MetaTrader 4 in 2026: How to Download It, and Whether It's Still Worth Learning

By Marcel Hambálek · Senior Trader, For Traders

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is a free forex and CFD trading terminal released by MetaQuotes Software Corp. in 2005, and it is still downloadable and fully functional in September 2026 — but only from metatrader4.com or directly from your broker or prop firm's client area. MetaQuotes stopped selling new MT4 licences in 2022 and now ships maintenance builds only, so the platform works, it just no longer gets new features.

Key takeaways

• Download MT4 only from metatrader4.com or your broker/prop firm's official client area — every third-party 'MT4 download' mirror and every sideloaded APK is a malware risk.
• MT4 is free, legit and still working in 2026; MetaQuotes froze new licence sales in 2022 and now ships maintenance builds rather than new features.
• No MetaTrader 6 has been announced or dated by MetaQuotes as of September 2026 — every 'MT6 release date' you see online is speculation.
• There is no native macOS build: MT4 on Mac runs through a wrapper, which carries a real performance tax on Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 chips.
• MT5 beats MT4 on raw specs — 21 vs 9 timeframes, 6 vs 4 pending order types and a multi-threaded Strategy Tester — but MT4's MQL4 EA library is still the deepest in retail trading.
• Most 2026 prop evaluations no longer run on MT4: expect MT5, cTrader, DXtrade, Match-Trader or TradeLocker, so check the terminal before you buy a challenge.

Watch: related video

Where to download MetaTrader 4 safely in 2026

There are exactly two safe places to get MetaTrader 4: metatrader4.com, the official domain run by MetaQuotes Software Corp., or the client area of your broker or prop firm — the one that issued your trading account. Everything else is either an aggregator skimming ad revenue off your search, or something worse.

The only sources you should trust

metatrader4.com hosts the current maintenance build directly from MetaQuotes, with no bundled installers, no "recommended broker" upsells baked into the .exe, and no wrapper software. If your broker or prop firm offers a white-labelled MT4 (same terminal, their branding, pre-filled server settings), download it from their client area instead — it connects to their servers by default, which saves you a manual server search on first login. Both routes install the identical core terminal; the only difference is which trade servers show up in your server list.

Download sites to avoid

• "MT4 download" aggregator sites — third-party pages that rank for "metatrader 4 download" or "free mt4 download" and mirror the installer themselves. You have no way to verify the file wasn't modified before it hit their server.
• Cracked builds promising "unlocked indicators" or "premium EAs bundled free" — MT4 doesn't have a locked feature set to crack. Anything sold this way is either malware, a keylogger aimed at your broker credentials, or a repackaged trojan.
• APK files hosted outside Google Play — for Android, sideloaded APKs from forums or file-sharing sites bypass Play Protect entirely. There's no legitimate reason to sideload MT4; the official app is free and always has been.

That last point matters: MetaTrader 4 is free, full stop. Anyone charging you for the terminal itself — a "premium download," a "lifetime license fee," a Discord seller offering the installer for $20 — is reselling something MetaQuotes gives away. You're not missing a paid tier by using the standard download.

Which file you actually want for each device

Last verified: September 2026. Download sources for platform installers shift occasionally as MetaQuotes updates distribution policy, so if you're reading this months later, cross-check metatrader4.com is still the canonical domain before you install anything.

Step 1: Download and install MT4 on Windows

The fastest path from zero to a live chart: grab the .exe from metatrader4.com or your prop firm's client area, run it, accept the licence, pick a folder, launch. That's the whole install — no reboot, no dependencies to hunt down, and no reason it should take more than five minutes on any Windows 10 or 11 machine.

The install: exe to first chart in under five minutes

1. Download the mt4 download for pc installer directly from metatrader4.com or the link your broker/prop firm emailed you — not a mirror site, not a forum attachment.
2. Run the .exe. Windows may ask for admin permission — allow it.
3. Accept the licence agreement. This is the standard MetaQuotes EULA, unchanged in substance for years.
4. Choose an install folder. The default (C:\Program Files\MetaTrader 4) is fine for one instance — but see the multi-account note below before you accept it blindly.
5. Click Finish. MT4 launches automatically and drops you on a default chart, usually EURUSD, with a demo server list already populated.

