Cannot download models: ValueError: numpy.dtype size changed, may indicate binary incompatibility

[Time0o]

This seems to be this problem all over again: #13528

How to reproduce the behaviour

Create a new virtual environment (I am using uv), run pip install spacy && python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm. This is not specific to downloading models, e.g. python -m spacy info --markdown produces the same error. In general whatever the newest spacy release is unusable on my system. It does still work on MacOS with Python 3.13.5 though.

Your Environment

• Operating System: Ubuntu 25.04
• Python Version Used: 3.12.11
• spaCy Version Used: 3.7.5
• Environment Information: I can't actually run python -m spacy info --markdown, that produces the same error.

[marb17]

+1 have the same problem, probably a problem with new numpy versions since i just updated it

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\python\miraaalt\src\wordtagger.py", line 1, in <module>
    import spacy
  File "D:\python\miraaalt\.venv\Lib\site-packages\spacy\__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    from thinc.api import Config, prefer_gpu, require_cpu, require_gpu  # noqa: F401
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "D:\python\miraaalt\.venv\Lib\site-packages\thinc\api.py", line 1, in <module>
    from .backends import (
  File "D:\python\miraaalt\.venv\Lib\site-packages\thinc\backends\__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
    from .cupy_ops import CupyOps
  File "D:\python\miraaalt\.venv\Lib\site-packages\thinc\backends\cupy_ops.py", line 16, in <module>
    from .numpy_ops import NumpyOps
  File "thinc\backends\numpy_ops.pyx", line 1, in init thinc.backends.numpy_ops
ValueError: numpy.dtype size changed, may indicate binary incompatibility. Expected 96 from C header, got 88 from PyObject

[honnibal]

I haven't been able to reproduce this locally and it's been working on CI. I realise the problem is frustrating.

Could it be a cache issue? Could you give the output of pip list so I can check the combination of versions?