Is Ghostty available on Windows?
No. Ghostty describes itself as "a native application for macOS and Linux" (about), and its download page offers builds for macOS 13 or later and packages for Linux, nothing for Windows. Windows is on the long-term roadmap, but there is no release to install and no date for one.
What the Ghostty project has said
- The 1.3.0 release notes (9 March 2026): "support for Microsoft Windows is still not planned." The same notes say it "remains part of the long term roadmap", and that the team is focusing on libghostty first because that "will enable better Windows support in the long run."
- In a Q&A thread on 15 April 2026, a Ghostty collaborator wrote "There is no set timeline", and that the earliest Windows would be looked into is late 2026 — adding that this should not be taken as a commitment.
- The main Windows support discussion is open, and the maintainers have set out what an official port has to be: a Direct3D renderer, Windows 10 and 11, and no GTK or Qt port of the Linux app.
The reason it takes time is the thing people like about Ghostty. Its interface is written separately for each platform — Swift with AppKit and SwiftUI on macOS, GTK4 on Linux — on top of a shared core called libghostty. A Windows version needs its own interface and renderer, not a recompile.
Can you get it some other way?
Unofficial community forks that build Ghostty for Windows do exist, such as ghostty-windows. They are not made or supported by the Ghostty project, so a bug there is the fork's to fix, not Ghostty's. Ghostty's maintainers have also pointed Windows users towards terminals built on libghostty's terminal library rather than waiting for the app itself.
What runs on Windows today
If you came looking for Ghostty because you want a fast, modern terminal, several free ones run natively on Windows:
- Windows Terminal — Microsoft's own, and very good. If you only use Windows, start here.
- WezTerm — the closest in spirit to Ghostty: GPU-rendered, configured in a text file (Lua), with builds for Windows, Linux and macOS, so one config follows you across all three.
- Alacritty — GPU-rendered and deliberately minimal, with a single TOML config file. Tabs and splits come from elsewhere.
- Wave, Tabby and Hyper — free, cross-platform, and each built around something extra: blocks with an AI assistant, built-in SSH and serial clients, or JavaScript plugins.
- Warp — runs on Windows 10 and 11, with AI built into the terminal.
If you have a Mac and a Linux machine and no Windows at all, you do not need an alternative: Ghostty already covers both, and it is free.
Where CPT fits
Cross Platform Terminal runs on Windows and Linux as the same application, with the same keys and the same layout on both — which is the opposite of Ghostty's goal of feeling native to each system. It is worth a look if your work is split between a Windows machine and a Linux one and you want them to behave alike, or if you want shells that keep running after the window closes. See the same terminal setup on Windows and Linux for the free ways to get there too.
CPT is not Ghostty for Windows. It is a paid subscription with no free tier and no trial, and there is no macOS build yet. If you want a free terminal on Windows, Windows Terminal or WezTerm is the answer.
In short
- Ghostty on Windows: not available, no official date.
- Only on Windows: Windows Terminal.
- Want one free terminal across Windows, Linux and macOS: WezTerm.
- Mac and Linux only: Ghostty.
- Windows and Linux, and want them identical: that is what CPT is for.