With the room at 22 °C and the humidity at 50%, a golden pothos on a north sill reads 100 out of 100, and five metres into the room it still reads 98 from March to September. For most of the year, distance from the glass barely moves it. Temperature does: cool the same sill to 18 °C and the score falls to 67 while the light still reads just right.
Read on 14 October 2026, most of the first page approves. A plant blog calls north light “actually ideal” for a pothos, and a garden centre puts it near a north or east window. The forum voices are cooler. An old Houzz thread is about three Marble Queens “just existing” at a north window, and a Facebook commenter says a pothos survives there without thriving. None of them says to move it back. A shop says right in front of the glass; a north-window guide says within two feet.
On light, our numbers side with the approvers and allow more room than any of them. What moves a pothos at a north window, in our scoring, is warmth.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
Is a north-facing window enough light for a pothos?
Start with the published light figures for a pothos, copied as printed, units and all.
| Who publishes it | What it says a pothos needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| theplantrunner.com | 800–2,000+ lux | Standard foliage plants (pothos, Philodendron, Monstera deliciosa …) — a general band, not a single-species figure |
| houseplantjournal.com | 100 foot-candles | Pothos — minimum indirect light |
| houseplantjournal.com | 200 foot-candles | Pothos — good indirect light |
| growlightmeter.com | 5 – 10 PPFD / DLI | Pothos |
| extension.arizona.edu | 25–75 foot-candles | listed under the heading "Low Light (25–75 fc)" |
| houseplantsnook.com | 50–100 foot-candles | chart fc level |
Yes, with room to spare. Our care data files a golden pothos in the low-light band, and a north sill lands inside it with no flag from either side; the card above gives it a clean 100. There’s no midday beam here to back away from, and nobody in those results tells you to.
One grower on r/IndoorGarden put a meter on their north-window pothos and got an average of 234 foot-candles, above the 200 that one source in the table calls good. One reply said it would live and probably lose its gold. Both can hold at once. Our score says whether the plant is comfortable where it is. It doesn’t grade the marbling, and new leaves can come in greener at a spot the plant is perfectly comfortable in. If the gold matters to you, keep the pot near the glass; nothing in our numbers asks you to move it back.
How deep into a north room can a pothos go?
Further back than most rooms are deep, until the days shorten. Here is the same pothos five metres from the glass, about the depth of a big living room or the hall beyond it, followed from one summer to the next spring at latitude 40 degrees, roughly New York or Madrid:
| The month it is | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| June | 529 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| September | 440 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| October | 356 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| December | 257 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| February | 360 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| March | 438 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
June gives that spot 529 lux and a score of 98. By October it is down to 356 lux, the light reads a little dim, and the score is 68, worth a try. December is the low point at 257 lux and 66. By March the spot is back at 98.
That is where seasonal advice earns its keep. One north-window guide in the results tells readers to move every plant two feet closer each October. For a pothos five metres back the timing is right and the distance a little short: two feet closer still reads dim in December, while a full metre closer doesn’t. Nearer the window than that there’s nothing to fix at this latitude. Further north the dim stretch begins a little closer to the glass, though not by much.
Nobody held a meter at that spot. Each lux figure is our estimate for a clean north window under a cloudless sky on the 21st of the month, from the compass direction of the glass and the pot’s distance. A building across the street or a deep overhang will pull all of them lower.
Why is my pothos not growing in a north-facing window?
Look at the thermometer before the window. Same sill, same light, and only the air temperature changes down the table:
| Air temperature at the sill | What the light is doing | What the warmth is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 °C | Just the right amount of light | Too cold here | Not the best fit right now, 44/100 |
| 15 °C | Just the right amount of light | Too cold here | Not the best fit right now, 47/100 |
| 16 °C | Just the right amount of light | A little cool, but workable | Worth a try, 64/100 |
| 18 °C | Just the right amount of light | A little cool, but workable | Worth a try, 67/100 |
| 19 °C | Just the right amount of light | Comfortable temperature | Great fit, 99/100 |
| 22 °C | Just the right amount of light | Comfortable temperature | Great fit, 100/100 |
Down the light column nothing changes. The verdict steps down anyway: 99 at 19 °C, then 67 at 18 and 64 at 16, and below 16 it’s no longer even worth a try, with 47 at 15 and 44 at 12. One degree between 19 and 18 costs this plant more than five metres of distance costs it in June.
A north room is a likely place to sit on that edge. Its window gets almost no direct sun, so nothing warms the glass by day, and on a winter night the air against the pane can run cooler than a thermostat on the far wall reports. How much cooler depends on the glazing, which no table can see. Put a thermometer by the glass for one November night and you’ll know.
So a north window does give you one reason to pull a pothos back from the glass: a cold sill. A metre in keeps the light well inside the band and gets the pot off the pane. Dry heated air matters far less; at 25% humidity the sill still reads a good fit.
Should a pothos move closer to a north window in winter?
Only if it lives near the far wall. Winter works on a north room from both ends at once: the far end gets dim from October and the glass end gets cold. The sill keeps plenty of light all winter and is at risk only from the cold. Five metres back, the risk is the dark, and only in those months. Between the two, from one metre to three, a pothos can stay put all year as long as the room holds 19 °C.
Is north the best window for a pothos?
On the sill, north. It’s the one window where this plant isn’t marked down for too much light at the glass. Further back every direction catches up. Facing east, the sill is the only spot that gets flagged, and the east-window page steps the same plant back from it a metre at a time. A west window pushes the trouble further in, and the west-window page finds it happier two metres from the glass than on the sill. A south window pushes it furthest, to about two and a half metres.
The pothos light page scores nine spots across a house and writes this plant’s band out in lux, sunny sills included. The north window guide puts a north sill to every plant six published lists name, then moves them all two metres back, and the pothos is one of the twelve still rated a great fit there.
How do I check my own north window?
Every number above describes a clean north window on a clear day in the northern hemisphere. Below the equator the sunny wall is the north one, and the south-window walk on the pothos light page is closer to your case. For your own room, the free spot checker takes your actual window and the weather where you are, and a thermometer beside the pot answers the half a light meter can’t.
Published October 14, 2026