That's install metatrader 4 windows done. Nothing exotic — MetaQuotes built this installer in the mid-2000s and it hasn't needed to get more complicated since.

Opening a demo account vs logging into a live or challenge account

Once the terminal's open, go to File → Open an Account if you just want to poke around on a demo — pick a server from the list, fill in a fake name and email, and you're placing trades on simulated capital in under a minute.

If you've already got credentials — for a broker live account or a For Traders Trading Challenge — you want File → Login to Trade Account instead. You'll need three things, all sent to you by email at account creation:

• Login — a numeric account ID
• Password — your trading password (different from any client-area password)
• Server — this is where people trip up

The mt4 server name has to match exactly, including the numeric suffix — For Traders-Live2 is not the same server as For Traders-Live3, and MT4 won't warn you it picked the wrong one; it'll just sit on "connecting" and never fill. Copy-paste the server string from your welcome email rather than typing it from memory.

If the installer is blocked by SmartScreen or your antivirus

Windows SmartScreen sometimes flags the MT4 .exe simply because it's an unfamiliar file to that specific machine, not because it's malicious. Before clicking "Run anyway," check the publisher field in the SmartScreen popup — it must read MetaQuotes Software Corp. If it says anything else, or nothing at all, delete the file and re-download from the official source. That publisher signature is your fastest sanity check against a tampered installer.

Running a demo alongside a funded challenge account? Install each into its own separate folder (rename the shortcut too) so you're never guessing which terminal is live and which is practice — a mix-up here is how traders accidentally size a demo test like it's their funded account, or vice versa.

Step 2: Get MetaTrader 4 on a Mac (including M1, M2 and M3)

MetaTrader 4 for Mac download isn't a native macOS app — it's Windows software running inside a compatibility wrapper, and on Apple Silicon that wrapper adds a translation layer that costs you real responsiveness. You'll feel it most on tick-heavy instruments like XAUUSD during a fast news leg, where a few extra milliseconds of render lag is the difference between your fill and the price you clicked.

Why there is no true native MT4 for macOS

MetaQuotes built MT4 for Windows in 2005 and never ported the core engine to macOS. When Apple moved from Intel to Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3), the gap widened — MT4's Windows binaries now need translating on the fly, whereas Windows machines run it natively with zero overhead. That's not a MetaQuotes oversight; it's a platform they stopped adding features to back in 2022, so a native Mac rebuild was never on the roadmap.

Installing the MetaQuotes Mac build step by step

1. Download the official "MT4 for Mac" installer from metatrader4.com or your broker/prop firm's client area — this bundles a lightweight Wine-based wrapper, not raw Wine.
2. Run the .dmg and drag the MetaTrader 4 icon into Applications, same as any Mac app.
3. Launch it. First boot takes noticeably longer than a Windows install — the wrapper is initializing its Windows compatibility layer in the background.
4. Log in with your challenge or demo credentials and confirm charts render and ticks stream before you size anything.

Parallels, CrossOver and Wine: the Apple Silicon performance tax

If the bundled wrapper feels sluggish, your realistic upgrade paths are a Parallels Windows VM, CrossOver, or raw Wine — all doing the same job with different trade-offs. Parallels runs a full Windows instance, which is the smoothest experience but costs you a licence fee and a chunk of RAM. CrossOver and Wine skip the full OS and translate Windows calls directly, which is lighter but less consistent, especially on multi-monitor EA setups. Either way, you're paying an "Apple Silicon tax" in CPU cycles that a Windows box simply doesn't charge — expect it during backtests and optimization runs more than in routine live-chart watching.

When to run MT4 on a VPS instead

If you're running EAs that need 24/5 uptime, skip the wrapper entirely and rent an MT4 VPS. A closed MacBook lid kills every local install instantly — VM, CrossOver, native, doesn't matter — and a dropped connection during an open trade on a funded account is a self-inflicted wound you don't want on your record. A VPS runs your terminal on remote Windows infrastructure that stays live through NFP, FOMC, and your commute. It's the only setup here that survives a closed lid, full stop.

