Ghostty for Windows

Ghostty doesn't ship a Windows build. Wintty is a separate, open source project that runs the Ghostty terminal core natively on Windows, with a WinUI 3 shell and a DirectX 12 renderer.

Does Ghostty run on Windows?

Not officially. Ghostty ships for macOS and Linux, and its install docs list no Windows build. Windows support remains the most requested upstream addition, tracked in the project's Windows Support discussion.

Wintty is one answer to that request: it takes Ghostty's terminal core and builds the native Windows application around it.

Wintty: a native Windows port of the Ghostty core

Wintty is a separate project with its own name, installer, and roadmap. It is built from two halves:

• From Ghostty: the terminal emulation, VT parsing, screen model, font handling, and the configuration model, shared with upstream through libghostty. Wintty does not reimplement any of it.
• From Windows: a WinUI 3 shell, a DirectX 12 renderer, a signed installer with automatic updates, and platform integration such as jump lists, taskbar progress, Mica and Acrylic backdrops, and a UI Automation provider for screen readers.

That split is the point: the emulation stays Ghostty's, and the shell behaves the way a Windows application should. The about page covers how Wintty relates to Ghostty in depth.

How to install Ghostty for Windows (with Wintty)

There are two ways to get Wintty onto a machine today, plus a paid tier on top.

Signed installer (sponsor build)

Sponsor the project with any amount, sign in with the same GitHub account on the download page, and install the signed build. It updates itself in place, on both stable and tip channels.

Build from source

The full source is free and open. Clone the repository and follow the build from source guide; you need the Zig toolchain and a few Windows build tools, and you get the same terminal every other tier runs.

Pro tiers

Pro adds persistent sessions, read aloud, and streamer mode on top of the sponsor build; Pro Enterprise ships an MSI for fleet deployment. The tiers page compares every tier.

There is no winget or scoop package today; the download page lists the paths that exist.

What you get

The application features are Windows-native, and the terminal features come from the Ghostty core:

• Tabs and splits, including a vertical, side-docked tab layout.
• A quick terminal you summon with a hotkey.
• Color themes that follow the system light and dark mode.
• Custom shaders, with a live gallery you can try in the browser.
• A command palette, in-terminal search, and hyperlink handling.
• Shell integration, background images, and font control.

Underneath, the Ghostty core contributes what a program running inside the terminal sees: the Kitty graphics protocol, synchronized output, and the rest of the sequences in the Terminal API reference.

Ways to run Ghostty on Windows compared

Wintty is not the only way:

If you want a native Windows application with a signed, auto-updating installer, Wintty is built for that. If you want exactly the build upstream ships, WSL is the honest path.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• A DirectX 12 capable GPU for the standard renderer. No tier falls back to software rendering except Pro Legacy, which is built against DirectX 11 for machines that cannot run DirectX 12.
• No WSL, no X server, and no Linux environment: Wintty installs like any other Windows application.

FAQ