Multipass is a lightweight VM manager for Linux, Windows and macOS. It's designed for developers who want to spin up a fresh Ubuntu environment with a single command. It uses KVM on Linux, Hyper-V on Windows and QEMU on macOS to run virtual machines with minimal overhead. It can also use VirtualBox on Windows and macOS. Multipass will fetch Ubuntu images for you and keep them up to date.
Since it supports metadata for cloud-init, you can simulate a small cloud deployment on your laptop or workstation.
| Service | Status |
|---|---|
| CI |  |
| Snap |  |
| Codecov |  |
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On Linux, Multipass is available as a snap:
sudo snap install multipass -
On macOS, download the installer from GitHub.
Alternatively, you can use Homebrew. Please note that this method is not officially supported, as it is not maintained by the Multipass team, but by the community. Multipass is available as a cask:
brew install --cask multipassPlease note that you may be required to enter your password for some sudo operations during installation. You may also need to disable the firewall to launch a multipass instance successfully on macOS.
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On Windows, download the installer from GitHub.
For more information, see How to install Multipass.
Here are some pointers to get started with Multipass. For a more comprehensive learning experience, please check out the Multipass Tutorial.
$ multipass find
Image Aliases Version Description
22.04 jammy 20260515 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
24.04 noble 20260518 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
25.10 questing 20260520 Ubuntu 25.10
26.04 resolute,lts,ubuntu 20260520 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
core:core16 current Ubuntu Core 16
core:core18 current Ubuntu Core 18
core:core20 current Ubuntu Core 20
core:core22 current Ubuntu Core 22
core:core24 current Ubuntu Core 24
core:core26 current Ubuntu Core 26
debian trixie 20260601 Debian Trixie
fedora 20260422 Fedora 44
$ multipass launch lts
Launched: dancing-chipmunk
$ multipass list
Name State IPv4 Image
dancing-chipmunk Running 192.168.64.8 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
$ multipass info dancing-chipmunk
Name: dancing-chipmunk
State: Running
Snapshots: 0
IPv4: 192.168.64.8
Release: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Image hash: dced94c031cc (Ubuntu 26.04 LTS)
CPU(s): 1
Load: 5.70 4.58 2.63
Disk usage: 3.3GiB out of 4.8GiB
Memory usage: 769.0MiB out of 953.0MiB
Mounts: --
$ multipass shell dancing-chipmunk
Welcome to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 7.0.0-22-generic x86_64)
...
Don't forget to logout (or Ctrl-D) or you may find yourself heading all the way down Inception levels... ;)
$ multipass exec dancing-chipmunk -- lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Release: 26.04
Codename: resolute
$ multipass stop dancing-chipmunk
$ multipass delete dancing-chipmunk
The instance will now show up as deleted:
$ multipass list
Name State IPv4 Image
dancing-chipmunk Deleted -- Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
If you want to completely get rid of it:
$ multipass purge
multipass help
multipass help <command>
The Multipass team appreciates contributions to the project, through pull requests, issues, or discussions and questions on the Discourse forum. Please read the policy sections below carefully before contributing to the project.
Please follow the platform-specific build instructions in the files below:
- BUILD.linux.md for Linux
- BUILD.macOS.md for macOS
- BUILD.windows.md for Windows
Qt version compatibility Multipass is tested with Qt 6.9.1. Newer patch versions along the 6.9 track (e.g. 6.9.2) should be fine. Newer minor versions may work, but they may cause compatibility issues.
You may use your preferred package manager to install Multipass. Note that only the official installers are supported. See the installation guide for details.
For backend support and system requirements, refer to the Multipass driver documentation.
If you notice outdated information or inconsistencies in these files, please open an issue or, even better, submit a pull request!
You can also reference our GitHub Actions CI to see how Multipass is built and tested across platforms.
Requires (>= CMake 3.29)
To accelerate the build, the build system will attempt to locate and utilize mold or lld (respectively) in place of
the default linker of the toolchain. To override, set
CMAKE_LINKER_TYPE at CMake
configure step.
When contributing, you must adhere to the Code of Conduct.
The code in this repository is licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for more information.
All contributors must sign the Canonical contributor license agreement (CLA), which gives Canonical permission to use the contributions. Without the CLA, contributions cannot be accepted.
Changes to this project should be proposed as pull requests. Proposed changes will then go through review and once approved, be merged into the main branch.