Which version of Python do I have installed? [duplicate]

In a Python IDE, just copy and paste in the following code and run it (the version will come up in the output area):

import sys print(sys.version) 

Python 2.5+:

python --version 

Python 2.4-:

python -c 'import sys; print(sys.version)' 

At a command prompt type:

python -V 

Or if you have pyenv:

pyenv versions 

Although the question is "which version am I using?", this may not actually be everything you need to know. You may have other versions installed and this can cause problems, particularly when installing additional modules. This is my rough-and-ready approach to finding out what versions are installed:

updatedb # Be in root for this locate site.py # All installations I've ever seen have this 

The output for a single Python installation should look something like this:

/usr/lib64/python2.7/site.py /usr/lib64/python2.7/site.pyc /usr/lib64/python2.7/site.pyo 

Multiple installations will have output something like this:

/root/Python-2.7.6/Lib/site.py /root/Python-2.7.6/Lib/site.pyc /root/Python-2.7.6/Lib/site.pyo /root/Python-2.7.6/Lib/test/test_site.py /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/site.py /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/site.pyc /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/site.pyo /usr/lib64/python2.6/site.py /usr/lib64/python2.6/site.pyc /usr/lib64/python2.6/site.pyo /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.pyc /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.pyo /usr/local/lib/python2.7/test/test_site.py /usr/local/lib/python2.7/test/test_site.pyc /usr/local/lib/python2.7/test/test_site.pyo 

When I open Python (command line) the first thing it tells me is the version.

In [1]: import sys In [2]: sys.version 2.7.11 |Anaconda 2.5.0 (64-bit)| (default, Dec 6 2015, 18:08:32) [GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1)] In [3]: sys.version_info sys.version_info(major=2, minor=7, micro=11, releaselevel='final', serial=0) In [4]: sys.version_info >= (2,7) Out[4]: True In [5]: sys.version_info >= (3,) Out[5]: False 

In short:

Type python in a command prompt

Simply open the command prompt (Win + R) and type cmd and in the command prompt then typing python will give you all necessary information regarding versions:

To check the Python version in a Jupyter notebook, you can use:

from platform import python_version print(python_version()) 

to get version number, as:

3.7.3 

or:

import sys print(sys.version) 

to get more information, as

3.7.3 (default, Apr 24 2019, 13:20:13) [MSC v.1915 32 bit (Intel)] 

or:

sys.version_info 

to get major, minor and micro versions, as

sys.version_info(major=3, minor=7, micro=3, releaselevel='final', serial=0) 

I have Python 3.7.0 on Windows 10.

This is what worked for me in the command prompt and Git Bash:

To run Python and check the version:

py 

To only check which version you have:

py --version 

or

py -V # Make sure it is a capital V 

Note: python, python --version, python -V,Python, Python --version, Python -V did not work for me.

>>> import sys; print('{0[0]}.{0[1]}'.format(sys.version_info)) 3.5 

so from the command line:

python -c "import sys; print('{0[0]}.{0[1]}'.format(sys.version_info))" 

The default Python version and the paths of all installed versions on Windows:

py -0p 

One-Liners:

❯❯ python -V | cut -c8- 3.11.0 ❯❯ ~ python -VV Python 3.11.0 (main, Oct 24 2022, 18:26:48) [MSC v.1933 64 bit (AMD64)] ❯❯ ~ python --version Python 3.11.0 ❯❯ ~ py --list -V:3.11 * Python 3.11 (64-bit) -V:3.10 Python 3.10 (64-bit) -V:3.9 Python 3.9 (64-bit) ❯❯ ~ py -V Python 3.11.0 ❯❯ ~ py -VV Python 3.11.0 (main, Oct 24 2022, 18:26:48) [MSC v.1933 64 bit (AMD64)] ❯❯ ~ py --version Python 3.11.0 ❯❯ ~ py -0p -V:3.11 * W:\Windows 10\Python311\python.exe -V:3.10 W:\Windows 10\Python310\python.exe -V:3.9 C:\Program Files\Python39\python.exe ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import sys; print(".".join(sys.version.split(".")[0:2]))' 3.11 ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import sys; print(sys.version)' 3.11.0 (main, Oct 24 2022, 18:26:48) [MSC v.1933 64 bit (AMD64)] ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import sys; print((str(sys.version_info.major) +"."+ str(sys.version_info.minor)))' 3.11 ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import sys; print(sys.version_info)' sys.version_info(major=3, minor=11, micro=0, releaselevel='final', serial=0) ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import platform; print(platform.python_version()[:-2])' 3.11 ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import platform; print(platform.python_version())' 3.11.0 ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import platform; print("{0[0]}.{0[1]}".format(platform.python_version_tuple()))' 3.11 ❯❯ ~ python -c 'import platform; print(platform.python_version_tuple())' ('3', '11', '0') 

You can get the version of Python by using the following command

python --version 

You can even get the version of any package installed in venv using pip freeze as:

pip freeze | grep "package name" 

Or using the Python interpreter as:

In [1]: import django In [2]: django.VERSION Out[2]: (1, 6, 1, 'final', 0) 

Use

python -V 

or

python --version 

NOTE: Please note that the "V" in the python -V command is capital V. python -v (small "v") will launch Python in verbose mode.

