apt vs apt-get: What's the Difference?

apt and apt-get are both package management tools on Debian-based systems like Ubuntu. They serve similar purposes, but differ in design and intended use.

Overview

apt-get was introduced first. It's designed for scripting and backward compatibility, provides low-level package management operations, and outputs more technical, verbose information.

apt was introduced later (Ubuntu 16.04+), designed for interactive use by end users. It combines the common functions of apt-get and apt-cache, with cleaner, more user-friendly output.

Output and user experience

apt-get gives traditional, verbose output — less readable day-to-day, but well suited to automation and scripts. apt gives clean, simplified output with progress bars and useful extras like package size and upgrade counts.

Command differences

Both support installing, upgrading, and removing packages, with slightly different syntax:

Operation	apt	apt-get
Update package list	apt update	apt-get update
Upgrade installed packages	apt upgrade	apt-get upgrade
Full system upgrade	apt full-upgrade	apt-get dist-upgrade
Install package	apt install pkg	apt-get install pkg
Remove package	apt remove pkg	apt-get remove pkg
Search package	apt search pkg	apt-cache search pkg
Show package info	apt show pkg	apt-cache show pkg

apt merges features from both apt-get and apt-cache.

Recommended use

Use apt when you're working interactively, want human-friendly output, or want the combined functionality of apt-get + apt-cache.

Use apt-get when writing scripts (it's stable and backward-compatible), you need advanced flags not available in apt, or you require exact, predictable output.

Summary

Feature	apt	apt-get
Intended for	Interactive use	Scripting & backend tools
Output style	Clean, readable, progress bars	Verbose, traditional
Combines apt-cache?	Yes	No
Introduced	Newer (Ubuntu 16.04+)	Older, long-standing

apt is essentially a front-end wrapper around apt-get and apt-cache. Both tools still exist, and neither is being removed. For everyday use, reach for apt; for scripting and automation, apt-get.