Migrate `backend.run()` from `qiskit_ibm_provider` to `qiskit_ibm_runtime`

The Qiskit Runtime interface includes two packages: Qiskit IBM Provider (the qiskit_ibm_provider package) and Qiskit IBM Runtime (the qiskit_ibm_runtime package). Until now, primitives (Sampler and Estimator) were run in Runtime. Custom circuits that were manually transpiled and used IBMBackend.run() were run in Provider.

In the qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.15 release, we added support for running custom circuits using IBMBackend.run() in Runtime, so users can run all programs through Runtime.

This guide describes how to migrate code that implemented IBMBackend.run() using Qiskit IBM Provider to use Qiskit IBM Runtime instead.

Example 1: Straightforward execution of IBMBackend.run()

from qiskit import *
from qiskit.compiler import transpile, assemble
 
circuit = QuantumCircuit(2, 2)
circuit.h(0)
circuit.cx(0, 1)
circuit.measure_all()

In Provider, the code is:

from qiskit_ibm_provider import IBMProvider
 
provider = IBMProvider()
backend = provider.get_backend("ibmq_qasm_simulator")
transpiled_circuit = transpile(circuit, backend=backend)
job = backend.run(transpiled_circuit)
print(job.result())

In Runtime, the code is:

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService
 
service = QiskitRuntimeService(channel="ibm_quantum")
backend = service.backend("ibmq_qasm_simulator")
transpiled_circuit = transpile(circuit, backend=backend)
job = backend.run(transpiled_circuit)
print(job.result())

Example 2: Execution of backend.run() within a session:

This section of code is identical in Provider and in Runtime.

with backend.open_session() as session:
    job1 = backend.run(transpiled_circuit)
    job2 = backend.run(transpiled_circuit)
    print(job1.session_id)
    print(job2.session_id)
backend.cancel_session()

Sessions are implemented differently in IBMBackend than when using primitives. Therefore, we cannot run a primitive and use backend.run() within a single session. If you specify both, one will be run outside of the session.

Example 3: Primitive session containing backend.run:

In this example, sampler is run within session, but backend is run independently of the session.

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import Session, Sampler
 
with Session(backend=backend) as session:
    sampler = Sampler(session=session)
    job1 = sampler.run(transpiled_circuit)
    job2 = backend.run(transpiled_circuit) # runs outside the session
    print(job1.session_id)
    print(job2.session_id)  # is None

Example 4: Backend session containing Sampler:

In this example, backend is run within a session, but sampler is run independently of the session.

with backend.open_session() as session:
    sampler = Sampler(backend=backend)
    job1 = sampler.run(transpiled_circuit)  # runs outside the session
    job2 = backend.run(transpiled_circuit)
    session_id = session.session_id
    print(job1.session_id)  # is None
    print(job2.session_id)

Was this page helpful?

Migrate backend.run() from qiskit_ibm_provider to qiskit_ibm_runtime

Migrate `backend.run()` from `qiskit_ibm_provider` to `qiskit_ibm_runtime`