Snake Plants are one of the longest mainstays in terms of popular houseplants. They’ve been a part of home, office, and shopping mall decor for many decades. Snake Plants are often considered one of the easiest plants to care for and they’re excellent plants for beginners. They generally sport long sword-like leaves that come in multiple color patterns. Snake Plants can grow quite large. I have a few that are about four feet tall that started quite small. It did take many years to grow that large though. An important factor in helping your Snake Plant grow large is to provide it with the proper amount of sunlight. In this post, I’ll cover what you need to know about Snake Plant sunlight requirements.
Snake Plant Sunlight Requirements
Snake Plants grow well with access to bright indirect sunlight. The best way to provide your Snake Plant ample indirect light is to keep it near a window facing either north or east. North-facing windows receive no direct sunlight, just ambient light from other directions. The sun rises in the east and those windows get less intense light compared to the south and west. As noted in the intro, Snake Plants can miraculously survive with very little direct sunlight though. They seem to be able to survive off of very little window light and plenty of fluorescent office light.
Snake Plants are extremely versatile thought because they can handle direct light too. There is some risk for sunburn but there are some ways to reduce light intensity so the light is more indirect. If your Snake Plant is by a window with bright direct light, you can make that light indirect by having a sheer curtain or some trees outside that filter the light a little bit. Dampening the sun’s intensity is especially important if you have a south-facing window. The most intense sunlight f comes from the south. You can also keep your Snake Plant further from the window to help reduce the sunlight’s intensity as well. One of the reasons Snake Plants are considered so easy to care for is their ability to survive in lower levels of light.
Snake Plant Light Changes
Whenever you move your Snake Plant to a different location, consider whether it will be getting a different amount of sunlight. If it will be getting a lot more or less sunlight, then you need to make the change gradually by acclimating it. An example of when you might need to acclimate your Snake Plant would be when you’re bringing it home from the store. Another example may be if it is next to a window and you want to move it further away. Moving your Snake Plant to a spot where it receives drastically more or less sunlight too quickly may cause it to exhibit signs of shock.
Shock may manifest in many different forms which I’ll discuss in the next sections. To avoid shocking your Snake Plant, you should acclimate to its new spot. A common recommendation to follow is to move it about a foot a day toward the new spot. If you want to move your Snake Plant outside for the summer then follow these tips. You must expose your Snake Plant to the outdoor levels of sunlight for only a few hours a day to begin. Each day you can gradually increase the number of hours until it can be left outside 24/7.
Snake Plant Sunburn
Sunburn is uncommon for Snake Plants that are kept indoors full-time, but it can happen. Sun damage is most likely to happen to a Snake Plant that has been moved outside for the summer. If you like to summer your plants outdoors, then you have to acclimate them to the outdoor sun gradually. While sunburn is not ideal, it’s not typically something that will completely kill a Snake Plant luckily. What does sunburn look like on a Snake Plant? It usually looks like scorched spots on the leaves. Scorched spots will typically happen one spots that receive direct light like the face of an outer leaf, not in between leaves. If you’re seeing discoloration just on the tips of the leaves, that may actually be a water issue. Sunburned Snake Plant leaves night even look pale or bleached out.
Snake Plant Low Light
Snake Plants are known as lower light plants, but it is possible for them to not receive enough light. When a Snake Plant has not been receiving enough light the leaves will look thin and stretched out. They will likely flop over from being too thin and stretched to hold up their own weight. When a plant is growing or stretching towards the light source and this unhealthy growth is called etiolation.
Some people worry that lack of growth means their Snake Plant is not receiving enough sunlight. It’s possible, but I want to stress that Snake Plants grow pretty slowly. In a growing season, spring through early fall, a Snake Plant may only put out one or two new leaves that would be completely normal.
Plant Light Meters
If you’re a geek about houseplants and are interested in determining the light levels in your home, I highly suggest this light meter. This plant monitor measures light, moisture, and nutrients. In this price range, it is superior to most light meters because it tracks the sunlight over time and not just a single point in time. This meter tells you how intense the light was each hour of the day, for however long you want to track through the app. That’s important because both the intensity and duration of sunlight matter. Other light meters only give you the light reading when you’re physically looking at the meter, rather than recording it in an app. Read my in-depth write-up on this plant monitor if you’re interested in learning more.
Do you have other Snake Plant questions? Share in the comments.

I'm a long time plant lover on the quest to happily coexist with as many plants as I can. Let's grow!