Download

Get Arctic Launcher

One small app for Windows, macOS or Linux. Choose a standalone download or install on Linux with Flatpak.

Stable. The tested release. Recommended for everyone.

Download for Windowsv0.5.7 · 28.6 MB · 64-bit Star us on GitHub

Available for Windows Linux macOS Flatpak

Want it on a USB stick or another drive? See portable mode

v0.5.7 · October 29, 2026 · 6.7K downloads · release notes (opens in a new tab)

Windows

Download28.6 MB

arctic-launcher-windows-x64.exe · v0.5.7

SHA-256

abd6262baf04fb3b000730e5f7c32c38924802ed9ea2a6161efcfe02ca082045

Verify

Get-FileHash .\arctic-launcher-windows-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256

No installer: put it wherever you like and double-click. The app is code-signed, and you can check the SHA-256 above.

Linux · Flatpak

Stable channel · x64

Install Arctic through your software manager and get future updates there too.

Install with Flatpak

Requires Flatpak. Open the downloaded arctic.flatpakref in your software manager to install Arctic and add its update source. Automatic updates follow your software manager’s settings.

Install from a terminal

flatpak install --user https://brksfrb.github.io/arctic-launcher/arctic.flatpakref

Prefer the standalone Linux download?

Linux · standalone

Download29.7 MB

arctic-launcher-linux-x64 · v0.5.7

SHA-256

583b02da17d516297db4ba611b6489229b2f47fb26c1263563a0e59516b78e3e

Verify

sha256sum arctic-launcher-linux-x64

Run

chmod +x arctic-launcher-linux-x64 && ./arctic-launcher-linux-x64

Works on X11 and Wayland desktops with OpenGL.

macOS

Download26.7 MB

arctic-launcher-macos.zip · v0.5.7

SHA-256

08f8e75163e30f4ede51f91bd5e2fe97c8da12a50144a6aff9bab13b8a4ece93

Verify

shasum -a 256 arctic-launcher-macos.zip

One app for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, macOS 11 or newer. Unzip it and drag Arctic Launcher into Applications. The app is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without a warning. Voice chat asks for microphone access.

Or install it with Homebrew:

brew install brksfrb/arctic/arctic-launcher

Requirements

System: Windows 10 or 11 (x64), Linux (x64) with an X11 or Wayland desktop and OpenGL, or macOS 11 or newer (Apple Silicon or Intel).
Java: Not needed. The right runtime is downloaded automatically.
Account: None needed to start. A Microsoft account that owns Minecraft: Java Edition for online servers; offline accounts for singleplayer, LAN and offline-mode servers.
Network: Internet on first launch of each version.

No Microsoft account yet? See how offline accounts work.

Stuck? Ask on DiscordAttach your logs in the support forum and the bot checks them for known problems.

Optional

Command line

A headless companion that shares the launcher’s accounts, settings and downloads. Put it on your PATH as arctic.

Windows arctic-windows-x64.exe

sha256 c9a3f1a345351811d21c6014dc333e155e0b24fa20b9466dadd6b8f8e5998d5e

Linux arctic-linux-x64

sha256 e75d3c50bfceba811dbd864f99cfa2ebe792ce9ba5ba9c7bd8d8acfd69fd6443

macOS arctic-macos

sha256 e8f992a1d9ecf996b81c92b2c9e72d720d1ba9f3bb74936d5e32a108f3510446

CLI reference

Optional

Portable mode

Keep Arctic and all its data in one folder: on a USB stick, or on another drive when your system drive is short on space. It works with the Windows and Linux downloads.

Put the launcher where you want it to live: a USB stick, or another drive such as D:\Games\Arctic.
Next to it, create an empty file named exactly portable.txt.
Start the launcher. From then on everything goes into a data folder beside it, not into %LOCALAPPDATA%\ArcticLauncher.

portable.txt

What ends up in data: game versions, libraries, assets, Java runtimes, your instances (worlds, mods, resource packs, screenshots and options), profiles, accounts, settings, logs and cache.

Nothing is moved for you: Portable mode starts with an empty data folder. To keep what you already have, copy the contents of your old ArcticLauncher folder into data first.
Accounts stay with the PC: Your sign-ins are encrypted for the computer they were added on. On another PC you sign in again; everything else comes with you.
Windows may hide the .txt: Explorer hides file extensions by default, so the file can end up as portable.txt.txt. From v0.4.0 that works too. On older versions, turn on View → Show → File name extensions and rename it to portable.txt.

To remove portable mode, delete portable.txt; the launcher goes back to the normal folder. For scripts, the ARCTIC_DATA_DIR environment variable picks the data folder too, and it wins over portable.txt.

Older versions and every file are on GitHub Releases (opens in a new tab).