How To Run Google Colab Locally

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Google’s Colaboratory, also known as Google Colab, is one of the most popular platforms used by data scientists across the globe. It provides an interactive environment that blends both text and code into a single live document. In this blog post, we’ll guide you on how to run Google Colab locally.

Installing and Setting Up Jupyter Notebook

To run Google Colab locally, you will need to set up Jupyter Notebook on your machine. This can be done by installing the Anaconda Navigator , a free and open-source distribution of Python and R programming languages.

Here the steps to install Anaconda Navigator:

  • Visit the Anaconda download page.
  • Select the appropriate version for your operating system and download the installer.
  • Run the installer and follow the setup prompts.

Once you have installed Anaconda Navigator, you can start Jupyter Notebook by typing the following command in the command prompt:

jupyter notebook

Installing Google Colab Locally

Now that you’ve installed Jupyter Notebook, you can proceed to install the local runtime. You can do this by following these steps:

  • First, you need to install and update jupyter_http_over_ws jupyter extension. Run these commands:
pip install jupyter_http_over_ws
jupyter serverextension enable --py jupyter_http_over_ws
  • Next, start the jupyter server by using the following command:
jupyter notebook \
  --NotebookApp.allow_origin='https://colab.research.google.com' \
  --port=8888 \
  --NotebookApp.port_retries=0

Connecting to the Local Runtime

After starting the Jupyter server, you can connect to the local runtime from Google Colab’s website. Here’s how:

  • Open Google Colab’s website and click on “Connect” then “Connect to local runtime“.
  • Enter the URL of your Jupyter server and then click on “Connect“.
  • Your Google Colab is now connected to the local runtime!

Conclusion

Running Google Colab locally has several benefits. It allows you to have more control over your working environment and take full advantage of your machine’s resources. We hope this guide has made the process of setting up Google Colab locally easier for you.