The more easy way its by executing the next command:

ls -ls /usr/bin/python*

Output look like this:

/usr/bin/python           /usr/bin/python2.7        /usr/bin/pythonw
/usr/bin/python-config    /usr/bin/python2.7-config /usr/bin/pythonw2.7
Answer from Gabriel Caceres on Stack Overflow
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Medium
medium.com › @akhshyganesh › find-all-python-versions-on-your-system-like-a-pro-2c4d10650035
Find All Python Versions on Your System Like a Pro | by Akhshy Ganesh | Medium
June 12, 2025 - In this quick guide, I’ll walk you through how to track down every sneaky little Python version hiding on your machine. Whether you’re on Windows, macOS, or Linux — we’ve got you covered. Over time, you’ve probably installed Python for different projects. One for data science, one for that Flask API you built last year, and maybe another one by accident when installing VS Code. It’s normal. It’s Pythonic. But you need to know what’s where to avoid chaos. ... This lists all the python.exe files that your system knows about.
People also ask

How to check the Python version on CMD?
To check the Python version in Windows Command Prompt, open CMD and enter “python --versionorpython -V.” These commands will display the Python version that is installed on your system. Additionally, if you have multiple Python versions installed on your system, you may need to use the “python3 --version” command to display the installed version of Python 3.
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superops.com
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How to check the Python version in quick and easy steps
What is a Python version file?
A Python version file is a simple text file that specifies which Python version should be used for a particular project or directory. The file contains a single line with a Python version specification like 3.13.1. It is usually used by Python version managers like pyenv, uv, and others to automatically select and activate the specified Python version whenever you work in that directory.
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superops.com
superops.com › superops blog › blog › how to check the python version?
How to check the Python version in quick and easy steps
How do I check all my Python versions?
If you have multiple Python versions installed on your computer, and you want to check them all, follow these steps:\n1\n.\n For Windows users\n-Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and run the command “where python.”\n-This command will list all the python.exe paths found in directories listed in your system’s PATH environment variable.\n-After finding all Python executables or paths, you can check the version of each separately.\n-If you have Python Launcher installed on your system, run the command “py -0”\n-This prints all Python versions the launcher can detect.\n2. For Linux and MacOS users
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superops.com
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How to check the Python version in quick and easy steps
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SuperOps
superops.com › superops blog › blog › how to check the python version?
How to check the Python version in quick and easy steps
3 days ago - To check the Python version in Windows Command Prompt, open CMD and enter “python --version ” or “python -V.” These commands will display the Python version that is installed on your system.
Top answer
1 of 7
207

I just got the answer. By typing "py -h" or "py --help" I got the help message:

C:\Users\admin>py -h
Python Launcher for Windows Version 3.7.1150.1013

usage:
py [launcher-args] [python-args] script [script-args]

Launcher arguments:

-2     : Launch the latest Python 2.x version
-3     : Launch the latest Python 3.x version
-X.Y   : Launch the specified Python version
     The above all default to 64 bit if a matching 64 bit python is present.
-X.Y-32: Launch the specified 32bit Python version
-X-32  : Launch the latest 32bit Python X version
-X.Y-64: Launch the specified 64bit Python version
-X-64  : Launch the latest 64bit Python X version
-0  --list       : List the available pythons
-0p --list-paths : List with paths

Which tells me that "-0" (zero, not letter "O") lists the available pythons:

C:\Users\admin>py -0
Installed Pythons found by py Launcher for Windows
 -3.7-64 *
 -3.7-32
 -2.7-64
 -2.7-32

While "-0p" lists not only the versions, but also the paths:

C:\Users\admin>py -0p
Installed Pythons found by py Launcher for Windows
 -3.7-64        C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37\python.exe *
 -3.7-32        C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python37-32\python.exe
 -2.7-64        C:\Python27_64\python.exe
 -2.7-32        C:\Python27_32\python.exe

To install a Python version that is not listed there run py install followed by the version number, e.g. py install 3.14

