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Getting Started
- Getting started with Anaconda
- Anaconda Distribution
- Miniconda
- Overview
- System Requirements
- Installing Miniconda
- Miniconda release notes
- Uninstalling Miniconda
- Anaconda Learning
Installing Miniconda
-
You might need to purchase a license to stay compliant with our Terms of Service.
-
If your company security policies do not allow admin privileges for end users, you will be unable to install Miniconda manually. Consider requesting that your IT admin add Miniconda to a software delivery or fleet management system (such as Kanji, Jamf, etc.).
This page contains basic Miniconda installation instructions for Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as a command-line quickstart installation guide.
On Windows, macOS, and Linux, it is best to install Miniconda for the local user, which does not require administrator permissions and is the most robust type of installation. However, if you need to, you can install Miniconda system wide, which does require administrator permissions.
Basic install instructions
-
Download the installer from the Anaconda website or by using your preferred command line interface:
Navigate to anaconda.com/download, register with Anaconda (if desired), scroll down past the Anaconda Distribution installers, and select the 64-bit Windows Miniconda installer.
Navigate to anaconda.com/download, register with Anaconda (if desired), scroll down past the Anaconda Distribution installers, and select the 64-bit Windows Miniconda installer.
Open a Command Prompt window and run the following command:
Copycurl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe --output .\Downloads\Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe
View a full list of Miniconda installers in the official Miniconda archive.
To download a different version of Miniconda, copy the Filename of an installer from the Miniconda archive, then download it using a
curl
command:Copy# Replace <FILENAME> with the installer Filename you copied from the Miniconda archive curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/<FILENAME> --output <FILENAME>
Ensure that you are downloading an installer that is compatible with your operating system!
Open a PowerShell window and run the following command:
Copywget "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe" -outfile ".\Downloads\Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe"
View a full list of Miniconda installers in the official Miniconda archive.
To download a different version of Miniconda, copy the Filename of an installer from the Miniconda archive, then download it using a
wget
command:Copy# Replace <FILENAME> with the installer Filename you copied from the Miniconda archive wget "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/<FILENAME>"" -outfile ".\Downloads\<FILENAME>"
Ensure that you are downloading an installer that is compatible with your operating system!
-
(Recommended) Verify the integrity of your installer to ensure that it was not corrupted or tampered with during download.
To ensure that your downloaded installer has not been tampered with or corrupted, generate its SHA-256 hash value and compare it to the official hash provided in the archive.
-
Open PowerShell and run the following command:
Copy# Replace <INSTALLER_FILE> with the name of the downloaded installer file Get-FileHash .\Downloads\<INSTALLER_FILE> -Algorithm SHA256
For example:
CopyGet-FileHash .\Downloads\Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe -Algorithm SHA256
-
Note the generated SHA-256 hash value from the output.
-
Visit repo.anaconda.com/miniconda to find the official SHA-256 hash for your installer.
-
Compare the hash values. If they match, the installer is safe to use.
For more information, see cryptographic hash verification in the official conda documentation.
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-
Go to your Downloads folder (or Home folder if downloaded via CLI) and double-click the installer to launch.
To prevent permission errors, do not launch the installer from the Favorites folder.
If you encounter issues during installation, temporarily disable your anti-virus software during install, then re-enable it after the installation concludes. If you installed for All Users, uninstall Miniconda and re-install it for Just Me only.
-
Click Next and then agree to Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS) .
-
Select an installation option:
- Just Me (Recommended) - Install Miniconda for the current user account.
- All Users - Install Miniconda for all user accounts on the computer (requires Windows Administrator privileges).
-
Click Next.
-
Select a destination folder to install Miniconda, then click Next.
- The installation directory path cannot contain spaces or Unicode characters. For more information, see the FAQ.
- Do not install as Administrator unless admin privileges are required.
