conda env list

List all conda environments

Overview

The conda env list command lists all available conda environments on your system. This is an alias for conda info --envs.

Syntax

conda env list [options]

Options

--json · boolean

Report all output as JSON. Suitable for using conda programmatically.

The JSON output includes:

• List of environment paths
• The currently active environment

--size · boolean

Show conda-managed disk usage for each environment. This excludes untracked files created after installation.

Calculating sizes may take some time for environments with many packages.

-v, --verbose · boolean

Use once for INFO, twice for DEBUG, three times for TRACE.

-q, --quiet · boolean

Do not display progress bar.

Output Format

The standard output shows:

• Environment name or path
• Full path to the environment
• An asterisk (*) next to the currently active environment

Standard Output Example

# conda environments:
#
base                  *  /home/user/miniconda3
myenv                    /home/user/miniconda3/envs/myenv
project1                 /home/user/miniconda3/envs/project1
test-env                 /opt/conda/envs/test-env

JSON Output Example

{
  "envs": [
    "/home/user/miniconda3",
    "/home/user/miniconda3/envs/myenv",
    "/home/user/miniconda3/envs/project1",
    "/opt/conda/envs/test-env"
  ],
  "envs_dirs": [
    "/home/user/miniconda3/envs",
    "/home/user/.conda/envs"
  ]
}

Examples

List all environments

conda env list

Shows all environments with their paths and indicates the active one.

List environments with JSON output

conda env list --json

Outputs environment information in JSON format for programmatic use.

List environments with size information

conda env list --size

Displays each environment with its disk usage:

# conda environments:
#
base                  *  /home/user/miniconda3         1.2 GB
myenv                    /home/user/miniconda3/envs/myenv    456 MB
project1                 /home/user/miniconda3/envs/project1 789 MB

Quiet output

conda env list --quiet

Suppresses the progress bar and additional information.

Common Use Cases

Find environment locations

Use conda env list to find the full path to an environment:

conda env list | grep myenv

Check which environment is active

The active environment is marked with an asterisk:

conda env list
# Look for the * symbol

Programmatic environment discovery

Use JSON output in scripts:

conda env list --json | jq '.envs[]'

Audit disk usage

Check which environments are using the most space:

conda env list --size

Verify environment creation

After creating an environment, verify it appears:

conda create -n newenv python=3.11
conda env list | grep newenv

Environment Search Locations

Conda searches for environments in these directories (in order):

1. envs_dirs from .condarc configuration
2. Default locations:
   • $CONDA_ROOT/envs - Default environment directory
   • ~/.conda/envs - User environment directory
   • Any custom paths specified in configuration

You can configure custom environment directories in your .condarc file:

envs_dirs:
  - /custom/path/to/envs
  - ~/my-envs

Understanding the Output

Column	Description
Name	Environment name (or path if created with -p)
Active Marker (*)	Indicates the currently activated environment
Path	Full filesystem path to the environment
Size	Disk space used (only with --size flag)

Related Commands

• conda env create - Create a new environment
• conda env remove - Remove an environment
• conda activate - Activate an environment
• conda info - Display comprehensive conda information
• conda config --show envs_dirs - Show configured environment directories