Penn State Extension measured a snake plant spot at only 25 footcandles mid-morning, and the plant still did well. That reading sits right at the floor of the published low light band. The hardiest low light houseplants are cast iron plant, ZZ plant and snake plant, and those three keep turning up on extension lists for the dimmest rooms in your house. If you want plants that need the least light, buy one of them and skip whatever your plant tag calls a bright shade pick.
Least light has a real number behind it. Maryland Extension runs low light from 25 to 100 footcandles, while Colorado State draws the band wider and warns that below 50 footcandles few plants tolerate the spot at all. You are working with a narrow range, and the bottom half of that range is where most houseplants quit on you. Every pick here sits at the low end of the band, so you get a little room for error.
No two lists agree on an order, so look at the overlap instead. Cast iron plant makes three separate extension lists on its own. Snake plant makes three as well, and you get a measured reading behind that one rather than a rating someone assigned by eye.
Pothos has the hardest proof of the group. Plants kept growing for 191 days under white LED light at about 500 lux, run nine hours a day. That is a long stretch in light you would write off as useless, and no window fed the room at all. Pothos also sits on the extension lists for spots that get no sun, so the lab work and the everyday advice send you the same way.
Lucky bamboo is the odd one out. Deep shade is the light this plant grew up in, since the species is a dracaena from the West African forest understory, and green is how the leaves stay there. You have probably seen one in a vase of pebbles by a kitchen sink and never guessed you owned a shade plant.
Your second tier is wider than most shoppers expect. Peace lily sits in the same 25 to 100 footcandle band as the two top picks above, and more than one list rates the plant that way. Chinese evergreen, parlor palm, heartleaf philodendron and Boston fern all carry a low light rating too, and spider plant and fittonia make the lists as well. I would still keep them a step below the top three, because you get better leaves out of them with more light than the floor of the band.
Measure where the pot will actually sit, not up at the glass. A mid-morning reading tells you more than any plant tag.
Siting takes one line. Get the pot as close to your window as the room allows and then leave it alone. A corner with no daylight at all is a different problem, and that question gets its own answer on a separate page. For a room that has a window but not much light coming through, the toughest houseplants for dim rooms are the ones above. Check your spot with a meter before you buy, and if the reading lands under 50 footcandles, few plants of any kind cope there, so move the pot toward the light or add a lamp before you buy again.
Read the full article: 10 Low Light Houseplants for Dark Rooms