-
Customize your installation options:
- Create shortcuts - Selected by default. Creates Start Menu shortcuts for the Anaconda Prompt packages. Deselecting this option skips creating these shortcuts.
- Add Miniconda3 to my PATH environment variable - Adds the path that contains the conda binaries to your PATH environment variable.
Anaconda does not recommend selecting this option. The conda binaries path contains other package binaries, which are permanently added to your PATH environment variable, even if no conda environment is currently active. This makes it possible for other software to use these package files, which might lead to errors.
Unless you plan on installing and running multiple versions of Miniconda or Python, open Anaconda Prompt from the Start Menu to begin your environment management work.
- Register Miniconda3 as my default Python 3.13 - Selected by default. Registers the Python package in this install as the default Python for programs like VSCode, PyCharm, and so on.
- Clear the package cache upon completion - Runs
conda clean --all --force-pkgs-dirs
after the install finishes. For more information on these commands, see the conda command documentation.
-
Click Install. The installation might take a few minutes to complete. Click Show details to view the packages being installed.
-
Click Next twice, then click Finish to close the installer.
-
Open Anaconda Prompt to use Miniconda.
For information on installing in silent mode, see the Quick command line install commands for examples or the Installing in silent mode section of Installing on Windows in the conda project documentation.
The graphical installer for macOS installs Miniconda into /opt/miniconda3
in your file system. If you want to install Miniconda into your Home directory or if you have multiple users on a system and want to manage your installation more carefully, Anaconda recommends the shell (or command line) installer.
-
Navigate to anaconda.com/download, register with Anaconda (if desired), scroll down past the Anaconda Distribution installers, and select the macOS Miniconda installer for your chip architecture.
-
(Optional) Anaconda recommends verifying the integrity of the installer after downloading it.
To ensure that your downloaded installer has not been tampered with or corrupted, generate its SHA-256 hash value and compare it to the official hash provided in the archive.
-
Open Terminal and run the following command:
Copy# Replace <FILE_NAME> with the path to your installer shasum -a 256 <FILE_NAME>
For example:
Copyshasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.pkg
-
Note the generated SHA-256 hash value from the output.
-
Visit repo.anaconda.com/miniconda to find the official SHA-256 hash for your installer.
-
Compare the hash values. If they match, the installer is safe to use.
For more information, see cryptographic hash verification in the official conda documentation.
-
-
Double-click the
.pkg
file. -
View the Read Me instructions and click Continue.
-
Read through Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS) and click Continue, then click Agree to agree to the terms.
-
Choose an install location:
- Install for all users of this computer (Recommended) - Installs Miniconda into /opt/miniconda3 for all users of the computer.
- Install on a specific disk - Enables you to choose a different location to install Miniconda.
-
Click Install. When the installation finishes, open your terminal application.
You should see
(base)
in the command line prompt. This tells you that you’re in your base conda environment. To learn more about environments, see Environments. -
Test your installation by running
conda list
. If conda has been installed correctly, a list of installed packages appears.
The graphical installer for macOS installs Miniconda into /opt/miniconda3
in your file system. If you want to install Miniconda into your Home directory or if you have multiple users on a system and want to manage your installation more carefully, Anaconda recommends the shell (or command line) installer.
-
Navigate to anaconda.com/download, register with Anaconda (if desired), scroll down past the Anaconda Distribution installers, and select the macOS Miniconda installer for your chip architecture.
-
(Optional) Anaconda recommends verifying the integrity of the installer after downloading it.
To ensure that your downloaded installer has not been tampered with or corrupted, generate its SHA-256 hash value and compare it to the official hash provided in the archive.
-
Open Terminal and run the following command:
Copy# Replace <FILE_NAME> with the path to your installer shasum -a 256 <FILE_NAME>
For example:
Copyshasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.pkg
-
Note the generated SHA-256 hash value from the output.
-
Visit repo.anaconda.com/miniconda to find the official SHA-256 hash for your installer.