None of this is a knock on macOS — it's just why so many Mac-based traders eventually shift to MT5 or a browser-based platform instead of fighting the wrapper indefinitely.

Step 3: Download MT4 for iOS and Android

Get the MT4 mobile app from Google Play or the Apple App Store — nowhere else. Search "MetaTrader 4," check that the developer listed is MetaQuotes Software Corp., and install. That's the entire process. Anything more complicated than that is where the trouble starts.

MT4 on Android: Google Play and nothing else

Open Google Play, search MetaTrader 4, confirm the publisher is MetaQuotes Software Corp., and tap install. The app is free, roughly 40-50MB, and works on essentially any Android device from the last six years. You don't need your broker's permission or a special link — the generic MetaQuotes build connects to any broker's servers once you log in with your account number, password, and server name. If you're evaluating a Two-Step Challenge with For Traders, this same generic app connects fine to your challenge account; there's no separate "prop firm version" required on Android in most cases.

MT4 on iOS: the App Store and broker white-label builds

On iPhone or iPad, search MetaTrader 4 in the Apple App Store the same way. You'll sometimes see two flavors: the generic MetaQuotes app, and a white label MT4 app published under a broker or prop firm's own name with their logo and color scheme. Both are legitimate MT4 builds — the white-label version just wraps the same MetaQuotes engine in the firm's branding, often bundled with extras like one-tap deposit screens or firm-specific news feeds. If your firm ships one, download it from the link in your client area rather than searching blind, so you know you're getting their maintained build and not an abandoned clone sitting in the store from three years ago.

If MT4 isn't listed in your region's store

MT4 has been pulled from app stores in a handful of jurisdictions over the years due to local regulatory restrictions on CFD marketing. If a plain store search comes up empty, check your broker or prop firm's client area first — most maintain a direct download link or a white-label MT4 app that isn't geofenced the same way the generic listing is. Switching your App Store region to download an app not intended for your jurisdiction can violate store terms and complicates support later, so this is the workaround worth using instead.

Why you should never sideload an 'MT4 APK'

A "metatrader 4 android apk download" search turns up plenty of third-party APK hosting sites promising the same app outside Google Play. Don't. A modified MT4 APK can be repackaged with a credential logger sitting between you and the login screen — it captures your account number and password the moment you type them, and by the time you notice something's off, whatever's connected to that device is compromised, not just your trading account. There is no legitimate reason to sideload MT4 when it's free and one search away in an official store.

One more thing worth being straight about: mobile MT4 is great for checking positions, closing a trade from the airport, or adjusting a stop between meetings. It's a poor primary terminal for running a challenge. Fat-finger risk is higher, chart analysis is cramped, and you lose the multi-monitor context that catches mistakes before you make them. Use the mobile app to manage, not to execute your evaluation.

Step 4: Use MT4 in your browser with the WebTerminal

Yes — you can run MT4 without installing anything. The MT4 WebTerminal loads in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) and needs only three things from you: your server name, login number, and password. No .exe, no download, no admin rights on the machine you're sitting at.

How to log into the MT4 WebTerminal

Most brokers and prop firms host a branded version of the terminal at their own domain rather than the generic MetaQuotes one, so check your client area for the exact link — searching "mt4 web terminal login" plus your broker's name usually gets you there fastest. The process itself is the same everywhere:

1. Open your broker's WebTerminal URL (or the generic one linked from your client portal).
2. Enter your account number, password, and server name — the same credentials you'd use in the desktop app.
3. Click Connect. Your open positions, balance, and equity sync instantly if you already have a live or demo account running elsewhere.
4. Trade from the browser tab — charts, order tickets, and account history all load client-side once connected.

This is genuinely MT4 without download — metatrader 4 online, running server-side logic through your browser window.

What the web version can and can't do

The WebTerminal handles core execution fine: market and pending orders, basic chart timeframes, stop loss and take profit management, trade history. What it doesn't do is where you'll feel the difference if you're used to the full desktop build:

• No custom indicators — you're limited to the built-in toolset, no imported .mq4 or .ex4 files.
• No Expert Advisors — anything automated or set-and-forget simply won't run in a browser tab.
• No full Strategy Tester — backtesting a strategy isn't possible from the web version.
• Reduced object toolset — fewer drawing tools, no exotic order types some desktop builds support.

