How to download and install MetaTrader 4 for free

Starting with MetaTrader 4 is simple and only takes a few minutes. You don’t have to pay anything. You can just download MT4, install the software, and open a demo account to explore its potential and experiment, execute demo trades, and run the scripts and EAs you can find on our website. 

This guide will walk you through the step-by-step process of downloading and installing MetaTrader 4 on a Windows computer.

Why exactly this program?

You may wonder how MT4 has become one of the world’s most recognized and prestigious Forex trading platforms.

The answer is simply due to the ever-growing list of features, benefits, and tools. Following are some of its key features:

• practical and effective tools;
• multiple timeframes – from one minute to one month;
• several different financial instruments to trade, including commodities and currency pairs;
• secure environment, including 1280-bit data encryption;
• convenient charts display market rates in real time;
• 30 built-in technical indicators, over 2000 free custom indicators, and 700 premium ones;
• data analysis, daily market reports, and automatic alerts;
• multi-device functionality;
• fully customizable for a unique trading experience.

The list is almost endless, so it fits both novice and pro traders.

MT4 hardware requirements

First of all, we need to check if our PC and the program suit each other. The minimum system requirements for MT 4 are:

• Windows 7-10;
• CPU at least 2000 MHz;
• 512MB RAM;
• Hard disk 60 MB.

As you can see, today, these requirements are easily met. The simplest configuration is a computer running Windows 7 or later, a 1 GHz or faster processor, 2 GB of RAM or more, and a few GB of disk space (mostly for graph history).

Please note that MetaTrader 4 was created for the Windows platform, but over the years, it has been adapted to run on Mac and Linux and through emulation. The emulation is not 100% stable, so we won’t cover Mac and Linux operating systems in this guide.

The installation process described in this guide is based on the following PC configuration:

• Windows 10 Pro 64-bit;
• Chrome browser;
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200;
• 8 GB RAM;
• 240 GB SSD.

If you have already checked guides on other resources, you might know that such system resources are unnecessary to run MetaTrader 4. However, it is useful to have as much computing power as possible for quick testing and optimization.

Downloads

The MetaTrader installer is readily available. If you already have an account with a broker, they usually provide a MetaTrader installer with a logo and sometimes additional indicators and settings. Since MetaQuotes no longer provides its own installer, you will need a broker to download the MT4 installer.

Installation

After downloading the file, double-click it to run it. If User Account Control (UAC) is enabled on your computer, click Yes.

Read and accept the terms and be careful. If you click “Next,” the installation will continue with the default settings. In addition, you can click “Settings,” check and change them according to your preferences.

Click “Settings” – the only settings you can change are:

• Installation folder – where the program will be located on your computer.
• Program Group – the name of the program group in the Start menu.
• Open MQL5.community website – whether to open the MQL5 website in the browser after installation is complete.

 

If you want to continue with the default settings, just click next.

The installation will continue and, depending on your computer, take from a few seconds to several minutes. Once the installation is complete, the MetaTrader terminal will launch with the default screen and the “Open Account” window.

If you click Help→About in the menu, you will see the version, build, and build date.

You have successfully installed MetaTrader. Now you need a demo account to start practicing Forex trading.