The excited state dipole moment of anisole has been determined in the gas phase from electronic Stark spectroscopy and in solution using thermochromic shifts in ethyl acetate. Electronic excitation increases the anisole dipole moment in the gas phase from 1.26 D in the ground state to 2.19 D in the electronically excited singlet state, leaving the orientation of the dipole moment practically unchanged. These values are compared to solution phase dipole moments. From variation of the fluorescence emission and absorption maxima with temperature, an excited state dipole moment of 2.7 D was determined. Several solvent polarity functions have been used in combination with experimentally determined cavity volumes at the respective temperatures. Both gas phase and condensed phase experimental dipole moments are compared to the results of ab initio calculations at the CC2 level of theory, using the cc-pVTZ basis set for the isolated molecule and using the COnductor-like Screening MOdel (COSMO), implemented in Turbomole, for the solvated anisole molecule.