When browser access makes sense

Think of the WebTerminal as a locked-down work machine option, not your primary setup for a challenge. It earns its place in specific situations: a company laptop that blocks installers, a hotel business centre computer, checking in on a trade between meetings without carrying your own device. It is not where you want to be running full technical analysis or managing a funded account's daily loss limit under pressure — the charting is too thin for that.

One warning worth repeating every time: never log into MT4 WebTerminal from a public network or a shared device you don't control. You're typing your trading password into a browser session that a public Wi-Fi hotspot or a previous user's cached session could expose. If you must trade from a public machine, log out fully and clear the session when you're done — don't just close the tab.

Step 5: Your first hour in MT4 — the setup checklist

Before you place a single trade, spend your first hour configuring MT4, not trading it. This mt4 setup guide covers the five things that actually cost traders evaluations — chart clutter, one-click trading next to a scroll wheel, unchecked EA settings, and not knowing your firm's own loss limits because MT4 doesn't show them anywhere on screen.

Charts, timeframes and saving a template

Open one chart of the pair you trade most — EURUSD, XAUUSD, whatever's your bread and butter — and build your indicator stack once: moving averages, ATR, whatever you actually use to make decisions. Then right-click the chart, go to Template → Save Template, and save it as Default.tpl. Every new chart you open from now on loads clean with your setup already applied — no rebuilding indicators five times a session. On the timeframe front, don't cycle through all nine MT4 offers. Pick the two or three you actually trade — H1 and H4 for swing entries, M15 for intraday triggers — and ignore the rest. Fewer timeframes means fewer excuses to second-guess a plan that was fine on the first look.

One-click trading: the switch that costs beginners money

One-click trading in MT4 sits as a small panel in the top-left of your chart — toggle it on and every click on Buy or Sell fires an order instantly, no confirmation box, no second look at lot size. It's meant for speed. In practice, it's ended more evaluations than bad analysis, because a stray scroll of the mouse wheel near that panel can flip your lot size, and a misplaced click sends a market order you never meant to place. If you're not scalping and need that speed, leave one-click trading mt4 off. The half-second confirmation dialog has saved more challenge accounts than it's cost in missed fills.

Enabling Expert Advisors and the DLL permission trap

If you're running an Expert Advisor EA — an automated strategy script — you'll need the AutoTrading button (top toolbar) toggled green, and the EA itself needs "Allow live trading" checked in its properties. One box you should almost never tick: "Allow DLL imports." DLLs let an EA execute external code outside MT4's sandbox, which is exactly how a poorly-vetted or malicious EA can do things you never authorized on your account. Unless you wrote the EA yourself or you fully trust and understand the source, leave that box unchecked — the vast majority of legitimate EAs and indicators from the Navigator window don't need it.

Where your daily loss limit and max drawdown actually live on a challenge account

MT4's Terminal window shows you balance, equity, margin, free margin — useful numbers, but none of them is your evaluation's daily loss limit or max drawdown. Those rules live in your prop firm's dashboard, not inside the trading terminal itself. Before you place your first trade on a For Traders Challenge, log into your dashboard and write down both numbers in account currency — not as a percentage, as an actual dollar or euro figure. Knowing you have $500 of daily loss room left means something at 2am during a volatile NFP print; knowing it's "5%" does not, when you're doing mental math under pressure. MT4 will let you keep clicking Sell long after you've technically breached a rule it has no idea exists.

Is MetaTrader 4 legit? The safety checklist

Yes — MetaTrader 4 is legitimate software published by MetaQuotes Software Corp., and it's still running on thousands of regulated broker and prop firm servers in 2026. The scam risk isn't the platform itself, it's the flood of fake MT4 installers that got worse once MetaQuotes stopped issuing new licences and search results filled with third-party mirrors. If you're asking "is MT4 safe" because a download link looked off, trust that instinct and run it through the checklist below before you type in any login.

