Install Elixir on macOS

Homebrew note

macOS does not ship Elixir by default, so the community standard is Homebrew. If Homebrew is already on your machine, you are ready for the next step.

If not, set up Homebrew first with its normal install flow, then come back here. No manual Erlang download is needed.

brew install elixir

Install Elixir with one Homebrew command. Homebrew pulls in Erlang/OTP as a dependency, so you get both runtimes at once.

brew install elixir

elixir --version

Ask Elixir for its version. The answer lists both the Erlang/OTP runtime and the Elixir language version.

elixir --version

Erlang/OTP 27 [erts-15.2] [64-bit]

Elixir 1.18.2 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 27)

As a smoke test, evaluate one small expression. You can run the same line inside iex, which you start with the iex command.

elixir -e "IO.puts(2 + 3)"

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PATH notes

Homebrew sets up PATH for you in new terminals. On Apple Silicon the tools live under /opt/homebrew/bin, while on Intel they live under /usr/local/bin.

If the shell does not see Elixir yet, close the terminal, open a new one, and check again. Advanced users can also try version managers such as asdf/vfox as plain local tools.

Next: Install Elixir on FreeBSD

Article author: Arthur Isaev