How to install FFmpeg (Linux/Mac/Windows)

February 12, 2024

Installing FFmpeg varies vastly depending on your operating system of choice. In this post, I will show you how you can easily install FFmpeg on any operating system

Windows

Step 1: Downloading the executable

Easiest way to install FFmpeg on windows is to go HERE and download the latest .exe
An Example link would be THIS
Extract the downloaded file and copy it to somewhere like C:\ffmpeg (you should rename the extracted folder to ffmpeg )

Step 2: Updating the PATH

Open a command prompt as the administrator and run the following

setx /m PATH "C:\ffmpeg\bin;%PATH%"

This will add the C:\ffmpeg\bin to your PATH variable, which means you should be able to run ffmpeg from anywhere on your command prompt

Step 3: Verifying

Close your command prompt and re-open it and run this:

ffmpeg -version

You should see the version if you have installed it properly

MacOS

The best way to install ffmpeg on mac is via brew

Step 1: Install Brew (if you don't have it)

Open a terminal window and run the following to install HomeBrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Step 2 : Install FFmpeg

brew install ffmpeg

That's it. Pretty easy right?

Linux

All the popular Linux distros have ffmpeg in their package repository, so it is just a matter of issuing one command to install it

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Fedora

sudo dnf install ffmpeg

Arch

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

That's all, have fun!