the same.

Previously:

[ ]:

from qiskit import IBMQ

provider = IBMQ.load_account()
backend = provider.get_backend("ibmq_qasm_simulator")
job = backend.run(qc)
print(job.result().get_counts())

New:

[ ]:

from qiskit_ibm_provider import IBMProvider

provider = IBMProvider()
backend = provider.get_backend("ibmq_qasm_simulator")
job = backend.run(qc)
print(job.result().get_counts())

Removed functionalities¶

The following parameters are no longer supported in backend.run():
- job_name. You can use job tags instead.
- experiment_id. You can use job tags instead.
- job_share_level. This was deprecated in qiskit-ibmq-provider and removed in qiskit-ibm-provider.
- qobj. This was deprecated in qiskit-ibmq-provider and removed in qiskit-ibm-provider.
- memory_slots.
- memory_slot_size.
- rep_time. You can use rep_delay instead.
- live_data_enabled.
Since job_name, job_share_level, and experiment_id are no longer supported, their associated methods are removed, including:
- using job name and experiment ID as filters in backend.jobs()
- job.update_name()
- job.name()
- job.share_level()
- job.experiment_id
There is no longer a limit on the number of active jobs you can have on a backend, so the following methods have been removed (note this does not apply to the open provider which still has a limit of 5 active jobs).
- backend.job_limit()
- backend.remaining_jobs_count()
- backend.active_jobs()
Retrieving reservation information is no longer supported.
Retrieving calibration data associated with a job, using job.properties(), is no longer supported. You can, however, use backend.properties(datetime=JOB_EXECUTION_TS) to retrieve this data.
job.scheduling_mode() is no longer supported.
job.wait_for_final_state() no longer supports a callback function.