Blender download for Windows

Blender is a complete 3D studio in one free program. You can model and sculpt, texture and light a scene, animate it, render still images or film, simulate smoke and cloth, composite the result and even edit the video, without leaving the application. Independent animators, game artists and plenty of studios work in it every day. It is free and open source, and whatever you make with it belongs to you.

Which Blender download?

The download page offers several packages for Windows:

• Installer (MSI) for most people.
• Portable (.zip), which unpacks into a folder and runs without installation. Handy for trying a new version alongside the one you use.
• ARM64 installer and zip for Windows on Arm.
• Microsoft Store and Steam, if you prefer updates through a store.

Some releases are marked LTS, long-term support, and receive fixes for two years. If you are starting a long project, or teaching a class, an LTS release saves you from changes halfway through.

Check your hardware first

Blender's requirements page is specific. The minimum on Windows is a 64-bit system, a four-core processor with SSE4.2, 8 GB of RAM and a graphics card with 2 GB of video memory that supports OpenGL 4.3 and Vulkan 1.3. In practice that means an NVIDIA GeForce 900 series or newer, an AMD card from the GCN 4th generation onward, or Intel graphics from Kaby Lake onward. Install the latest driver from your graphics card maker before you start; it solves more launch problems than anything else.

On a Mac, current Blender needs Apple Silicon and macOS 13 or newer.

Your first hour

Blender opens on a scene with a cube, a camera and a light. Leave them and learn to move around.

• Look around: hold the middle mouse button and drag to orbit; add Shift to pan; scroll to zoom.
• No middle button on your laptop? Edit, Preferences, Input, then tick Emulate 3 Button Mouse.
• Move, rotate, scale: select an object and press G, R or S, then move the mouse. Click to confirm, right-click to cancel.
• Edit the shape: Tab switches between Object Mode and Edit Mode, where you work on vertices, edges and faces.
• Render: F12 renders the camera view.

Blender has two main render engines. Eevee is fast and close to real time. Cycles traces light more accurately and takes longer. Cycles can use your graphics card, which you switch on under Edit, Preferences, System.

Save often with Ctrl+S. If Blender crashes, File, Recover offers the auto-saved version.

The Blender manual is thorough and free, and it is a better first stop than random video tutorials made for older versions.

Where Blender is the wrong tool

Blender works with meshes, which suits art, animation and game assets. If you need exact, dimension-driven parts for manufacturing, a parametric CAD program such as FreeCAD fits better. And on an old or very low-power laptop, Blender will be frustrating whatever settings you choose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Blender for commercial work?

Yes. Blender is free software under the GNU GPL, and the images, animations and models you create are yours to sell.

LTS or the newest release?

LTS for stability and long projects. The newest release for the latest features, accepting that things change more often.

Are the Steam and Microsoft Store versions the same Blender?

Yes. The download page links to both as official options. They differ only in how updates arrive.

Will Blender run on my laptop?

Compare it against the requirements page. The graphics card is usually the deciding factor, so check its model and update its driver.