This page walks through the concrete steps of installing TeX on your own machine, OS by OS: Windows, macOS, then Linux/Unix. Which distribution to pick is covered elsewhere — here we focus on actually launching the installer, putting the binaries on your PATH, and confirming what landed. The current releases are TeX Live 2026 (released 1 March 2026) and its macOS build MacTeX-2026.
Before you start
Installation is essentially a choice between two sizes. A full install (the default scheme-full) is around 7 GB and bundles every package and font on CTAN; if you have the disk and bandwidth, it is the least hassle in the long run because you never go hunting for a missing package. A minimal install (BasicTeX, or scheme-basic) is only a few hundred MB, but you add what you lack later with tlmgr. On a slow connection a full install can take an hour or more to download and unpack.
What each distribution (TeX Live / MiKTeX / MacTeX) actually is, and how they compare, lives on the “Distributions” page. Adding packages afterward (tlmgr) and the layout of the TEXMF tree each have their own page too. This page stays focused on the install procedure itself.
Installing on Windows
On Windows you have two main options. TeX Live is the cross-platform standard, with yearly releases that line up across operating systems. MiKTeX was born on Windows and is known for fetching missing packages on the fly as your commands need them. Either is fine; here are the steps for both.
For TeX Live. Download **install-tl-windows.exe** (about 20 MB; the identical install-tl.zip also works) from tug.org and run it. It is a net installer: once launched, it pulls the whole distribution from a CTAN mirror as it installs. The default location is C:\texlive\2026, and the scheme (how much to install) and target folder are chosen in the GUI. On Windows the installer sets your PATH for you, so when it finishes you just open a fresh Command Prompt and go (if another TeX is already on PATH, the new one is prepended; otherwise it is appended).
REM Verify the install in a new Command Prompt (cmd.exe)
tex --version
where pdflatex
where tlmgrFor MiKTeX. Get the Basic MiKTeX installer (.exe) from the Download page at miktex.org and run it. A per-user install is recommended and needs no administrator rights. During setup you choose whether missing packages install automatically — “Ask me first,” “Always,” or “Never.” When it finishes, the convention is to launch the MiKTeX Console and check for updates first. For unattended rollouts to many machines, a scriptable command-line install via miktexsetup is also available.
Installing on macOS
The standard on macOS is MacTeX: the whole of TeX Live packaged for the Mac, plus GUI apps (TeXShop, BibDesk, LaTeXiT, TeX Live Utility) and Ghostscript. Download **MacTeX.pkg** (about 6.4 GB) from tug.org, double-click it, and follow the prompts. The distribution itself goes into /usr/local/texlive/2026. MacTeX-2026 requires macOS 11 (Big Sur, 2020) or later and runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon; Catalina and earlier are no longer supported.
macOS is thoughtful about PATH. Rather than putting the binary folder itself (e.g. /usr/local/texlive/2026/bin/universal-darwin) on your PATH, MacTeX maintains a **symlink, /Library/TeX/texbin**, that points at the active distribution’s binaries. A file dropped into /etc/paths.d then adds /Library/TeX/texbin to the default PATH. So a freshly opened Terminal just works, and switching between installed versions updates PATH automatically. To use it right away in an already-open shell, run:
# Refresh PATH in the current shell, then verify
eval "$(/usr/libexec/path_helper)"
tex --version
which pdflatex # -> /Library/TeX/texbin/pdflatexIf you do not want the GUI apps and the command line is enough, Homebrew is the quick route. mactex includes the GUI apps; mactex-no-gui is the same full TeX Live without them; and basictex is a much smaller minimal build (no GUI, no Ghostscript) that installs into /usr/local/texlive/2026basic.
# Full TeX Live without the GUI apps (most common via Homebrew)
brew install --cask mactex-no-gui
# Or the full bundle with GUI apps
# brew install --cask mactex
# Or a small starter install
# brew install --cask basictexInstalling on Linux / Unix
On Linux/Unix there are two paths, and the choice affects your comfort later. One is the **official installer install-tl from tug.org; the other is your distribution’s package** (texlive-full on Debian/Ubuntu, texlive-scheme-full on Fedora, and so on).
First, the official installer. Its advantage is that you get the newest release the day it ships, and you can update individual packages anytime with tlmgr. Fetch install-tl-unx.tar.gz, unpack it, and run the bundled Perl script. The default location is /usr/local/texlive/2026.
# Download, unpack, and run the official net installer
cd /tmp
curl -LO https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz
zcat < install-tl-unx.tar.gz | tar xf -
cd install-tl-*
# Interactive text installer (use sudo if installing under /usr/local)
sudo perl ./install-tl
# ...or a non-interactive default install:
# sudo perl ./install-tl --no-interactionOn Unix you set the PATH yourself (unlike Windows, it is not done automatically). The binary directory is named for your CPU — on 64-bit Intel/AMD it is /usr/local/texlive/2026/bin/x86_64-linux. Add it in your shell startup file.
# Add to ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc (adjust the platform folder for your CPU)
export PATH="/usr/local/texlive/2026/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH"
# Then reload and verify
source ~/.profile
tex --versionThe distribution package (sudo apt install texlive-full, etc.), by contrast, blends into the system and resolves dependencies for you. But mind two things. First, it is huge — texlive-full runs to several GB. Second, the timing and contents of updates are up to your OS vendor, so it can lag the official yearly release by months or even years. If you need the newest packages or per-package tlmgr updates, prefer the official installer. The two can coexist as independent trees; whichever comes first on your PATH is the one you use.
Verifying the install and your PATH
On every OS, after installing, open a new terminal and check that it works. If tex --version prints a version (e.g. TeX Live 2026), the binaries are found. Next, confirm where the executable that actually runs lives.
# macOS / Linux
which pdflatex # prints the path that will run, e.g. /Library/TeX/texbin/pdflatex
# Windows (cmd.exe)
where pdflatex # prints C:\texlive\2026\bin\windows\pdflatex.exeIf which/where returns nothing, or points somewhere unexpected, it is a PATH issue. Check that the path shown does not point at an old version or a different distribution. When several TeX installs are present, the one that runs is whichever comes first on PATH. To make sure the version you intend is chosen, put its binary directory at the front of PATH in your startup file — and after any change, open a new terminal or reload the startup file.
Finally, prove it can actually typeset. Create a tiny .tex, compile it, and if a PDF comes out, the install is done.
printf '\\documentclass{article}\\begin{document}Hello, \\LaTeX!\\end{document}' > hello.tex
pdflatex hello.tex
# -> produces hello.pdf