OBS Studio 27.2.4

OBS Studio provides real-time capture, encoding, and broadcasting for YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and many other providers. High performance real time video/audio capturing and mixing. Create scenes made up of multiple sources including window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams, capture cards, and more.

Is OBS Studio free for commercial use?

OBS Studio is open source software and free for anyone to use it. OBS can be used commercially without restrictions, it won't add watermarks and has no limitations.

Is OBS good for recording videos?

OBS Studio stands for Open Broadcaster Software, which means its main purpose is livestreaming your gaming sessions on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, among others. However, you can record audio and video from multiple sources.

Can you edit videos in OBS Studio?

You can't edit videos on OBS Studio, for that you may need a video editor like DaVinci Resolve, Shotcut or VSDC Video Editor, which are great free options.

What are OBS Studio basic system requirements?

OBS Studio runs on Windows, macOS and Linux systems with at least 4GB of RAM.

• Windows
  • DirectX 10.1 compatible GPU (GeForce GTX 900 Series, Radeon RX 400 Series, Intel HD Graphics 500)
  • Windows 8.1, Windows 10, or Windows 11
  • Intel i5 2500K, AMD Ryzen 1300X
  • Hardware encoders are recommended
• macOS
  • Intel or Apple Silicon CPU
  • OpenGL 3.3-compatible GPU
  • macOS "High Sierra" (10.13) or later
• Linux/Unix
  • OpenGL 3.3-compatible GPU
  • X window system or Wayland

Features

• High performance real time video/audio capturing and mixing, with unlimited scenes you can switch between seamlessly via custom transitions.
• Live streaming to Twitch, YouTube, Periscope, GoodGame, DailyMotion, Hitbox, VK and any other RTMP server
• Filters for video sources such as image masking, color correction, chroma/color keying, and more.
• x264, H.264 and AAC for your live streams and video recordings
• Intel Quick Sync Video (QSV) and NVIDIA NVENC support
• Intuitive audio mixer with per-source filters such as noise gate, noise suppression, and gain. Take full control with VST plugin support.
• GPU-based game capture for high performance game streaming
• Unlimited number of scenes and sources
• Number of different and customizable transitions for when you switch between scenes
• Hotkeys for almost any action such as start or stop your stream or recording, push-to-talk, fast mute of any audio source, show or hide any video source, switch between scenes,and much more
• Live preview of any changes on your scenes and sources using Studio Mode before pushing them to your stream where your viewers will see those changes
• DirectShow capture device support (webcams, capture cards, etc)
• Powerful and easy to use configuration options. Add new Sources, duplicate existing ones, and adjust their properties effortlessly.
• Streamlined Settings panel for quickly configuring your broadcasts and recordings. Switch between different profiles with ease.
• Light and dark themes available to fit your environment.
• ...and many other features. For free. At all.

What's New

New Features and Additions

• Added AJA source for AJA devices [DDRBoxman/AJA Team]
• Added AJA output to tools menu for AJA devices [DDRBoxman/AJA Team]
• Updated CEF (Chromium) for the browser source from 75 (3770) to version 95 (4638) (Absolutely amazing work by everyone who worked on this, especially the CEF community -Jim) [PatTheMav/RytoEX/pkv/WizardCM/VodBox]
• Added the ability to set different blend modes to sources via the source right-click context menu (similar to Photoshop's layer blending for example) [jw0z96]
• Added AOM AV1 and SVT-AV1 encoders (note that these are currently considered experimental, work best with CPUs that have many cores, and are only accessible for recording in advanced output mode) [Jim]
• Added an OBS hotkey for browser sources to allow refreshing a browser source via that hotkey [gxalpha]
• Added hotkey filter search [furious]
• Added hotkey duplicate detection [furious/Jim]
• Added a warning dialog when switching profiles that have settings changes that require a restart [offthegrid-mike]
• Added a "Show active outputs warning on exit" option in advanced settings, which allows you to enable/disable the confirmation dialog on exit while recording/streaming [bobvandevijver]
• Added support for the RIST protocol [pkv]
• Added official Flatpak support for Linux [GeorgesStavracas]
• Added framework for future support of background hotkeys on Wayland [kkartaltepe]
• Added an option to general settings to hide OBS from all capturing, allowing you to capture your screen without OBS showing up [R1CH]

