How can the default Node.js version be set using NVM?

Question

I have installed nvm (Node.js with Z shell (executable zsh) (executable zsh) shell) with two Node.js versions: v6.11.5 and v9.0.0, and the default version in nvm is the v9.0.0.

Every time I need to change the Node.js version,

nvm list

Output:

         v6.11.5
->       v9.0.0
         system
default -> node (-> v9.0.0)
node -> stable (-> v9.0.0) (default)
stable -> 9.0 (-> v9.0.0) (default)

And:

nvm v6

How could I change the nvm version default to define v6.11.5?

for M1 mac nvm alias default xxx works but not nvm use default xxx — Saahithyan Vigneswaran
– Saahithyan Vigneswaran, Commented Jul 12, 2024 at 5:04

LJHarb · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-10 07:40:44Z

3822

(nvm maintainer here)

nvm alias default 6.11.5 if you want it pegged to that specific version.

You can also do nvm alias default 16 or nvm alias default node.

Either way, you'll want to upgrade to the latest version of nvm (v0.39.2 as of this writing)

# nvm set default node.js version 16.14.2
$ nvm alias default 16.14.2
$ nvm use

$ node -v
# v16.14.2

edited Jan 10 at 7:40

answered Dec 13, 2017 at 6:42

LJHarb

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18 Comments

Ryan Wheale Over a year ago

Use nvm alias default node to make the "latest" the default.

Jari Turkia Over a year ago

Doing nvm alias default doesn't do anything. The tag "default" changes, but a new shell is still using the not-desired-version. I found that uninstalling not needed versions works.

Muheez Opebiyi Sep 22, 2025 at 12:08

I was using vs-code and it did not work initially, but when I restarted the vs-Code it worked.

mirapole Over a year ago

nvm alias default node to use the latest version of Node installed on your computer. Remember to use nvm use node (or whatever Node version you want to use) after the first command to actually change the version. My example (I was using version 13 as default, but having 15 on machine and wanting to set default to latest version of Node): nvm alias default node nvm use node was like using (in my case): nvm alias default 15 nvm use 15

dijonkitchen Over a year ago

Might want to just use the latest long-term stable release. nvm alias default lts/*

Frank N Over a year ago

For paranoid double-checking: I always open a new terminal windows/tab thereaftert, and truly verify with nvm list (looking at both --> (current version) and default --> (default version indeed) as well as node -v of course.

|

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:47:52Z

229

Let’s say we want to make the default version as 10.19.0.

nvm alias default v10.19.0

But it will give the following error

! WARNING: Version 'v10.19.0' does not exist.
default -> v10.19.0 (-> N/A)

In that case, you need to run two commands in the following order:

# Install the version that you would like
nvm install 10.19.0

# Set 10.19.0 (or another version) as default
nvm alias default 10.19.0

edited Jan 6 at 12:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Apr 6, 2020 at 17:58

Dipesh Yadav

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3 Comments

Lauris Kuznecovs Over a year ago

nvm alias default 10.19.0 Without "v"

LJHarb Over a year ago

it works both with or without the v.

David Over a year ago

don't forget to nvm use default as @alltozall20381 mentioned below or start a new shell.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:53:15Z

217

This will set the default to be the most current version of Node.js:

nvm alias default node

And then you'll need to run

nvm use default

Or exit and open a new tab.

edited Jan 6 at 12:53

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 9, 2020 at 18:32

alltozall20381

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7 Comments

MathKimRobin Over a year ago

Asked for node 6, your solution will choose the last node stable version to use. So it will not use specific 6 version

ljleb Over a year ago

Even though this is pretty useful, this doesn't answer the question at all.

Nic Scozzaro Over a year ago

This gave me a message "Your user’s .npmrc file (${HOME}/.npmrc) has a globalconfig and/or a prefix setting, which are incompatible with nvm. Run nvm use --delete-prefix v15.13.0 to unset it." I ended up running the suggested command and it worked.

MrE Over a year ago

Yours is the first answer that tells me to run nvm use default which is what I was missing.

