How to Install Flutter on Windows and macOS (Beginner's Guide)

By the end of this guide you will have Flutter installed on your Windows PC or Mac, a code editor set up, and your first Flutter app running on screen.

Flutter is Google's free toolkit for building Android, iOS, web and desktop apps from one Dart codebase. This guide is written for complete beginners and follows the official steps for Flutter 3.47, the current stable release. Follow only the section for your computer: Windows or macOS.

Set aside 30–60 minutes, a stable internet connection, and roughly 15 GB of free disk space (most of it for Android Studio, Xcode and emulators).

Before you start: what you need

Windows

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
• About 15 GB of free disk space
• 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB recommended)
• Tools you will install: Git, VS Code, Android Studio

macOS

• A recent macOS version
• Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) recommended. Intel Macs are being phased out.
• About 25 GB of free disk space (Xcode alone is large)
• 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB recommended)
• Tools you will install: Xcode command-line tools, VS Code, Xcode, Android Studio

Two rules that save beginners hours of trouble:

• Install Flutter in a folder with no spaces or special characters in its path, and not inside C:\Program Files on Windows.
• You do not need to install Dart separately. It comes bundled with Flutter.

If you own an Intel Mac, note that Flutter is deprecating Intel Mac support, and future releases will require Apple Silicon.

How to install Flutter on Windows

On Windows you install Git, download the Flutter SDK, add it to PATH, then set up Android Studio so you can run apps on an emulator or phone.

Step 1: Install Git for Windows

Download Git for Windows and run the installer. The default options are fine; just keep clicking Next, then Install.

Step 2: Install VS Code and the Flutter extension

1. Download and install Visual Studio Code.
2. Open VS Code and click the Extensions icon in the left sidebar (or press Ctrl + Shift + X).
3. Search for Flutter and click Install. The Dart extension installs automatically with it.

Shortcut: VS Code can download Flutter for you. Press Ctrl + Shift + P, type Flutter: New Project, choose Download SDK, and pick a folder such as C:\Users\<you>\develop. If you use this option, skip to Step 5 and let VS Code add Flutter to PATH when it asks. The manual steps below give you more control and are worth learning once.

Step 3: Download and extract the Flutter SDK

1. Go to the official install page and download the latest stable Windows zip (for example flutter_windows_3.47.5-stable.zip).
2. Create a folder for it: C:\Users\<your-username>\develop.
3. Open PowerShell and extract the zip into that folder. Change the file name if your version is different.

Expand-Archive `
  -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\flutter_windows_3.47.5-stable.zip" `
  -DestinationPath "$env:USERPROFILE\develop"

You should now have a folder at C:\Users\<your-username>\develop\flutter. If flutter.bat is missing from its bin folder, your antivirus probably quarantined it. Allow the folder in your antivirus and extract again.

Step 4: Add Flutter to your PATH

PATH tells Windows where to find the flutter command.

1. Press Windows + Pause (or Windows + Fn + B if you have no Pause key). You can also search the Start menu for Edit environment variables for your account.
2. Click Advanced system settings > Environment Variables…
3. Under User variables, find Path and double-click it.
4. Click an empty row and type:

%USERPROFILE%\develop\flutter\bin

5. Select your new entry and click Move Up until it is at the top.
6. Click OK three times.
7. Close every open terminal and VS Code window, then reopen them.

Check that it worked by opening a new PowerShell window and running:

flutter --version
dart --version

If both print a version number, Flutter is installed.

Step 5: Install Android Studio and the Android SDK

You need Android Studio to build Android apps and run an emulator, even if you write code in VS Code.

1. Download and install Android Studio with the default options.
2. Open Android Studio. On the welcome screen, click More Actions > SDK Manager.
3. In the SDK Platforms tab, tick the latest Android version (API level 36) and click Apply.
4. In the SDK Tools tab, make sure these are ticked, then click Apply:
   • Android SDK Build-Tools
   • Android SDK Command-line Tools
   • Android Emulator
   • Android SDK Platform-Tools
   • CMake
   • NDK (Side by side)
5. Install the Flutter plugin inside Android Studio too: Settings > Plugins, search Flutter, click Install.

Step 6: Accept the Android licenses

In PowerShell, run this command and type y to accept each license:

flutter doctor --android-licenses

Step 7: Create an Android emulator

1. In Android Studio, click More Actions > Virtual Device Manager.
2. Click the + (Create Virtual Device) button and choose a phone, such as a Pixel.
3. Pick a system image (download it if it shows a download icon) and click Finish.
4. Click the Run (play) icon next to your device. A virtual phone should boot on screen.

Prefer a real phone? Turn on Developer options and USB debugging on your Android phone, plug it in with a USB cable, and allow the computer when the phone asks.

Step 8: Run flutter doctor

flutter doctor

This command checks your whole setup and shows a ✓ or ✗ next to each item. For Android development you need ticks on Flutter, Android toolchain and at least one connected device. A warning about Visual Studio only matters if you want to build Windows desktop apps, so beginners can ignore it.

