Check installed Python version in Windows, Linux & macOS

Python is one of the most popular programming language, you may want to know what version of Python has been installed on your system, in this article we will check how you can identify that,

Table of Content:

1. How to check installed Python version in Windows OS?
2. How to check installed Python version in macOS?
3. How to check installed Python version in Linux?
4. Unknown Option: -e Error while checking Python version

How to check installed Python version in Windows OS?

If you are on a Windows Operating system, you can try the below steps,

1. Press Ctrl + R to Open RUN and type CMD or Powershell or Bash to open Terminal/Command Prompt.
2. Now type python -V or python --version

   C:\Users\pythonDev>python --version
   Python 3.8.6rc1

   C:\Users\pythonDev>python --V
   Python 3.8.6rc1

   So as you can see I am using 3.8.6 where 3 => Major version, 8 => Minor version and 6 => Macro Version, rc stands for release candidate (yet not released for production use)

3. You can also use Python Shell to get more details:

   Python 3.8.6rc1 
   (tags/v3.8.6rc1:08bd63d, Sep  7 2020, 23:10:23) [MSC v.1927 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
   Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
   >>> import sys
   >>> print(sys.version)
   3.8.6rc1 (tags/v3.8.6rc1:08bd63d, Sep  7 2020, 23:10:23) 
   [MSC v.1927 64 bit (AMD64)]

Note: If you are using Windows 10 and you do not have Python installed on your System, just type python in command prompt at it will open up Microsoft Store with Python 3.8 page were you can easily get Python installed.

Python -V was introduced in Python 2.5+, so if you are using older version, this command may not work!

-V     : print the Python version number and exit (also --version)
         when given twice, print more information about the build

How to check installed Python version in macOS?

⛏️ Python comes pre-installed with macOS, so you do not need to install it separated unless you want to upgdare to a new version, or have to use multiple python versions at a time.

1. Go to Finder -> Application -> Utilities
2. Open Terminal
3. Type python --version or python -V to check the version:

   pythonDev: $ python --version
   Python 3.8.1

How to check installed Python version in Linux?

⛏️ Again like macOS, Python usually comes pre-installed with latest versions of Linux flavours, so you do not need to install it separately unless you want to use multiple python versions at a time.

1. Open Terminal: You can do that by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T key combinations
2. Type python --version or python -V to check the version:

   linuxBox: $ python --version
   Python 3.8.7

Unknown Option: -e Error while checking Python version

If you type the command incorrectly, single hyphen instead of two you will get the below message!

C:\Users\pythonDev>python -version
Unknown option: -e
usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Try `python -h' for more information.

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