Moritz Over a year ago

This works for me, but only in the same shell. When I open a new one node -v still prints the previous version...

|

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:15:40Z

99

If you just want a major version as the default, this works:

nvm alias default 20

To check your current default:

nvm alias default

Output:

default -> 20 (-> v20.13.1)

Restart the terminal to apply it.

edited Jan 6 at 14:15

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 10, 2023 at 16:11

cprcrack

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:19:12Z

80

If you want to switch only for once, use this:

nvm use 12.x

Else, if you want to switch the default Node.js version, then use:

nvm use default 12.x

or

nvm alias default 12.x

edited Jan 6 at 15:19

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 5, 2021 at 6:22

Tejesh Palagiri

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:32:00Z

79

I was trying to change the default version from a Visual Studio Code terminal on a Mac, but it didn’t work. I had to run this from the default system terminal:

nvm alias default v16.16.0

edited Jan 6 at 14:32

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 29, 2023 at 14:04

Imtiaz Sakib

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2 Comments

hernvnc Over a year ago

Just to clarify, you can also do "nvm alias default v16" and it'll stick to the v16 major version.

Ch Asjad Mahmood Over a year ago

After running above command in macos terminal, had to restart my Vscode to see the changes applied in Vscode terminal.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:59:29Z

59

For those testing this in the Visual Studio Code terminal and still seeing the old version even after killing/restarting terminal, Visual Studio Code caches the old version. Close/reopen your Visual Studio Code window, and you should see the correct version with node -v.

I got curious about why this is the case. The Visual Studio Code process provides new shells with the $PATH variable it received when it was started. Because nvm works by updating your $PATH, new shells in Visual Studio Code do not reflect those changes, and a full restart is required.

edited Jan 6 at 14:59

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 23, 2021 at 21:10

Kyle Chadha

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1 Comment

Renato Rodrigues Aug 20, 2025 at 9:32

Thanks. This solved for me. I was trying to use the Reload Window command from the command palette, but it didn't work. I had to fully close VS Code and open it again.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:40:10Z

55

This is what works for me.

nvm use default v16

This did not do anything for me:

nvm alias default v16

edited Jan 6 at 14:40

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 7, 2022 at 13:47

okwyvic

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1 Comment

marcelocra Over a year ago

Notice that the v in v16 matters. Without that it didn't work for me (even though it does when I use nvm use 16).

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:57:33Z

34

You can also like this:

nvm alias default lts/fermium

edited Jan 6 at 12:57

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 3, 2020 at 7:28

August Gong

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4 Comments

MADforFUNandHappy Over a year ago

Is there any way to target the latest version ? e.g. nvm alias default lts/latest ?

Pablo Hernández - OtakuPahp Over a year ago

Try with nvm alias default lts/*

Jono Over a year ago

Note you will need to install lts/fermium first. Plus I find nvm alias default lts/* returns WARNING: Version 'lts/*' does not exist.

Ed Harrod Over a year ago

That format isn't supported by some shells. You can wrap in single quotes to get by this, e.g. nvm alias default 'lts/*'

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:35:49Z

If you want all projects and terminals to use the same Node.js version globally, nvm makes it simple to set a default version. Here's how:

Install the latest version (if not already installed)

Install the latest stable version of Node.js using nvm:
```
nvm install node
```
or
```
nvm install [<version>]
```
Set the global default version

Run the following command to set the latest version as the global default for all environments:
```
nvm alias default node
```
or
```
nvm alias default 23
```
Verify the global default

Close and reopen your terminal, then check the version to confirm:
```
node -v
```
This will show the default version being used across all sessions.

Why this works

By setting a default version with nvm alias default, every time you open a terminal, nvm will automatically load the specified version as the global default for all projects and scripts. You don’t need to manually switch versions anymore unless you explicitly want to.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:34:24Z

Alert: This answer is for macOS only

Let’s suppose you have two versions of Node.js inside your nvm, namely v13.10.1 and v15.4.0.

And, v15.4.0 is default

nvm list

Output:

       v13.10.1
->      v15.4.0
         system
default -> 15.4.0 (-> v15.4.0)

And, you want to switch the default to v13.10.1

Follow these steps on your Mac terminal:

Run the command:

nvm alias default 13.10.1

This will make the default point to v13.10.1 as...

default -> 13.10.1 (-> v13.10.1)

Open new instance of terminal. Now check the node version here as...

node -v

You will get...

v13.10.1

nvm list will also show the new default version.

nvm list

Just some information: The Node.js versions taken as example above will have their different npm versions. You can cross-verify it in terminal by running npm -v

++ In fact, this answer would work totally well for Linux and Windows systems too. On Windows, the user may do these steps via Git bash

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:10:52Z

23

Enter image description here

If your Node.js version (node -v) is 16.17.0 or later, then run nvm alias default 20.9.0 to have node -v return 20.9.0.

edited Jan 6 at 14:10

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 23, 2024 at 9:59

NVT_CR7

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2 Comments

Yunnosch Over a year ago

I find your post so hard to read that I am not even sure whether you actually meant to answer (according to How to Answer). If so, please edit to make it more obvious. Otherwise please delete this.

