Downloading Praat for Linux

### 1. Relying on your Linux distribution

If you’re on Ubuntu or Debian, the fastest way to install Praat is to type

`sudo apt install praat`

into a terminal window. However, this way you may obtain a years-old version:

- Ubuntu 22.04 has Praat 6.2.09 from February 2022
- Debian 12 has Praat 6.3.07 from February 2023
- Ubuntu 24.04 has Praat 6.4.06 from February 2024
- Debian 13 has Praat 6.4.27 from January 2025

This way may be sub-optimal, because Praat is updated quite often. See What’s new? to see what’s new.

### 2. Downloading the Linux edition directly

If you want the newest version of Praat, you can download it from this page if you have a Linux distribution from 2022 or younger and one of the three supported processor types:

- “Intel64”, also known as AMD64, x86_64 or x64 (the most common processor type in current use)
- “ARM64”, also known as AArch64 (the second most common processor type in current use)
- “s390x” (a big-endian processor used on LinuxONE Ubuntu)

The editions of Praat downloadable from this page have been built with GCC 11; they run correctly on at least the following distributions:

- Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04
- Fedora 38, 40 and 42
- Debian 12 and 13
- Centos 9 and 10

To download, click on the compressed archive for your processor type:

  normal edition (for interactive work as well as scripting):
  - for Intel64: praat6459_linux-intel64.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 30.8 MB) <-- most commonly downloaded
  - for ARM64: praat6459_linux-arm64.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 29.5 MB)
  - for s390x: praat6459_linux-s390x.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 30.5 MB)
  barren server edition (no GUI, no network, no sound, no graphics):
  - for Intel64: praat6459_linux-intel64-barren.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 31.7 MB)
  - for ARM64: praat6459_linux-arm64-barren.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 30.2 MB)
  - for s390x: praat6459_linux-s390x-barren.tar.gz (5 February 2026; 31.2 MB)

Unpack with gunzip and tar xvf. This will create the executable file praat. You can remove the tar file.

Praat will work fine wherever it is on your disk; just type ./praat into a terminal window after cd-ing to Praat’s folder.

If Praat doesn’t start immediately (i.e. it may complain about missing `.so` files), then you may have to install one or more standard (graphics or audio) libraries on which Praat depends. On Ubuntu or Debian these may be:

`sudo apt install libgtk-3-0 # the graphics toolkit sudo apt install libasound2 # the ALSA audio library sudo apt install libpulse0 # the Pulse audio server sudo apt install pipewire-jack # the Jack audio library (overridden by Pipewire; from Ubuntu 24.04 on) # Ubuntu 22.04: jackd2 and libjack0 instead (not via pipewire) # on Debian perhaps also: sudo apt install libjack0 # on Ubuntu sometimes: sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module # if your system complains about missing this`

On Fedora, the installs may be:

`sudo dnf install gtk3 # the graphics toolkit sudo dnf install alsa-lib # the ALSA audio library sudo dnf install pulseaudio-libs # the Pulse audio server sudo dnf install pipewire-jack-audio-connection-kit # the Jack audio library (overridden by PipeWire) # i.e. usually *not* jack-audio-connection-kit`

### 3. Downloading the Linux edition from Debian

If you prefer a more complete Praat package, or need to work on a processor not mentioned above, you can download a recent version from Debian.

### 4. The last resort: build Praat yourself

If none of the above works, there is also always the possibility to compile Praat yourself from the source code.

### 5. How to start

If you use Praat for the first time, choose Intro from the Help menu.

### 6. Phonetic symbols

If you want to see good phonetic characters, you have to install the Doulos SIL and Charis (or Charis SIL) fonts, for instance from the packages fonts-sil-charis and fonts-sil-doulos on Debian or Ubuntu:

`sudo apt install fonts-sil-doulos sudo apt install fonts-sil-charis`

or on Fedora:

`sudo dnf install sil-doulos-fonts sudo dnf install sil-charis-fonts`

If you cannot install those packages, you can download the two fonts from Summer Institute of Linguistics and follow the installation instructions there.

### 7. Running Praat from the command line

To run Praat from a terminal window, write a Praat script and specify that script on the command line, optionally with arguments, e.g.:

`praat --run playsinewave.praat 377 0.9`

For details see Calling from the command line in the Scripting manual.

### 8. Known possible problems, and their solution

1. Sound not working?

Audio on Linux is notoriously fragile. For playback, Praat either uses PulseAudio or Alsa, and you choose between these with Praat -> Preferences -> Sound playing preferences.

In the SoundRecorder window: if you don’t see any devices, then ALSA isn’t available. You may then try to obtain a JACK device by starting Praat via (if you have Pipewire):

`pw-jack praat`

or (if you don’t have Pipewire):

`sudo apt install jackd libjack0 jack_control start # starts the Jack server praat`

### 9. Editions of Praat for older computers or older operating system versions

- We do not create Praat editions for 32-bit Linux any longer (except for Raspberry Pi). The last one is Praat 6.1.15 of 20 May 2020. If that is too old for you, you could try to compile a newer version by yourself from the sources.
- The last version for Ubuntu 20.04 is Praat 6.4.30 of 29 April 2025:
  - for Intel64: praat6430_linux-intel64.tar.gz, praat6430_linux-arm64-barren.tar.gz
  - for ARM64: praat6430_linux-arm64.tar.gz , praat6430_linux-intel64-barren.tar.gz

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(This page: © Paul Boersma & David Weenink 1992–2025, CC-BY-SA 4.0)