On Windows 10 with Python 3.9.1, using the command line:

 py -V Python 3.9.1 py --version Python 3.9.1 py -VV Python 3.9.1 (tags/v3.9.1:1e5d33e, Dec 7 2020, 17:08:21) [MSC v.1927 64 bit (AMD64)] 

Entering the following in the command prompt will typically tell you the version of Python you have installed:

python -V 

However, if you failed to add Python to your PATH variable, this won't work. (As shown below, Python isn't added to your system path by default upon installation.) See this video I made: Add PATH environment variable in Windows 11 (works for Windows 10 too).

Also, keep in mind you might have more than one version of Python installed. I have Python installed as a dependency for something and another version installed that I use to write code.

An alternative method would be to do the following:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Navigate to the C: drive (or whichever drive where you think you might have installed Python.)
3. In the search box in the top right corner, type python.exe. This should locate any Python executables.
4. In your search results, take a look at the numbers in the file paths (keep in mind any paths that suggest it's installed (ie. your downloads directory doesn't necessarily mean that's a version that's installed, but your program directory would.) These numbers correspond to versions.

For example, many of the search results here indicate that I have version 3.11 installed. Keep these search results open if you want to add Python to your path and you may want to refer to this in order to do so.

If you are already in a REPL window and don't see the welcome message with the version number, you can use help() to see the major and minor version:

>>>help() Welcome to Python 3.6's help utility! ... 

If you have Python installed then the easiest way you can check the version number is by typing "python" in your command prompt. It will show you the version number and if it is running on 32 bit or 64 bit and some other information. For some applications you would want to have a latest version and sometimes not. It depends on what packages you want to install or use.

For me, opening CMD and running

py 

will show something like

Python 3.4.3 (v3.4.3:9b73f1c3e601, Feb 24 2015, 22:43:06) [MSC v.1600 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. 

To verify the Python version for commands on Windows, run the following commands in a command prompt and verify the output:

c:\> python -V Python 2.7.16 c:\> py -2 -V Python 2.7.16 c:\> py -3 -V Python 3.7.3 

Also, to see the folder configuration for each Python version, run the following commands:

For Python 2, 'py -2 -m site' For Python 3, 'py -3 -m site' 

Typing where python on Windows into a Command Prompt may tell you where multiple different versions of python are installed, assuming they have been added to your path.

Typing python -V into the Command Prompt should display the version.

There are two simple ways to check for the version of Python installed.

Run any of the codes on the command prompt:

python -v 

or

python --version 

Just create a file ending with .py and paste the code below into and run it.

#!/usr/bin/python3.6 import platform import sys def linux_dist(): try: return platform.linux_distribution() except: return "N/A" print("""Python version: %s dist: %s linux_distribution: %s system: %s machine: %s platform: %s uname: %s version: %s """ % ( sys.version.split('\n'), str(platform.dist()), linux_dist(), platform.system(), platform.machine(), platform.platform(), platform.uname(), platform.version(), )) 

If several Python interpreter versions are installed on a system, run the following commands.

On Linux, run in a terminal:

ll /usr/bin/python* 

On Windows, run in a command prompt:

dir %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python 

For the latest versions please use the below command for the python version

py -V 

Mostly usage commands:

python --version 

Or

python -V 

For bash scripts this would be the easiest way:

# In the form major.minor.micro e.g. '3.6.8' # The second part excludes the 'Python ' prefix PYTHON_VERSION=`python3 --version | awk '{print $2}'` echo "python3 version: ${PYTHON_VERSION}" python3 version: 3.6.8 

And if you just need the major.minor version (e.g. 3.6) you can either use the above and then pick the first 3 characters:

PYTHON_VERSION=`python3 --version | awk '{print $2}'` echo "python3 major.minor: ${PYTHON_VERSION:0:3}" python3 major.minor: 3.6 

or

PYTHON_VERSION=`python3 -c 'import sys; print(str(sys.version_info[0])+"."+str(sys.version_info[1]))'` echo "python3 major.minor: ${PYTHON_VERSION}" python3 major.minor: 3.6 

Open a command prompt window (press Windows + R, type in cmd, and hit Enter).

Type python.exe