Peter Mortensen Jan 6 at 13:04

Related: Why should I not upload images of code/data/errors?. It covers program output as well.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:55:09Z

22

In a nutshell, steps to use NVM

For Mac

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
nvm install 16
nvm use 16
nvm alias default 16
npm install npm --global # Upgrade npm to the latest version

For Linux

sudo apt install curl git
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install nodejs

For Windows

Git's installer for Windows from the Windows install page.

File node-v16.XX.XX-x64.msi from Index of /dist/latest-v16.x/.

edited Jan 6 at 14:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 14, 2022 at 10:11

dolar

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1 Comment

Peter Mortensen Jan 6 at 14:55

Re "For Linux": Would it work on Fedora or Arch Linux? What was it tested on?

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:56:32Z

19

I did something like this after running a nvm install --lts:

nvm alias default 'lts/*'

edited Jan 6 at 14:56

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 15, 2021 at 17:03

Maxime

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1 Comment

Jono Over a year ago

Good answer! nvm install --lts && nvm alias default lts/*

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:27:11Z

18

I tried the most-upvoted answer, and it didn’t work for me.

On Mac, the problem was that I had another Node.js instance installed by Homebrew (executable brew) which NVM recognizes as the system Node.js. NVM prioritizes the system Node.js over the default alias.

All I had to was to uninstall the system Node.js:

brew uninstall node

edited Jan 6 at 15:27

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 3, 2021 at 5:58

Ingun전인건

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1 Comment

MmM Over a year ago

Same for me on WSL. I didn't have brew so I used ´sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove nodejs´

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:00:38Z

Since there are a lot of previous answers that talk about the default alias, and someone still can't get the right version in new terminal, my answer is here.

While you add source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh in your shell rc file (like ~/.bashrc), it will first check whether there is a nvm-version Node.js path in the $PATH environment variable, like /usr/local/nvm/versions/node/v14.1.0/bin. If there is one, nvm will not use the default alias.

So firstly, you should check why there is Node.js path in $PATH. If you could get the reason (like run nvm use 16 explicitly in another rc file or script file), just remove it.

If you can't get reason or just want to keep it, then another solution is:

# That's your previous usage, keep it
source $NVM_DIR/nvm.sh

# FORCE to use the default alias
nvm use default

# Or if you prefer to forcedly use .nvmrc prior to default, then
test -f .nvmrc && nvm use || nvm use default

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:55:57Z

11

First check the available versions:

nvm list

Then set the default version using:

nvm alias default lts/**

edited Jan 6 at 14:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 25, 2022 at 10:14

Swaroop Maddu

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:18:07Z

7

Use nvm alias default 16 (where "16" is the version you want to use), but if you're install Node.js from Download Node.js before, I would suggest you remove it first.

For Apple M1 or Apple M1 Pro chips, I suggest you follow this solution: How to uninstall Node.js from Mac M1

edited Jan 6 at 15:18

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 20, 2021 at 5:34

Sirawich voungchuy

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 20:32:41Z

The current answers did not solve the problem for me, because I had Node.js installed in /usr/bin/node and /usr/local/bin/node, so the system always resolved these first, and ignored the nvm version.

I solved the issue by moving the existing versions to /usr/bin/node-system and /usr/local/bin/node-system.

Then I didn't have any node command anymore, until I used nvm use :(

I solved this issue by creating a symbolic link to the version that would be installed by nvm.

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/node /usr/local/bin/node-system
sudo mv /usr/bin/node /usr/bin/node-system
nvm use node
  # Now using node v12.20.1 (npm v6.14.10)

which node
  # /home/paul/.nvm/versions/node/v12.20.1/bin/node
sudo ln -s /home/paul/.nvm/versions/node/v12.20.1/bin/node /usr/bin/node

Then open a new shell

node -v

Output:

v12.20.1

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:25:43Z

6

Use this command to set a default Node.js version. For example, to set version 16 as the default, use:

nvm alias default 16

You can replace 16 with any other version, such as 18, 20, or 22, depending on your needs.

edited Jan 6 at 12:25

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 20, 2024 at 16:11

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:58:40Z

6

I solved this issue with the following command:

nvm use set as default xx.xx.x

Enter image description here

edited Jan 6 at 12:58

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 31, 2024 at 20:12

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1 Comment

Peter Mortensen Jan 6 at 12:45

Related: Why should I not upload images of code/data/errors?. It covers program output as well.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 15:22:07Z

5

Change the default version to use the latest LTS version:

nvm alias default lts/*

You manually upgrade the global version by doing nvm install lts/* --reinstall-packages-from=lts/* or a weekly cron job if you want to keep your version up-to-date.

