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Overview

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

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Syntax

conda env list [options]

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Options

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--json
boolean
Report all output as JSON. Suitable for using conda programmatically.The JSON output includes:
  • List of environment paths
  • The currently active environment
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--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.
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-v, --verbose
boolean
Use once for INFO, twice for DEBUG, three times for TRACE.
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-q, --quiet
boolean
Do not display progress bar.

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Output Format

The standard output shows:
  • Environment name or path
  • Full path to the environment
  • An asterisk (*) next to the currently active environment

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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

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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"
  ]
}

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Examples

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List all environments

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

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List environments with JSON output

conda env list --json
Outputs environment information in JSON format for programmatic use.

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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

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Quiet output

conda env list --quiet
Suppresses the progress bar and additional information.

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Common Use Cases

Use conda env list to find the full path to an environment:
conda env list | grep myenv
The active environment is marked with an asterisk:
conda env list
# Look for the * symbol
Use JSON output in scripts:
conda env list --json | jq '.envs[]'
Check which environments are using the most space:
conda env list --size
After creating an environment, verify it appears:
conda create -n newenv python=3.11
conda env list | grep newenv

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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

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Understanding the Output

ColumnDescription
NameEnvironment name (or path if created with -p)
Active Marker (*)Indicates the currently activated environment
PathFull filesystem path to the environment
SizeDisk space used (only with --size flag)

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