How do I find the location of my Python site-packages directory?

There are two types of site-packages directories, global and per user.

Global site-packages (“dist-packages”) directories are listed in sys.path when you run:
python -m site

For a more concise list run getsitepackages from the site module in Python code:
python -c ‘import site; print(site.getsitepackages())’

Note: With virtualenvs getsitepackages is not available, sys.path from above will list the virtualenv’s site-packages directory correctly, though. In Python 3, you may use the sysconfig module instead:
python3 -c ‘import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()[“purelib”])’

The per user site-packages directory (PEP 370) is where Python installs your local packages:
python -m site –user-site

If this points to a non-existing directory check the exit status of Python and see python -m site –help for explanations.
Hint: Running pip list –user or pip freeze –user gives you a list of all installed per user site-packages.

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