-
Compare the hash values. If they match, the installer is safe to use.
For more information, see cryptographic hash verification in the official conda documentation.
-
-
Double-click the
.pkg
file. -
View the Read Me instructions and click Continue.
-
Read through Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS) and click Continue, then click Agree to agree to the terms.
-
Choose an install location:
- Install for all users of this computer (Recommended) - Installs Miniconda into /opt/miniconda3 for all users of the computer.
- Install on a specific disk - Enables you to choose a different location to install Miniconda.
-
Click Install. When the installation finishes, open your terminal application.
You should see
(base)
in the command line prompt. This tells you that you’re in your base conda environment. To learn more about environments, see Environments. -
Test your installation by running
conda list
. If conda has been installed correctly, a list of installed packages appears.
-
Download the
.sh
installer by opening a terminal and running one of the following commands (depending on your macOS architecture):Copycurl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh
View a full list of Miniconda installers in the official Miniconda archive.
To download a different version of Miniconda, copy the Filename of an installer from the archive, then download it using a
curl
command:Copy# Replace <FILENAME> with the installer Filename you copied from the archive curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/<FILENAME>
Ensure that you are downloading an installer that is compatible with your operating system!
-
(Optional) Anaconda recommends verifying the integrity of the installer after downloading it.
To ensure that your downloaded installer has not been tampered with or corrupted, generate its SHA-256 hash value and compare it to the official hash provided in the archive.
-
Open Terminal and run the following command:
Copy# Replace <FILE_NAME> with the path to your installer shasum -a 256 <FILE_NAME>
For example:
Copyshasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh
-
Note the generated SHA-256 hash value from the output.
-
Visit repo.anaconda.com/miniconda to find the official SHA-256 hash for your installer.
-
Compare the hash values. If they match, the installer is safe to use.
For more information, see cryptographic hash verification in the official conda documentation.
-
-
Install by running the following (depending on your macOS architecture):
Copybash ~/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh
-
Press Return to review Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS). Then press and hold Return to scroll.
-
Enter
yes
to agree to the TOS. -
Press Return to accept the default install location (
PREFIX=/Users/<USER>/miniconda3
), or enter another file path to specify an alternate installation directory. The installation might take a few minutes to complete. -
Choose an initialization options:
- Yes -
conda
modifies your shell configuration to initialize conda whenever you open a new shell and to recognize conda commands automatically. - No -
conda
will not modify your shell scripts. After installation, if you want to initialize, you must do so manually. For more information, see Manual shell initialization.
- Yes -
-
The installer finishes and displays, “Thank you for installing Miniconda3!”
-
Close and re-open your terminal window for the installation to fully take effect, or use the following command to refresh the terminal:
Copysource ~/.zshrc
You should see
(base)
in the command line prompt. This tells you that you’re in your base conda environment. To learn more about environments, see Environments. -
Test your installation by running
conda list
. If conda has been installed correctly, a list of installed packages appears.
Once installation has successfully completed, initialize your shell by running the following command:
# Replace <PATH_TO_CONDA> with the path to your conda install
source <PATH_TO_CONDA>/bin/activate
conda init --all
macOS 10.15 and later use zsh as the default shell. Once installation process has completed, initialize conda in a zsh shell by running the following commands:
source <PATH_TO_CONDA>/bin/activate
conda init zsh
For information on installing in silent mode, see the Quick command line install commands for examples or the Installing in silent mode section of Installing on macOS in the conda project documentation.
-
Download the latest version of Miniconda by opening a terminal and running one of the following commands (depending on your Linux architecture):
Copywget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
Copywget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
Copywget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-aarch64.sh
- The
linux-aarch64
package builds might not be compatible with certain Raspberry Pi setups, as Anaconda uses compiler options that target the server-class Neoverse N1/N2 microarchitecture.
Copywget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-s390x.sh
View a full list of Miniconda installers in the official Miniconda archive.
