The announcement comes within 24 hours of the transfer of power from Obama to President-elect Donald Trump.
Most of those whose sentences were commuted came from nonviolent drug offenses.
Not included in the list: Former American prisoner of war Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has asked Obama for a pardon, Justice Department officials told CNN in December.
Bergdahl faces charges for leaving his post in Afghanistan in 2009. His court-martial is scheduled for February 6.
Trump has been a staunch critic of Bergdahl and the prisoner swap made under Obama.
In 2014, Bergdahl was released after nearly five years in captivity by the Taliban in exchange five detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
During the campaign, Trump frequently called Bergdahl a “traitor” and suggested that he should face harsher punishment.
Earlier this week, Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks.
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