Run circuits and view results

Follow the steps below to run quantum circuits on IBM Quantum systems or simulators, and view the results.

Step 1. Sign in.

Sign in, if you haven’t already. If you don’t sign in, the visualizations at the bottom of the page automatically show simulated results for up to four qubits. However, if you want to run your circuit on a system or simulator, you must sign in.

Step 2. Open or create a circuit file.

If you do not already have a circuit open, you can create a new one by dragging gates and operations to the wires. Alternatively, you can open the Composer files panel: files and choose an existing circuit file or upload a new one.

Step 3. Choose your job settings.

Click Setup and run in the upper right corner. In the window that opens, select an available system or simulator. Systems send the circuit to real quantum hardware, and simulators have the word ‘simulator’ in the name.

Next, you can choose your provider and set the number of shots (executions) of your circuit that the backend will perform.

You can optionally name the job and add tags in this panel as well. This will not change the name of the circuit.

If you have an open access account and choose a physical system, you will see the remaining number of jobs that you can have in the queue at any one time. This will not apply if you have a premium access account. Once a job has finished, the job limit will replenish. See more information in the Open provider section.


Window displaying job options.

Note

When you run a circuit, it is automatically sent to the least busy system, unless you change the system in the Run settings. If you run the same circuit again, the system selection window will default to your previous choice.

Step 4. Click Run on xxxxx.

You can view the job’s progress by clicking the Jobs icon ( jobs ).

Step 5. View results.

Once your job completes, the details are updated in the Jobs panel. You can also see more information by clicking See more details.

The Jobs results page displays run details, diagrams of the original and the transpiled circuit, a histogram of the results, and OpenQASM and Qiskit tabs to view both original and transpiled circuits in OpenQASM or Qiskit.

You can download the circuits and the histogram by clicking the menu in the upper right corner of each diagram, then selecting a format for the download (PNG, PDF, or SVG; additionally, you can export the histogram as a CSV file). You can open the OpenQASM circuits directly in Composer, and you can open the Qiskit circuits directly in Quantum Lab.