To download a different version of Miniconda, copy the Filename of an installer from the archive, then download it using a
wget
command:Copy# Replace <FILENAME> with the installer Filename you copied from the archive wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/<FILENAME>
Ensure that you are downloading an installer that is compatible with your operating system!
- The
-
(Optional) Anaconda recommends verifying the integrity of the installer after downloading it.
To ensure that your downloaded installer has not been tampered with or corrupted, generate its SHA-256 hash value and compare it to the official hash provided in the archive.
-
Open Terminal and run the following command:
Copy# Replace <FILE_NAME> with the path to your installer sha256sum <FILE_NAME>
For example:
Copysha256sum ~/Downloads/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
-
Note the generated SHA-256 hash value from the output.
-
Visit repo.anaconda.com/miniconda to find the official SHA-256 hash for your installer.
-
Compare the hash values. If they match, the installer is safe to use.
For more information, see cryptographic hash verification in the official conda documentation.
-
-
Install Miniconda by running one of the following commands (depending on your Linux architecture):
Copybash ~/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
The
linux-aarch64
package builds might not be compatible with certain Raspberry Pi setups, as Anaconda uses compiler options that target the server-class Neoverse N1/N2 microarchitecture. -
Press Return to review Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS). Then press and hold Return to scroll.
-
Enter
yes
to agree to the TOS. -
Press Return to accept the default install location (
PREFIX=/Users/<USER>/miniconda3
), or enter another file path to specify an alternate installation directory. The installation might take a few minutes to complete. -
Choose an initialization options:
- Yes -
conda
modifies your shell configuration to initialize conda whenever you open a new shell and to recognize conda commands automatically. - No -
conda
will not modify your shell scripts. After installation, if you want to initialize, you must do so manually. For more information, see Manual shell initialization.
- Yes -
-
The installer finishes and displays, “Thank you for installing Miniconda3!”
-
Close and re-open your terminal window for the installation to fully take effect, or use the following command to refresh the terminal, depending on your shell:
Copysource ~/.bashrc
You should see
(base)
in the command line prompt. This tells you that you’re in your base conda environment. To learn more about environments, see Environments. -
Test your installation by running
conda list
. If conda has been installed correctly, a list of installed packages appears.
Once installation has successfully completed, initialize your shell by running the following command:
# Replace <PATH_TO_CONDA> with the path to your conda install
source <PATH_TO_CONDA>/bin/activate
conda init --all
For information on installing in silent mode, see the Quick command line install commands for examples or the Installing in silent mode section of Installing on macOS in the conda project documentation.
Verify your installation of Miniconda by using the CLI:
-
Access the CLI for your operating system:
- Search for “Anaconda Prompt” in the taskbar search.
- Select Anaconda Prompt.
- Search for “Anaconda Prompt” in the taskbar search.
- Select Anaconda Prompt.
- Use Cmd+Spacebar to open Spotlight Search.
- Type “Terminal” and press Return to open.
- In most Linux distributions, use Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal application.
You should see
(base)
in the command line prompt. This tells you that you’re in your base conda environment. To learn more about environments, see Environments. -
Run any conda command. For example:
conda list
- Displays a list of packages installed in your active environment and their versions.conda --version
- Displaysconda
’s version number.
Quickstart install instructions
These command line instructions will get you set up quickly with the latest Miniconda installer. Follow the steps for your system to download and install Miniconda, then follow the steps in Verify your install above to verify your Miniconda installation.
These quick install commands run a silent install. If you run a silent install, you are accepting Anaconda’s Terms of Service (TOS) by default. Please make sure to review Anaconda’s full TOS here before proceeding with silent installations.
These three commands quickly and quietly download the latest 64-bit Windows installer, rename it to a shorter file name, perform a silent install, and then delete the installer:
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe -o .\miniconda.exe
start /wait "" .\miniconda.exe /S
del .\miniconda.exe
You can find older versions of the Windows installer at <https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda>
.
