What is the difference between ~ and ^ in package.json?

Node package manager supports semantic versioning. To take full advantage of it, you can use the symbols tilde(~) or caret(^).

Tilde(~) means approximately equivalent to version.

    "moment": "~2.29.1"

In this example npm install will pick up the latest release of the module moment starting from 2.29.1 but never higher than 2.30.0.

Caret(^) means compatible with version.

    "canvas": "^2.6.1"

Here, the installed version of the module canvas could range from 2.6.1 to less than 3.0.0. This way npm ensures the compatibility of your code with the third party module.