How To Start Jupyter Notebook From Command Prompt

Amon Skres

2 min read

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06-01-2025

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Jupyter Notebook is a powerful interactive computing environment, especially popular among data scientists and programmers. While the Jupyter Notebook application provides a user-friendly interface, knowing how to launch it from your command prompt offers greater flexibility and control. This guide will walk you through the process.

Prerequisites: Installation and Setup

Before you can launch Jupyter Notebook from the command prompt, you need to ensure it's installed on your system. If you haven't already, install Jupyter using pip, the package installer for Python:

pip install jupyter

Alternatively, if you use Anaconda, Jupyter is usually included in the distribution. Check your Anaconda environment to verify.

Launching Jupyter Notebook

Once Jupyter is installed, launching it from your command prompt is straightforward. Simply open your command prompt or terminal (depending on your operating system) and type:

jupyter notebook

Press Enter. This command will initiate the Jupyter Notebook server. You should see output similar to this in your command prompt:

[I 13:12:11.785 NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /path/to/your/directory
[I 13:12:11.785 NotebookApp] Jupyter Notebook 6.5.4 is running at:
[I 13:12:11.785 NotebookApp] http://localhost:8888/?token=YOUR_TOKEN
[I 13:12:11.785 NotebookApp]  or http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=YOUR_TOKEN
[I 13:12:11.785 NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).

Important: Note the URL provided (e.g., http://localhost:8888/?token=YOUR_TOKEN). This is the address you'll use to access the Jupyter Notebook interface in your web browser. The token is a security measure; do not share this token.

Accessing the Jupyter Notebook Interface

Open your web browser and paste the URL displayed in your command prompt into the address bar. You'll then be presented with the Jupyter Notebook interface, where you can create, open, and manage your notebooks.

Specifying a Different Starting Directory

By default, Jupyter Notebook starts in the directory from where you launched the command. To launch Jupyter from a specific directory, navigate to that directory in your command prompt before typing the jupyter notebook command. For instance, if you wish to start Jupyter from the C:\MyProjects directory, first navigate there using cd C:\MyProjects and then execute jupyter notebook.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, verify the following:

• Jupyter is installed: Check your Python environment to confirm Jupyter is installed correctly.
• Port Conflicts: If port 8888 is already in use, Jupyter may fail to launch. Try specifying a different port using the --port flag (e.g., jupyter notebook --port=8889).
• Firewall Issues: Your firewall might be blocking the connection. Temporarily disable your firewall to check if this is the cause.

By following these steps, you can efficiently launch Jupyter Notebook from your command prompt and unlock its full potential for your data analysis and programming tasks.