ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'lxml_html_clean'

lxml 5.2 split lxml.html.clean out into its own package called lxml_html_clean, so anything importing the old path breaks. Install it with pip install lxml_html_clean and the import works. If you control the code, you can also change from lxml.html.clean import Cleaner to from lxml_html_clean import Cleaner.

The error

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'lxml_html_clean'

Fix it

1. Install the split-out package

python -m pip install lxml_html_clean

Expected: Successfully installed lxml_html_clean-....

2. Confirm the import your code uses

python -c "from lxml_html_clean import Cleaner; print('ok')"

Expected: prints ok.

3. If you own the failing import line, point it at the new package

Replace:

from lxml.html.clean import Cleaner

with:

from lxml_html_clean import Cleaner

Expected: the module imports on lxml 5.2+ with no extra install beyond step 1.

When this applies

• import lxml_html_clean or from lxml.html.clean import ... raises ModuleNotFoundError
• you upgraded lxml to 5.2+ and a previously working scraper broke
• a dependency (requests-html, newspaper3k, readability-lxml) fails at import mentioning clean

When it does NOT apply

• No module named 'lxml' means lxml itself is missing
• the ImportError: lxml.html.clean module is now a separate project lxml_html_clean message is the same split seen from the other side

Compatibility

lxml 5.2.0 and newer removed lxml.html.clean. The replacement package lxml_html_clean works with lxml 5.x. lxml 4.x and early 5.x still ship the old path.

Variant phrasings

ImportError: lxml.html.clean module is now a separate project lxml_html_clean

The explicit ImportError some packages raise to point you at the split. Same fix: pip install lxml_html_clean.

Why it happens

The lxml maintainers moved the HTML-cleaning code out of the main distribution because it was a frequent CVE surface and most users never imported it. lxml 5.2 deleted lxml/html/clean.py entirely, and a tiny shim package lxml_html_clean took its place. Anything importing the old dotted path now fails unless the shim is installed.

Edge cases

• If a dependency pins lxml<5.2, the old path keeps working, but pinning old lxml forfeits security fixes. Installing the shim is the better move.
• Some projects vendor their own clean.py copy. If yours does, the import error means the vendored copy is not on sys.path.
• On Python 3.12+, make sure the shim version you install has a wheel for your interpreter, otherwise pip builds from source.