3 Ways to See Which PHP is Installed + Troubleshooting

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A step-by-step guide to find the PHP version number on your server

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: October 28, 2024 Fact Checked

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Using PHP Code

|

Using the Command Line

|

Using WordPress

|

Fix PHP Not Recognized on Windows

|

Q&A

|

Tips

If you're planning to implement new features on your website or trying to pinpoint a bug, you may need to check the version of PHP that's running on your web server. You can check the PHP version quickly by running a simple PHP file on your server, or by using the "php -v" command at the Windows, Mac, or Linux command line. This wikiHow guide will teach you the easiest ways to find out which version of PHP is running on your web server. We'll also help you fix the common ' php' is not recognized as an internal or external command error on Windows.

Section 1 of 4:

Using PHP Code on Your Server

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You can use Notepad, TextEdit, Vim , or any other text editor. Because you'll be creating a plain text file, it's better to use a text editor rather than a word processing program like Microsoft Word.
2
Enter the following code. This small piece of code will return the PHP version information when it is run on your web server. ^{[1]
X
Research source}
```
 <?php 
 echo 
 'Current PHP version: ' 
 . 
 phpversion 
 (); 
 ?> 
  
```
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Call the file version.php .
4
Create a more detailed report (optional). The file above will output your current PHP version number only. If you want more information, such as system info, build dates, available commands, and API information, you can use the phpinfo() function. Create a new text file containing the following code, and save it as info.php .
```
 <?php 
 phpinfo 
 (); 
 ?> 
  
```
5
Upload the file(s) to your web server. If you edited the text file directly on your web server , just make sure to move the PHP file into your website's root directory. If you created the file on your computer, upload it to your web server's root web directory (often www , public_html , or htdocs ). You can do this through your web host's admin control panel or an FTP client , depending on your web host.
- If you also created an info.php file, upload that to the same location.
6
Open the file in your web browser. Once you've uploaded your PHP version file, use your web browser to view the file. Navigate to the location of the file on your server. For example, if you placed it in the root directory of your domain, you would visit www.yourdomain.com/version.php .
- To see the full readout, visit www.yourdomain.com/info.php .
Once you've checked your PHP version, delete the version.php file and the info.php file if you created one. Leaving these files in your web directory makes it easy for hackers to find out which version of PHP you're using, which could leave you open to exploitation.

Section 2 of 4:

Using the Command Line

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1
Open a Terminal or Command Prompt. If you have PHP installed locally, you can use the Command Prompt or Terminal to check the version. This also works if you log in to the server remotely using SSH or another remote connection method to access the command line.
- Windows Command Prompt: Press Windows key + S , type cmd , and click Command Prompt .
- Mac Terminal: Open Terminal from the Utilities folder, on the Launchpad, or by searching for it with Spotlight.
- Linux Terminal : Press Ctrl + Alt + T .
When you run the command, the installed version of PHP will be displayed.

Section 3 of 4:

Checking PHP Version on WordPress

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If you're using WordPress, you can check your PHP version using the built-in Site Health tool. ^{[2]
X
Research source}
A menu will expand.
You'll see this option on the menu. This takes you to the Status tab of the Site Health tool. ^{[3]
X
Research source}
It's near the top of the Site Health tool.
5
Scroll down to find the PHP version. The currently installed version of PHP appears next to "PHP version" in the "Server" section of the tool.
- If you need to update PHP for WordPress, you can usually do so through your website's admin control panel (not through WordPress itself). If there is no option to update PHP through your control panel, your web host may need to update it for you.

Section 4 of 4:

Fix PHP is Not Recognized in Windows

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1
Find out if PHP is installed. If you see the error 'php' is not recognized as an internal or external command , it's usually because PHP isn't in your Windows system path. Before you can fix the error, you'll need to determine whether PHP is installed, and where it's installed. In most cases, it's installed in the root of one of your Windows drives, e.g., C:\php or D:\php . ^{[4]
X
Research source} Here's the best way to search:
- Press Windows key + E to open File Explorer .
- Click This PC in the left panel.
- In the search box at the top-right, type php.exe and press Enter .
- If PHP is not found, you'll need to install it. You can download the latest version as a ZIP file from https://windows.php.net/download/ and extract it to the C:\php or D:\php folder.
To do this, type cmd into the Windows search bar, right-click "Command Prompt," and then select Run as administrator .
3
Add the PHP install location to your path. At the prompt, type or paste set PATH=%PATH%;C:\php\php.exe and press Enter .
- Replace the path with the path to your php.exe file.
Once you've added PHP to your system path , you'll need to start with a new Command Prompt window to check the version. Now, type php -v and press Enter to see which version of PHP you're running.

Community Q&A

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Question

When I use the PHP -v command it says 'PHP' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Why?

Arrogance

Top Answerer

This is caused by PHP not being in your PATH. Follow the directions under Method 2 for setting your PATH variable.

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Question

`phpinfo` and `php -v` show different versions of PHP. How do you resolve this and change php -v to the desired version?

Arrogance

Top Answerer

`phpinfo` returns the version being used by your web server. `php -v` is the version installed in your PATH (where the operating system looks for programs to run from the command line). Check your web server setup, to find the path of the PHP interpreter it is using. Then, either invoke it by entering the full path (like C:\Programs Files\php.exe or /usr/bin/php), or add its parent directory to the top of your path variable (as described in the article. In Linux, the php command may be symlinked to a specific version, while the web server invokes another version. You'll need to modify the symlink, or run the command for your distro to select an alternative.

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Tips

The steps to update PHP vary depending on how you installed it. For example, if you installed PHP through your Linux distribution's package manager, you'll want to update PHP that way. If you installed PHP on Windows by downloading the files from PHP.net, just download the latest files, stop your web server, replace your PHP folder with the new files, and then restart your web server.

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If you see a different PHP version when checking in your web browser than you do from the command line (and you're using the command line on your web server), this means you have two versions of PHP installed . If the command line version is more recent than the version you saw in your browser, you'll need to update your web server configuration to point to the newer version of PHP. For example, if you're using Apache , change the PHP path in httpd.conf.

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3 Ways to See Which PHP is Installed + Troubleshooting

Steps

Using PHP Code on Your Server

Using the Command Line

Checking PHP Version on WordPress

Fix PHP is Not Recognized in Windows

Community Q&A

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Tips

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