How to Change the Default Terminal in VS Code

To change the default terminal in VS Code, open the dropdown next to the + button in the terminal panel and select Select Default Profile. Pick any shell installed on your machine and VS Code uses it for every new terminal from then on.

If you need custom shell arguments or environment variables instead of just a different default shell, see how to create and configure terminal profiles.

The quick way: Select Default Profile

The fastest method picks from shells that VS Code has already detected.

The active shell name appears in the terminal tab label. You can confirm the change by running a shell version command like zsh --version or bash --version. For more ways to work with multiple shells at once, see how to split terminals and run multiple terminals.

The settings.json way

If you prefer to configure the default directly in settings, or you need to set a custom shell path that VS Code did not detect, use settings.json.

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON). Add one of these settings based on your platform:

json

{
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Git Bash",
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "zsh",
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.osx": "bash"
}

Each key takes the exact name of a profile already defined in your settings.

If you type a name that does not match an existing profile, the Settings editor rejects the value. If you enter a mismatched name by editing settings.json directly, opening a new terminal shows an error instead of launching a shell.

What shells VS Code detects automatically

VS Code scans for shells at well-known installation paths and adds them as detected profiles. Here is what it finds by default on each platform:

If your shell is installed at a non-standard location, VS Code may not detect it automatically. In that case, create a custom terminal profile with an explicit path.

Set a different default per workspace

You can set one default terminal for all projects and override it for a specific workspace.

The workspace setting takes priority over your user setting for that project only. VS Code applies the workspace default whenever you open that folder.

What to do if the new default does not work

If new terminals fail to open after changing the default, the profile name in your setting likely does not match an existing profile.

First, check what profiles are available. Open the Command Palette and run Terminal: Select Default Profile. The list shows the exact names of every available profile. Use one of those names in your settings.json or pick it from the list.

If your preferred shell is not in the list, it was not detected. Create a profile manually in settings.json with a path pointing to the shell executable, as described above.