How to install Flutter on macOS

On a Mac you install Apple's command-line tools, download the Flutter SDK for your chip, add it to PATH, then set up Xcode (for iPhone apps) and Android Studio (for Android apps).

Step 1: Install the Xcode command-line tools

Open the Terminal app (press Cmd + Space and type Terminal), then run:

xcode-select --install

A popup appears. Click Install, then Done. This also installs Git.

Step 2: Install VS Code and the Flutter extension

1. Download Visual Studio Code and drag it into your Applications folder.
2. Open it, press Cmd + Shift + X, search Flutter, and click Install.

Step 3: Check your Mac's chip

Click the Apple menu > About This Mac and look at Chip or Processor:

• Apple M1, M2, M3, M4… → download the Apple Silicon (ARM64) bundle.
• Intel → download the Intel bundle.

Step 4: Download and extract the Flutter SDK

1. Download the correct stable zip from the official install page.
2. In Terminal, create a folder and extract the zip into it. Change the file name if your version is different.

mkdir -p ~/develop
unzip ~/Downloads/flutter_macos_arm64_3.47.5-stable.zip -d ~/develop/

Flutter now lives at ~/develop/flutter.

Step 5: Add Flutter to your PATH

macOS uses the Zsh shell by default. Add Flutter to your Zsh profile with one command:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/develop/flutter/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile

Close Terminal completely (Cmd + Q), open it again, and check:

flutter --version
dart --version

If you see version numbers, Flutter is installed.

Step 6: Set up Xcode for iPhone apps

Skip this step if you only want Android apps for now.

1. Install Xcode from the Mac App Store. It is a large download, so give it time.
2. Link Xcode and run its first-launch setup:

sudo sh -c 'xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer && xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch'

3. Accept the Xcode license:

sudo xcodebuild -license

4. Download the iOS Simulator: open Xcode, go to Settings > Components (called Platforms in some versions), and install the latest iOS.
5. Install CocoaPods, which many Flutter plugins still need on iOS. The easiest way is with Homebrew:

brew install cocoapods

6. On Apple Silicon Macs, install Rosetta if flutter doctor asks for it:

sudo softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

To test, run open -a Simulator. An iPhone should appear on screen.

Step 7: Set up Android Studio for Android apps

The steps are the same as on Windows:

1. Install Android Studio.
2. Open More Actions > SDK Manager and install the latest SDK Platform plus the SDK Tools listed in the Windows section (Build-Tools, Command-line Tools, Emulator, Platform-Tools, CMake, NDK).
3. Accept the licenses in Terminal: flutter doctor --android-licenses
4. Create an emulator from More Actions > Virtual Device Manager. On Apple Silicon, pick an ARM system image.

Step 8: Run flutter doctor

flutter doctor

You want ticks on Flutter, Xcode (for iOS), Android toolchain (for Android) and Connected device. Fix any ✗ item using the hint flutter doctor prints, then run it again.

Run your first Flutter app

Once Flutter is installed, three commands create and launch a working app on any of your devices.

1. Start your emulator or connect your phone.
2. Open a terminal in a folder where you keep projects and run:

flutter create my_first_app
cd my_first_app
flutter run

3. The first build takes a few minutes. After that, the Flutter demo counter app opens on your device.
4. Open the my_first_app folder in VS Code, edit the text in lib/main.dart, and save. Press r in the terminal (or just save in VS Code) to hot reload and see your change in about a second.

In VS Code you can also press F5 to run the app and pick your device from the bottom-right corner of the window.

Common errors and how to fix them

Most beginner problems come from PATH, licenses or a missing tool, and flutter doctor usually names the fix.

'flutter' is not recognized (Windows) or command not found: flutter (macOS) Flutter's bin folder is not in PATH, or the terminal was opened before you changed it. Recheck Step 4 (Windows) or Step 5 (macOS), then fully close and reopen your terminal and VS Code.

Android license status unknown Run flutter doctor --android-licenses and type y for each license.

cmdline-tools component is missing Open Android Studio > SDK Manager > SDK Tools, tick Android SDK Command-line Tools, and click Apply.

No devices found Start the emulator from Device Manager, or accept the USB debugging prompt on your phone.

flutter.bat missing after extracting Your antivirus quarantined it. Allow the Flutter folder in your antivirus and extract again.

CocoaPods not installed (macOS) Run brew install cocoapods.

First flutter run is very slow This is normal. Gradle downloads dependencies on the first build, which can take 5–10 minutes on a slow connection. Later builds are much faster.

Still stuck? Copy the full flutter doctor -v output and search the error text, or check the official troubleshooting page.

What's next

Your Flutter setup is complete once flutter doctor shows green ticks and the demo app runs on your emulator or phone.

From here, try changing the demo app's colors and text, then work through Flutter's free Learn the fundamentals pathway. To keep Flutter up to date, run flutter upgrade every few weeks.

If this guide helped, share it with a friend who wants to start building apps, and drop your questions in the comments below.