If you searched "RawTherapee free download," you are likely a photographer comparing free RAW converters against Lightroom's subscription. The RawTherapee Team develops it as open-source software with no paid tier at all, unlike some free-with-upsell photo tools. It installs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and reads RAW formats from most major camera brands via its own decoding engine. This page links to the current release and covers the editing model that sets it apart from simpler photo editors.
Non-Destructive Editing and Camera Support
Every adjustment in RawTherapee is stored as a sidecar file rather than altering the original RAW, so you can revisit or completely reset an edit at any time without quality loss. Its processing pipeline exposes far more granular controls — separate tone curves, wavelet-based noise reduction, capture sharpening — than most consumer editors, which is powerful but has a steeper learning curve.
New camera RAW formats are usually supported within weeks of release since the decoding library is updated by an active open-source community.
Who ends up using RawTherapee
Photographers who shoot RAW and want Lightroom-level control without a subscription turn to RawTherapee.
- Photographers processing RAW files from a shoot without paying a monthly subscription
- Enthusiasts fine-tuning wavelet-based noise reduction on high-ISO low-light photos
- Photo hobbyists batch-converting RAW files to JPEG or TIFF for sharing or printing
Before you install
A couple of things worth knowing about RawTherapee before you request the link: it covers Windows, macOS and Linux, so pick the right build for the machine you're setting up. And on pricing, RawTherapee is open source, so the installer is free with no trial timer, feature lock, or upsell screen to click past. It's developed and maintained by RawTherapee Team.
System requirements
- WindowsWindows 10 or 11 (64-bit); older 7/8.1 builds usually still run but no longer get official support
- macOSa recent macOS release — check the download page for the current minimum version, since Apple Silicon vs Intel builds sometimes differ
- Linuxmost current 64-bit distributions; look for a native .deb/.rpm/AppImage or a package in your distro's own repository
Heavier workloads (large files, high-res media, big projects) will naturally want more RAM and a faster CPU/GPU than the bare minimum.
Quick steps
- Download the installer or archive for your OS from the official release page
- Point RawTherapee at your folder of RAW files to build a thumbnail browser
- Adjust exposure, curves, and noise reduction, then batch-export to JPEG or TIFF
RawTherapee: the honest trade-offs
- Fully non-destructive editing stored as separate sidecar files
- Granular tone-curve and wavelet-based noise reduction tools
- Completely free with no paid tier at all
- Steeper learning curve than simpler consumer photo editors
- Interface feels less polished than commercial tools like Lightroom
This download links to the RawTherapee Team's official GitHub release channel, the same source referenced on rawtherapee.com.
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Keeping RawTherapee up to date
Since RawTherapee is open source, most Linux distributions keep it current through their own package manager. On Windows/macOS, re-running the installer from the official site (or an updater built into the app, if it has one) gets you the latest release. Sticking to the developer's own distribution channel — which is what this page links to — means you're never stuck on an old build with unpatched bugs just because a mirror site stopped updating its copy.
Features, install steps, alternatives and more detail live on the main RawTherapee page.
Frequently asked questions
Does RawTherapee support my camera's RAW format?
Most likely yes — it supports RAW files from the majority of major camera brands, with new formats added quickly after camera releases.
Is RawTherapee only for RAW files, or can it edit JPEGs too?
It can open JPEGs and TIFFs as well, though its non-destructive tools are built primarily around the flexibility RAW files provide.
