Net Income Per LP Unit (Details) (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended																12 Months Ended				0 Months Ended								1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	0 Months Ended
	Jan. 20, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012		Sep. 30, 2012		Jun. 30, 2012		Mar. 31, 2012		Dec. 31, 2011		Sep. 30, 2011		Jun. 30, 2011		Mar. 31, 2011		Dec. 31, 2012		Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Nov. 30, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Aug. 31, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Jul. 31, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	May 31, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Apr. 30, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Mar. 30, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Feb. 28, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Dec. 01, 2011 Depositary Units [Member]	Jan. 20, 2012 Depositary Units [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Depositary Units [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Depositary Units [Member]	Dec. 27, 2011 Depositary Units [Member]	Jan. 20, 2012 Principal Owners and Affiliates [Member] Depositary Units [Member]	Nov. 02, 2012 Dividend Declared [Member] Depositary Units [Member]
Earnings Per LP Unit [Line Items]
Net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to Icahn Enterprises																		$ 396		$ 750	$ 200
Net income attributable to parent, allocated to general partner before traditional parntership allocation																		(9)	[1]	0	0
Net income attributable to parent, subject to allocation amongst partners																		387		750	200
Limited partners																		379		735	195
Income attributable to Icahn Enterprises allocable to limited partners (98.01% allocation)																					196
Net income from discontinued operations attributable to Icahn Enterprises allocable to limited partners																		0		0	(1)
Basic income (loss) per LP unit, continuing operations																		3.75		8.35	2.28
Basic income (loss) per LP unit, discontinued operations																		0.00		0.00	(0.01)
Basic income (loss) per LP unit		0.06	[2],[3],[4],[5]	0.73	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.44	[2],[3],[4],[5]	0.47	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.90	[2],[3],[4],[5]	(0.43)	[2],[3],[4],[5]	3.22	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.67	[2],[3],[4],[5]	3.75		8.35	2.27
Basic weighted average LP units outstanding																		101,000,000		88,000,000	86,000,000
Dilutive securities, effect on earnings per unit from converison of debt securities																				23
Dilutive effect of variable rate convertible notes, Units																				5,000,000
Dilutive effect of variable rate convertible notes, Income																					2
Dilutive effect of preferred stock conversion, Units																					1,000,000
Diluted income (loss) per LP unit, continuing operations																		3.75		8.15	2.27
Diluted income (loss) per LP unit, discontinued operations																		0.00		0.00	(0.01)
Diluted income (loss) per LP unit		0.06	[2],[3],[4],[5]	0.73	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.37	[2],[3],[4],[5]	0.47	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.81	[2],[3],[4],[5]	(0.43)	[2],[3],[4],[5]	3.12	[2],[3],[4],[5]	2.59	[2],[3],[4],[5]	3.75		8.15	2.26
Diluted weighted average LP units outstanding																		101,000,000		93,000,000	87,000,000
Antidilutive securities excluded from computation of earnings per unit																		5,000,000			5,000,000
Distribution made to limited partner depositary unitholders, cash and depositary unit distributions declared, per unit																								$ 0.35		$ 0.35		$ 0.35							$ 0.35
Distribution made to limited partner depositary unitholders, cash distributions declared, per unit																								$ 0.10		$ 0.10		$ 0.10							$ 0.10
Distribution made to limited partner depositary unitholders, depositary unit distributions declared, per unit																								$ 0.25		$ 0.25		$ 0.25							$ 0.25
Ratio of unit distributed per depositary unit																								0.006277		0.005357		0.006269							0.005978
Units issued as a unit distribution																						621,064	627,651		532,190		619,585
Impact of unit distributions on prior years' income per LP unit																															$ 0.20	$ 0.05
Impact of Unit Distributions on Restatement of Earnings Per Share, Diluted																															$ 0.18	$ 0.06
Intended proceeds from rights offering																													500
Rights received per depositary unit held																																	0.15881
Rights' subscription price per depositary unit																																	$ 36.7933
Aggregate depositary units distributed in connection with rights offering																														13,590,238				12,995,584
Proceeds from rights offering																														$ 500
Cancellation of treasury units (in units)	1,137,200

[1] Amount represents net income allocable to the general partner for the period May 5, 2012 through August 23, 2012, the period in which Mr. Icahn and his affiliates' ownership in IEP Energy, other than Icahn Enterprises' ownership, were considered under common control. On August 24, 2012, Mr. Icahn and his affiliates contributed this interest to us in exchange for our depositary units. See Note 5, "Related Party Transactions-Energy," for further discussion regarding this transaction.

[2] As a result of unit distributions made on March 30, 2012, May 31, 2012, August 31, 2012 and November 30, 2012, basic and diluted income (loss) per LP unit presented above reflects a restatement of the respective amounts previously reported on each of Icahn Enterprises' Form 10-Q's filed in 2012 to the extent such unit distributions occurred subsequent to the period of the report covered by each respective Form 10-Q.

[3] Basic and diluted income (loss) per LP unit is computed separately for each quarter and therefore, the sum of such quarterly per LP unit amounts may differ from the total for the year.

[4] We consolidated the results of CVR effective May 5, 2012.

[5] Our second quarter 2012 results were restated due to (i) a purchase price allocation adjustment of $23 million related to an inventory step-up made during the fourth quarter 2012 related to the CVR acquisition and the common control impact of Mr. Icahn's transfer of his interest in IEP Energy to us made in the third quarter of 2012 and (ii) an adjustment of $21 million for a derivative related to a certain investment held by the Holding Company.