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28

In cmd run:

py --list

My result (all versions of python intalled):

 -V:3.11 *        Python 3.11 (64-bit)
 -V:3.9
 -V:3.8           Python 3.8 (64-bit)
 -V:3.6           Python 3.6 (64-bit)
 -V:3.5
 -V:ContinuumAnalytics/Anaconda39-64 Anaconda py39_4.12.0
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Note.nkmk.me
note.nkmk.me › home › python
Check Python Version on Command Line and in Scripts | note.nkmk.me
April 23, 2025 - Run the python or python3 command with the --version or -V option in the Command Prompt (cmd) on Windows or the Terminal on macOS and Linux.
Find elsewhere
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CyberPanel
cyberpanel.net › blog › how-to-check-python-version
Quick Ways to Check Python Version on Mac, Windows & Linux
September 23, 2025 - To make it easier for you if you ... Python Versions: You can know which versions are available by using the command Pyenv versions....
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Alma Better
almabetter.com › bytes › articles › how-to-check-python-version
How to Check Python Version? (Linux, Windows and Mac)
January 12, 2024 - Learn how to check Python version on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Explore different types of Python versions and essential commands to check Python versions.
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Real Python
realpython.com › intro-to-pyenv
Managing Multiple Python Versions With pyenv – Real Python
September 1, 2025 - For example, if you wanted to see all the PyPy versions, you could do the following: ... $ pyenv install --list | grep " pypy" pypy-c-jit-latest pypy-dev pypy-stm-2.3 pypy-stm-2.5.1 pypy-1.5-src pypy-1.6 ...
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Webucator
webucator.com › catalog › programming › python
How to find all your Python installations on Windows (and Mac) | Webucator
C:\> Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Filter site.py -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Force Directory: C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Workbench 8.0 CE\python\lib Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 9/16/2017 7:38 PM 19168 site.py Directory: C:\Users\ndunn\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\Lib Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 9/7/2020 11:16 PM 21963 site.py Directory: C:\Users\ndunn\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 6/28/2021 4:06 PM 22207 site.py
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Finxter
blog.finxter.com › how-to-check-your-python-version
Check Python Version: A Simple Illustrated Guide – Be on the Right Side of Change
The shorter command conda list lists the name, version, and build details of your installed packages. To learn about your environment details, run conda info with the optional flag ‐‐envs to see all your environments. To check your Python version, run python -V or python ‐‐version in your ...
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GUVI
guvi.in › blog › python › how to check python version in cmd (windows command prompt)
How to Check Python Version in CMD on Windows Easily
January 29, 2026 - When the launcher is executed without specifying a version, it resolves the default Python interpreter based on user-level and system-level configuration rules. This default may differ from the interpreter returned by the python command. ... The Python Launcher can list every Python version detected on the system, including multiple major and minor releases and their architectures.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › managing multiple python versions on windows
r/learnpython on Reddit: Managing multiple python versions on Windows
March 18, 2025 -

I've coded a bit in Python for years, and had an existing installation of 3.10.7 which I installed using Chocolatey some time ago.

Then I thought I would play with WhisperX. The tutorial I found walked me through installing Anaconda, which I did not realize would install a second copy of Python, this time 3.12. It broke a couple of existing projects, and so I gave up on WhisperX and swapped the PATH variable back to the 3.10 installation.

Then, last week, I read about Gemma3 and thought I might experiment with that. I found a blog post -- can you see where this is going? -- that pointed me to Ollama. Which I installed, once again not realizing it would install yet another copy of Python, this time 3.13. It didn't break my projects this time, but I think that's because the user-level PATH variable is still pointing at 3.10 while the system-level PATH variable is pointing at 3.13. Oh, and I never got Gemma3 up and running, possibly because it doesn't like 3.10.

So now I have three copies of Python installed, they're fighting with one another over the PATH variable, and I still haven't gotten to experiment with local AI stuff. There's got to be a better way to manage these things.

