Terminal shows wrong Python version as default

Question

Typing Python on my Terminal shows

Python 3.9.5 (default, May 4 2021, 03:36:27) [Clang 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.29)] on darwin Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

When in fact I have installed the latest version, 3.10.6, which shows when I type python3 --version. Typing just python --version returns 3.9.5 again. It seems that the default version is 3.9.5 and not updated, or am I wrong? Either way, how do I solve this? I've tried both downloading and installing it directly, as well as through brew install ..., both giving successful installs, but not updating the default version (3.9.5 -> 3.10.6)

Having multiple Python versions on your computer is always a headache... Try which python and which python3 to see where their executables are respectively, that might help you troubleshoot. — lancylot2004
– lancylot2004, Commented Aug 15, 2022 at 16:23
Notice that which is hardly ever the right tool (unless one is using tcsh). The person asking, judging by their use of Homebrew and Terminal, seems to be on a Mac, which, on modern versions of macOS, means the default shell is zsh, where whence -v is more appropriate. — Ture Pålsson
– Ture Pålsson, Commented Aug 15, 2022 at 16:30
@lancylot2004 which python gave me /usr/local/opt/[email protected]/libexec/bin/python while which python3gave /opt/homebrew/bin/python3 ... I'm not good at using the terminal at all, I just code and that's it, so I'm kind of clueless as to how to solve this — EconNoob
– EconNoob, Commented Aug 15, 2022 at 16:32
@TurePålsson I used whence -v python and got in return the same as when using which python but with "python is" added in the beginning. Also typed whence -v python and it again returned another path — EconNoob
– EconNoob, Commented Aug 15, 2022 at 16:35

EconNoob · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-15 19:27:50Z

The solution, as provided in the comments, was to create a ~/.zshrc file (How to create a ~/.zshrc file) and then to replace the existing path with export PATH="$(brew --prefix [email protected])/libexec/bin:$PATH"

Alphin Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-12 16:34:18Z

Your issue is that python is still pointing to Python 3.9.5 while python3 refers to Python 3.10.6:

Check which version is being used

which python which python3 ls -l $(which python)

Add this to ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc if using Bash):

export PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:$PATH"

Then Run:

source ~/.zshrc

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