86Box is a low level x86 emulator that runs older operating systems and software designed for IBM PC systems and compatibles from 1981 through fairly recent system designs based on the PCI bus.
Features
- Easy to use interface inspired by mainstream hypervisor software
- Low level emulation of 8086-based processors up to the Pentium with focus on accuracy
- Great range of customizability of virtual machines
- Many available systems, such as the very first IBM PC 5150 from 1981, or the more obscure IBM PS/2 line of systems based on the Micro Channel Architecture
- Lots of supported peripherals including video adapters, sound cards, network adapters, hard disk controllers, and SCSI adapters
- MIDI output to Windows built-in MIDI support, FluidSynth, or emulated Roland synthesizers
- Supports running MS-DOS, older Windows versions, OS/2, many Linux distributions, or vintage systems such as BeOS or NEXTSTEP, and applications for these systems
Downloads
The latest stable version of 86Box is v5.0, which was released on August 24, 2025, and is available from our GitHub repository.
We also offer experimental builds, which are built from the latest source code, but may not be as stable and/or performant as release builds.
Minimum system requirements and recommendations
- Intel Core 2 or AMD Athlon 64 processor or newer
- At least 4 GB of RAM or higher
- Windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or later
- macOS version: macOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer
- Linux version: Ubuntu 16.04, Debian 9.0 or other distributions from 2016 onwards
Performance may vary depending on host and guest configuration. Most emulation logic is executed in a single thread. Therefore, systems with greater IPC (instructions per clock) capacity should be able to emulate higher clock speeds.
For easier handling of multiple virtual machines, we recommend using a manager application:
- Avalonia 86 by notBald (Windows and Linux)
- 86Box Manager X by xafero (Cross platform Port of 86Box Manager using Avalonia)
- sl86 by DDX (Command-line 86Box machine manager written in Python)
- Linbox-qt5 by Dungeonseeker (Linux focused, should work on Windows though untested)
- MacBox for 86Box by Moonif (MacOS only)
NEW: 86Box 5.0 introduces a new built-in virtual machine manager as a preview! Try it out by launching the 86Box executable directly with no command line arguments. We look forward to hearing your feedback!
To use 86Box on its own, bypassing the manager, use the -P/--vmpath command line option. See the help (-? option) for more details.
Getting started
See our documentation for an overview of the emulator’s features and user interface.
Get in touch
You can reach us on our IRC channel, Discord server or Twitter to discuss anything related to retro computing and, of course, 86Box. We look forward to hearing from you!
Licensing
86Box is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. For more information, see the COPYING file in the root of the repository.
The emulator can also optionally make use of munt, FluidSynth, Ghostscript and Discord Game SDK, which are distributed under their respective licenses.
Donations
We do not charge you for the emulator but donations are still welcome. You can also support the project on Patreon.