For example, to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for a 64-bit Windows computer, replace the curl
command for the latest installer with the following curl
command instead:
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-Windows-x86_64.exe -o .\miniconda.exe
After installing, open Anaconda Prompt to use Miniconda.
These three commands quickly and quietly download the latest 64-bit Windows installer, rename it to a shorter file name, perform a silent install, and then delete the installer:
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe -o .\miniconda.exe
start /wait "" .\miniconda.exe /S
del .\miniconda.exe
You can find older versions of the Windows installer at <https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda>
.
For example, to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for a 64-bit Windows computer, replace the curl
command for the latest installer with the following curl
command instead:
curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-Windows-x86_64.exe -o .\miniconda.exe
After installing, open Anaconda Prompt to use Miniconda.
These three commands quickly and quietly download the latest 64-bit Windows installer, rename it to a shorter file name, perform a silent install, and then delete the installer:
wget "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe" -outfile ".\miniconda.exe"
Start-Process -FilePath ".\miniconda.exe" -ArgumentList "/S" -Wait
del .\miniconda.exe
You can find older versions of the Windows installer at <https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/>
.
For example, to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for a 64-bit Windows computer, replace the wget
command for the latest installer with the following wget
command instead:
wget "https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-Windows-x86_64.exe" -outfile ".\miniconda.exe"
After installing, open Anaconda Powershell Prompt to use Miniconda.
-
Run the following four commands to download and install the latest macOS installer for your chosen chip architecture. Line by line, these commands:
- create a new directory named “miniconda3” in your home directory.
- download the macOS Miniconda installation script for your chosen chip architecture and save the script as
miniconda.sh
in the miniconda3 directory. - run the
miniconda.sh
installation script in silent mode using bash. - remove the
miniconda.sh
installation script file after installation is complete.
Copymkdir -p ~/miniconda3 curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh -o ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh bash ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh -b -u -p ~/miniconda3 rm ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
You can find different versions of the macOS installer at
<https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda>
.For example, to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for an M1 macOS computer, replace the
curl
command for the latest installer with the followingcurl
command instead:Copycurl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-MacOSX-arm64.sh -o ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
Or to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.9 for an Intel chip macOS computer, replace the
curl
command for the latest installer with the followingcurl
command instead:Copymkdir -p ~/miniconda3 curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py39_24.5.0-0-MacOSX-x86_64.sh -o ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
-
After installing, close and reopen your terminal application or refresh it by running the following command:
Copysource ~/miniconda3/bin/activate
-
Then, initialize conda on all available shells by running the following command:
Copyconda init --all
If you don’t initialize conda after installation, you might see a “conda not found” error, even though conda is installed. See the Conda: command not found on macOS/Linux troubleshooting topic for possible solutions.
-
Run the following four commands to download and install the latest Linux installer for your chosen chip architecture. Line by line, these commands:
- create a new directory named “miniconda3” in your home directory.
- download the Linux Miniconda installation script for your chosen chip architecture and save the script as
miniconda.sh
in the miniconda3 directory. - run the
miniconda.sh
installation script in silent mode using bash. - remove the
miniconda.sh
installation script file after installation is complete.
Copymkdir -p ~/miniconda3 wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh bash ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh -b -u -p ~/miniconda3 rm ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
You can find different versions of the macOS installer at
<https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda>
.For example, to download an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for an 64-bit version of Linux, replace the
wget
command for the latest installer with the followingwget
command instead:Copywget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda3/miniconda.sh
-
After installing, close and reopen your terminal application or refresh it by running the following command:
Copysource ~/miniconda3/bin/activate
-
Then, initialize conda on all available shells by running the following command:
Copyconda init --all
If you don’t initialize conda after installation, you might see a “conda not found” error, even though conda is installed. See the Conda: command not found on macOS/Linux troubleshooting topic for possible solutions.
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