diff --git a/tools/detect_python.fish b/tools/detect_python.fish
index 3d48bf360f..17ac4daee7 100644
--- a/tools/detect_python.fish
+++ b/tools/detect_python.fish
@@ -2,24 +2,22 @@
 #
 # This is a port of detect_python.sh. More information are provided there.
 
-set -x ESP_PYTHON python
+set OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR 3
+set OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR 7
 
-for p_cmd in python python3;
+for p_cmd in python3 python python3.7 python3.8 python3.9 python3.10 python3.11 python3.12;
+    $p_cmd --version >/dev/null 2>&1; or continue
     echo "Checking \"$p_cmd\" ..."
 
-    set res ($p_cmd -c "import sys; print(sys.version_info.major)")
-    if [ "$res" = "3" ]
-        set -x ESP_PYTHON $p_cmd
-        break
-    end
+    $p_cmd -c "import sys; exit(1) if sys.version_info.major < int(\"$OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR\") else exit(0);"; or continue
+    $p_cmd -c "import sys; exit(1) if sys.version_info.minor < int(\"$OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR\") else exit(0);"; or continue
+
+    set ESP_PYTHON $p_cmd
+    break
 end
 
+test -n "$ESP_PYTHON"; or echo "Python $OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR.$OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR+ is not installed! Please see the documentation for how to install it."
+test -n "$ESP_PYTHON"; or exit 1
+
 $ESP_PYTHON --version
-if [ $status -ne 0 ]
-    echo "\"$ESP_PYTHON\" is not installed! Please see the documentation for how to install it."
-    # The following exit skips the rest of this file but won't exit fish where the script was sourced. This is not a
-    # fatal issue.
-    exit 1
-end
-
-echo "\"$ESP_PYTHON\" has been detected"
+echo "$ESP_PYTHON has been detected"
diff --git a/tools/detect_python.sh b/tools/detect_python.sh
index ca4e80669d..60462a1cb7 100644
--- a/tools/detect_python.sh
+++ b/tools/detect_python.sh
@@ -3,22 +3,26 @@
 # This is a helper script for detecting Python executables in the PATH. It is intended to be used for determining
 # which Python should be used with idf_tools.py for installing tools and exporting environment variables.
 #
-# 1. The script will set variable ESP_PYTHON to "python" if it is of version 3.
-# 2. Otherwise, "python3" will be exported if it exists.
-# 3. The script will fall-back to "python" as the last resort and fail if it doesn't exist.
+# 1. The script is looking for python version same or greater than minimal required version on path
+# 2. If required version of python is found it is assigned to environmental variable `ESP_PYTHON`
+# 3. If required version of python is not found, script will fail
 
-ESP_PYTHON=python
+OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR=3
+OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR=7
 
-for p_cmd in python python3
-do
+for p_cmd in python3 python python3.7 python3.8 python3.9 python3.10 python3.11 python3.12; do
+    $p_cmd --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || continue
     echo "Checking \"$p_cmd\" ..."
 
-    if [ "$($p_cmd -c "import sys; print(sys.version_info.major)")" = 3 ]; then
-        ESP_PYTHON=$p_cmd
-        break
-    fi
+    $p_cmd -c "import sys; exit(1) if sys.version_info.major < int(\"$OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR\") else exit(0);" || continue
+    $p_cmd -c "import sys; exit(1) if sys.version_info.minor < int(\"$OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR\") else exit(0);" || continue
+
+    ESP_PYTHON=$p_cmd
+    break
 done
 
-$ESP_PYTHON --version || { echo "\"$ESP_PYTHON\" is not installed! Please see the documentation for how to install it."; exit 1; }
-
+$ESP_PYTHON --version 2>/dev/null || {
+    echo "Python ${OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MAJOR}.${OLDEST_PYTHON_SUPPORTED_MINOR}+ is not installed! Please see the documentation for how to install it."
+    exit 1
+}
 echo "\"$ESP_PYTHON\" has been detected"