The --reinstall-packages-from=lts/* is there to reinstall the global packages you had every time you change versions.

edited Jan 6 at 15:22

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 10, 2021 at 4:18

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:35:29Z

I had set the default version to use with nvm alias default <version>, but a new shell still didn't point to the version of node I wanted.

It turns out that:

nvm manipulates $PATH to set the version to use.
The .bash_profile file set by the system administrator reset $PATH to a fixed list of directories, rather than adding to the existing.
As this happened after .bashrc and thus nvm were run, nvm correctly picked my default, but the $PATH was then reset.

Two possible solutions:

Fix the $PATH manipulation, so that it doesn't clobber the existing $PATH
Or run nvm use default at the end of file .bash_profile, after the $PATH manipulation, so that nvm can readd the path to the correct version to $PATH

I ran into this today on linux. When I run nvm alias default, the correct version is shown. but node -v shows a version I previously installed. This seems like a dirty workaround, but I don't have much choice.

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:40:16Z

3

Whatever I tried, it did not use the version I specified, and running nvm current returned system.

Moving the following line to the end of my .zshrc file fixed it:

source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

edited Jan 6 at 12:40

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 19, 2024 at 1:48

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 12:52:08Z

2

Change the default Node.js version with nvm alias default 10.15.3 (replace my version with your default version number).

You can check your default lists with nvm list.

edited Jan 6 at 12:52

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 17, 2020 at 22:25

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:14:01Z

1

For me the issue was, my nvm was not set every time I open a new terminal. Once I got rid of this issue, the default Node.js version was also being set fine.

After the nvm was initializing on startup of new terminal, the Node.js version was being initialized to the default set via nvm. Here.

edited Jan 6 at 14:14

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 19, 2024 at 12:50

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:26:48Z

1

FYI, it looks like tmux also caches the old version (like mentioned with Visual Studio Code in a previous answer). Restarting tmux then uses the new version for each window.

edited Jan 6 at 14:26

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 2, 2022 at 9:26

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2 Comments

user1068352 Over a year ago

That was it! I had new version of node only in first pane, when I opened new one I got the old version. tmux kill-server helped.

Peter Mortensen Jan 6 at 15:01

Re "in a previous answer": In Kyle Chadha's answer?

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-06 14:37:37Z

1

In my situation of Windows 11, nvm 1.1.9, and using Git Bash:

These work for me (have to run as administrator):

Latest version

nvm use latest

Specific version

nvm use 18.10.0

These didn't work for me:

nvm use 18

returns:

node vv18.10.0 (64-bit) is not installed or cannot be found.

And

nvm use default 18

returns

Unrecognized version: "default"

And for

nvm alias ...

it seems the alias command is not supported in this nvm version.

edited Jan 6 at 14:37

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 29, 2022 at 3:53

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Cameron Tacklind · Accepted Answer · 2026-01-12 21:14:59Z

While NVM has its uses, I encourage you to consider an alternate option.

You can pin you project to a particular version of Node.js using the node package on Npm!

cd oldProject

npm i [email protected]

cd ../newProject

npm i [email protected]

Next time Npm runs node, it will use that version!

The node package accomplishes this by downloading the specified version of Node.js to node_modules/.bin/node. You you can run it directly, but it is easier to let Npm run it.

Any package.json#scripts will automatically use the specified version of node since node_modules/.bin is added to the path by Npm.

No more remembering which version of Node this package uses. No need to run anything new - just make sure npm i has been run.

{
  "scripts": {
    "node-version": "node --version"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "node": "9.0.0"
  }
}

Note, you will need to npm install once before the correct node is used:

node --version
# v18.12.0
npm run node-version
# v18.12.0
npm install
npm run node-version
# v9.0.0
node --version
# v18.12.0
node_modules/.bin/node --version
# v9.0.0

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