---
page_title: 'Command: output'
description: >-
  The `terraform output` command is used to extract the value of an output
  variable from the state file.
---

# Command: output

The `terraform output` command is used to extract the value of
an output variable from the state file.

## Usage

Usage: `terraform output [options] [NAME]`

With no additional arguments, `output` will display all the outputs for
the root module. If an output `NAME` is specified, only the value of that
output is printed.

The command-line flags are all optional. The following flags are available:

* `-json` - If specified, the outputs are formatted as a JSON object, with
  a key per output. If `NAME` is specified, only the output specified will be
  returned. This can be piped into tools such as `jq` for further processing.
* `-raw` - If specified, Terraform will convert the specified output value to a
  string and print that string directly to the output, without any special
  formatting. This can be convenient when working with shell scripts, but
  it only supports string, number, and boolean values. Use `-json` instead
  for processing complex data types.
* `-no-color` - If specified, output won't contain any color.
* `-state=path` - Path to the state file. Defaults to "terraform.tfstate".
  Ignored when [remote state](/terraform/language/state/remote) is used.

-> **Note:** When using the `-json` or `-raw` command-line flags, Terraform displays `sensitive` values in plain text. For more information,
refer to [Sensitive data in state](/terraform/language/state/sensitive-data).

## Examples

These examples assume the following Terraform output snippet.

```hcl
output "instance_ips" {
  value = aws_instance.web.*.public_ip
}

output "lb_address" {
  value = aws_alb.web.public_dns
}

output "password" {
  sensitive = true
  value     = var.secret_password
}
```

To list all outputs:

```shellsession
$ terraform output
instance_ips = [
  "54.43.114.12",
  "52.122.13.4",
  "52.4.116.53"
]
lb_address = "my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com"
password = <sensitive>
```

Note that Terraform does not redact `sensitive` values when you specify the output by name:

```shellsession
$ terraform output password
password = notasecurepassword
```

However, Terraform completely omits any `ephemeral` values, even if you specify an output by name. Ephemeral values are never stored in state or included in Terraform plans. For more information, refer to [Sensitive data in state](/terraform/language/state/sensitive-data).

To query for the DNS address of the load balancer:

```shellsession
$ terraform output lb_address
"my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com"
```

To query for all instance IP addresses:

```shellsession
$ terraform output instance_ips
instance_ips = [
  "54.43.114.12",
  "52.122.13.4",
  "52.4.116.53"
]
```

## Use in automation

The `terraform output` command by default displays in a human-readable format,
which can change over time to improve clarity.

For scripting and automation, use `-json` to produce the stable JSON format.
You can parse the output using a JSON command-line parser such as
[jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/):

```shellsession
$ terraform output -json instance_ips | jq -r '.[0]'
54.43.114.12
```

For the common case of directly using a string value in a shell script, you
can use `-raw` instead, which will print the string directly with no extra
escaping or whitespace.

```shellsession
$ terraform output -raw lb_address
my-app-alb-1657023003.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com
```

The `-raw` option works only with values that Terraform can automatically
convert to strings. Use `-json` instead, possibly combined with `jq`, to
work with complex-typed values such as objects.

Terraform strings are sequences of Unicode characters rather than raw bytes,
so the `-raw` output will be UTF-8 encoded when it contains non-ASCII
characters. If you need a different character encoding, use a separate command
such as `iconv` to transcode Terraform's raw output.
