Miniconda#

Miniconda is a free minimal installer for conda. It is a small bootstrap version of Anaconda that includes only conda, Python, the packages they both depend on, and a small number of other useful packages (like pip, zlib, and a few others).

If you need more packages, use the conda install command to install from thousands of packages available by default in Anaconda’s public repo, or from other channels, like conda-forge or bioconda.

Is Miniconda free for me?

Miniconda is free for anyone to use! However, access to Anaconda’s public repository of packages is only free to individuals and small organizations (<200 employees). A paid license is required for larger organizations and anyone embedding or mirroring Anaconda’s repository. See the TOS for details.

Should I use Miniconda or Anaconda?

The Anaconda or Miniconda page lists some reasons why you might want one installation over the other.

Quick command line install#

These quick command line instructions will get you set up quickly with the latest Miniconda installer. For graphical installer (.exe and .pkg) and hash checking instructions, see Installing Miniconda.

Note

For best results, copy all of the commands in each code block and run them all at once.

These three commands quickly and quietly download the latest 64-bit Windows installer, rename it to a shorter file name, silently 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
To install a different version

You can find different versions of the Windows installer at https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/.

For example, to install an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for a 64-bit Windows computer, use 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 the “Anaconda Prompt (miniconda3)” program to use Miniconda3.

These three commands quickly and quietly download the latest 64-bit Windows installer, rename it to a shorter file name, silently install, and then delete the installer:

curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Windows-x86_64.exe -o miniconda.exe
Start-Process -FilePath ".\miniconda.exe" -ArgumentList "/S" -Wait
del miniconda.exe
To install a different version

You can find different versions of the Windows installer at https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/.

For example, to install an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for a 64-bit Windows computer, use 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 the “Anaconda Powershell Prompt (miniconda3)”.

These four commands download the latest M1 version of the MacOS installer, rename it to a shorter file name, silently install, and then delete the installer:

mkdir -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
To install a different version

You can find different versions of the MacOS installer at https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/.

For example, to install an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for an M1 MacOS computer, use the following curl command instead:

curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-MacOSX-arm64.sh -o ~/miniconda/miniconda.sh

Or to install an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.9 for an Intel chip MacOS computer, use the following curl command instead:

curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py39_24.5.0-0-MacOSX-x86_64.sh -o ~/miniconda/miniconda.sh

After installing, initialize your newly-installed Miniconda. The following commands initialize for bash and zsh shells:

~/miniconda3/bin/conda init bash
~/miniconda3/bin/conda init zsh

These four commands download the latest 64-bit version of the Linux installer, rename it to a shorter file name, silently install, and then delete the installer:

mkdir -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
To install a different version

You can find different versions of the MacOS installer at https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/.

For example, to install an older version of Miniconda for Python 3.12 for an 64-bit version of Linux, use the following wget command instead:

wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-py312_24.5.0-0-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda/miniconda.sh

After installing, initialize your newly-installed Miniconda. The following commands initialize for bash and zsh shells:

~/miniconda3/bin/conda init bash
~/miniconda3/bin/conda init zsh
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