My googling so far has pointed me at pyenv, which as far as I can tell is a Linux-only utility. I think. I love me some Linux, but the machine in question is a Windows box. Is there some obvious utility I should be using for swapping back and forth between versions that I'm just not finding?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnpython › checking the python version on the machine
r/learnpython on Reddit: checking the python version on the machine
March 13, 2023 -

while installing pyton and vscode on my linuxbox i run a test

well i allway thought that the test of python

[martin@martinsendeavour ~]$ which python /usr/bin/python [martin@martinsendeavour ~]$

well i get back this

[martin@martinsendeavour ~]$ which python 

/usr/bin/python [martin@martinsendeavour ~]$

i guess that this is not normal - i have no python on the machine!?

do i

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Syncro
syncrosecure.com › home › blog › how to check python version
How to Check Python Version | Syncro
April 25, 2025 - For Windows: Use the “winget” command or check Python via the Apps & Features settings. For Linux: apt list –installed | grep python (for detailed version management, use “dpkg-query -l | grep python”)
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bodHOST
bodhost.com › tutorial › how to check python version in linux & windows
How to Check Python Version in Linux & Windows | bodHOST
November 7, 2024 - py --version # Shows default Python version py -0 # Lists ALL installed Python versions py -3 # Runs latest Python 3 version
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › python › check-the-version-of-the-python-interpreter
How to check Python Version : Windows, Linux and Mac - GeeksforGeeks
December 17, 2025 - To check the Python version on Windows or a Mac system, we can follow these methods: ... Open the Command Prompt for Windows by searching for "cmd" in the Windows Start menu, or open Terminal for Mac by searching "terminal" in the macOS spotlight search.
Top answer
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116

You can use python -V (et al.) to show you the version of Python that the python command resolves to. If that's all you need, you're done. But to see every version of python in your system takes a bit more.

In Ubuntu we can check the resolution with readlink -f $(which python). In default cases in 14.04 this will simply point to /usr/bin/python2.7.

We can chain this in to show the version of that version of Python:

$ readlink -f $(which python) | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V'
/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6

But this is still only telling us what our current python resolution is. If we were in a Virtualenv (a common Python stack management system) python might resolve to a different version:

$ readlink -f $(which python) | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V'
/home/oli/venv/bin/python: Python 2.7.4

This is real output.

The fact is there could be hundreds of different versions of Python secreted around your system, either on paths that are contextually added, or living under different binary names (like python3).

If we assume that a Python binary is always going to be called python<something> and be a binary file, we can just search the entire system for files that match those criteria:

$ sudo find / -type f -executable -iname 'python*' -exec file -i '{}' \; | awk -F: '/x-executable; charset=binary/ {print $1}' | xargs readlink -f | sort -u | xargs -I % sh -c 'echo -n "%: "; % -V'
/home/oli/venv/bin/python: Python 2.7.4
/media/ned/websites/venvold/bin/python: Python 2.7.4
/srv/chroot/precise_i386/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.3
/srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6
/srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python3.4: Python 3.4.0
/srv/chroot/trusty_i386/usr/bin/python3.4m: Python 3.4.0
/usr/bin/python2.7: Python 2.7.6
/usr/bin/python2.7-dbg: Python 2.7.6
/usr/bin/python3.4: Python 3.4.0
/usr/bin/python3.4dm: Python 3.4.0
/usr/bin/python3.4m: Python 3.4.0
/web/venvold/bin/python: Python 2.7.4

It's obviously a pretty hideous command but this is again real output and it seems to have done a fairly thorough job.

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68

Type following in the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

python -V

or

python --version

You can find a list of options/parameters for many commands in the terminal by typing the command followed by --help

Example:

python --help

Manual/manpages also available for most of such CLI which can be displayed by man <command> (Ex: man python)

From man python:

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
        -V ,  --version
              Prints the Python version number of the executable and exits.

There is also python3 installed on many machines, so you can do:

python3 --version

to find out what python 3.x you are running.