Tweaks

• Updated dependencies to their latest versions [Jim/RytoEX/pkv/WizardCM/VodBox]
• Volume meters will now show audio activity in grayscale when muted rather than showing no activity [cg2121]
• Improve menu bar icons on macOS [PatTheMav]
• A warning will now be shown when failing to start/stop YouTube streams [derrod]
• Improved consistency of transition duration suffixes [cg2121]
• On Linux, the list of windows shown in Window capture will now show alphabetically [donotnoot]
• Twitch panels will now use light or dark mode depending on the OBS theme [RytoEX]
• Changed the Docks menu from being a submenu in the View menu to instead be its own top-level menu on the menu-bar [Warchamp7]
• A more user-friendly dialog is now displayed when a file could not be written for recording [R1CH]
• The filters preview/properties are now resizable [Warchamp7]
• Added the ability for RTMP servers to request a silent reconnect when the server is going down (otherwise known as the "RTMP go away" feature) [Jim]
• Incompatible audio filters will now not be shown for sources that don't support them [WizardCM]
• Added frontend event so scripts can know when OBS is shutting down [cg2121]
• PipeWire capturing is now more robust, especially in multi-GPU setups [columbarius]
• Sources will now be activated when viewing them in the filters dialog [tt2468]
• Browser sources are no longer refreshed when their size changes (useful when programmatically resizing them) [exeldro]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the cursor capture position on certain applications with window and game capture [rcdrone]
• Fix YouTube GoLive feature not working for existing broadcasts that are not auto-start broadcasts [derrod]
• Fixed the YouTube broadcast button state when stopping streams without auto-start, that have auto-stop enabled [derrod]
• Fixed an issue where the edit menu wouldn't properly update its state depending on what was selected [offthegrid-mike]
• Fixed the Paste Source context menu items from still being enabled if source has been destroyed [Jim]
• Fixed a bug where pressing "Cancel" on a properties dialog would cause settings to save in some cases despite hitting cancel [gxalpha]
• Fixed a bug where certain settings would show as available in the video capture device properties when they weren't actually available [lexi-lambda]
• Fixed a crash where modifying the video capture device properties on Linux could cause a crash on some systems [lexi-lambda]
• Fixed Linux PulseAudio monitoring volume with signed 32bit and unsigned 8bit formats [norihiro]
• Fixed Media Source not working with audio-only files [norihiro]
• Fixed a couple memory leaks with QSV [shleeable]
• Fixed an issue where audio monitoring could have significant latency on Linux [kkartaltepe]
• Fixed undo/redo not working for text changes on the context bar [gxalpha]
• Fixed an issue where the transform window would not consistently updated for selected sources/scenes [offthegrid-mike]
• Fixed missing undo/redo action when resetting filter properties [gxalpha]
• Fixed missing undo/redo action when using "Add existing source" [gxalpha]
• Fixed an issue where stinger transitions could sometimes loop unintentionally [exeldro]
• Fixed an issue where transforms/crops would not be included when copying/pasting sources [torresam]
• Fixed a couple potential freezes and crashes, especially with browser sources [Jim]
• Fixed an issue where devices would not always reinitialize properly when switching scene collections [Jim]
• Fixed various issues that would affect the websockets plugin [tt2468]
• Fixed a bug where certain Twitch panel settings wouldn't save properly [derrod]
• Fixed a bug on Linux where Window capture wouldn't properly capture on software rasterization devices [ishitatsuyuki]
• Fixed various potential bugs and race conditions across the program and multiple plugins [wangshaohui]
• Fixed network throughput to distant servers potentially being limited in low memory environments [R1CH]
• Fixed a crash on Linux X11 that could happen when closing certain dialogs containing video previews [tt2468]
• Fixed VST plugin windows disappearing when resized [Blue Cat Audio]
• Fixed a VST plugin crash that could occur under certain circumstances [walker-WSH]
• Fixed an incorrect offset of scene labels on certain multiview configurations [norihiro]
• Fixed a bug that would allow resizing sources that are locked [ntoff]
• Fixed a performance issue with X11 window capture on Linux [ishitatsuyuki]
• Fixed a bug where projectors could not be resized with certain window managers on Linux [univrsal]
• Fixed window flashing on macOS when starting the program minimized to tray [CodyJung]
• Fixed a bug where push-to-talk or mute delay would not save under certain circumstances [CodyJung]
• Fixed a bug where mouse hotkeys would not always function correctly on Linux [kkartaltepe]