Verify the publisher, then the domain

Before you run anything, right-click the installer, hit Properties, and check the Digital Signatures tab. It should read MetaQuotes Software Corp. — nothing else, no reseller name, no "Ltd" variant, no typo. Then look at where you actually downloaded it from. There are exactly two safe sources:

• The official metatrader4.com domain
• Your own broker or prop firm's client area — a direct build they host for their servers

If you found your copy through a Google ad, a forum post, a "free MT4 with EA pack" torrent, or a random .top or .xyz domain that isn't your firm's, close the tab. This is where most metatrader 4 scam reports start — not with a hacked platform, but with a fake site sitting one search result above the real one.

Installer red flags that mean delete the file

A genuine MT4 installer is a small, single .exe (or a listing in your phone's app store — Apple's App Store or Google Play). Delete the file immediately if you see any of these:

• It's a .zip or .rar downloaded from a file-hosting site (Mega, MediaFire, random cloud links)
• The file size is wildly larger or smaller than the standard installer
• It asks you to disable your antivirus to "install correctly" — that's a textbook mt4 malware move
• It prompts for a credit card before you've even opened a demo account — the terminal itself is free, always has been
• It bundles an unrelated "EA installer" or "license activator" as a second .exe

None of those are how MetaQuotes ships software. A real installer doesn't need you to lower your defenses to run.

MT4 is a terminal, not a broker — where the real risk sits

Here's the nuance most download guides skip entirely: MT4 never touches your money. It's a charting and order-execution terminal — a window into an account that lives on someone else's server. When you type in a server address and login, you're not trusting MetaQuotes with your funds, you're trusting whoever operates that server.

So the diligence that actually protects you isn't about the .exe — it's about the firm behind the login screen. Check the broker's regulator, check the prop firm's payout history and terms, check reviews that aren't all posted the same week. The platform can be flawless and the counterparty can still be the problem. Vet the server, not the software.

Is MetaTrader 4 discontinued, and is it still working in 2026?

Short answer: no, MetaTrader 4 is not discontinued, and yes, it's still working in September 2026 — but it's frozen in maintenance mode. MetaQuotes stopped issuing new MT4 licences to brokers back in 2022, which means no new brokers can legally launch fresh MT4 servers, but every broker who already held a licence keeps running it, and MetaQuotes keeps pushing security and stability builds. Is MetaTrader 4 still working? For millions of retail accounts, yes, every single trading day.

The 2022 licence freeze, explained

MetaQuotes didn't kill MT4 — it stopped selling it. Since 2022, the company has directed new broker licensing toward MetaTrader 5, its more capable successor with native hedging support added later and multi-asset order types. Existing MT4 licence holders were grandfathered in, which is why so many brokers and prop firms — For Traders included, alongside plenty of competitors — still run MT4 desktop, web, and mobile terminals in 2026. The platform isn't getting new features. It's getting patched, not developed.

September 2022: the App Store and Google Play removals

The clearest sign of that freeze played out in public. In September 2022, Apple pulled MetaTrader 4 (and MT5) from the App Store, and Google disrupted Play Store access around the same window, both citing broker-side compliance issues tied to sanctions-related trading activity rather than a flaw in the software itself. The apps came back for most regions, but the incident is worth remembering for one reason: your entire mobile execution stack sat behind a single vendor's store listing, and when that listing vanished, so did your ability to manage open positions from your phone until your broker sorted it out. That's platform risk you never priced in until it hit you.

MetaTrader 4 release date: MT3's successor, and why it took over retail

MetaTrader 4 release date: 2005. MetaQuotes built it as the successor to MetaTrader 3, and MT4 won the retail forex market almost by accident of timing — it shipped with MQL4, a scripting language simple enough for non-programmers to build their own indicators and Expert Advisors, and MetaQuotes licensed it to brokers cheaply and liberally. That combination — low barrier to entry for retail coders, low cost for brokers — is what made MT4 the default terminal for two decades, long before MetaTrader 5 or any competitor terminal existed at scale.

Is there a MetaTrader 6? No release date has been announced

As of September 2026, there is no MetaTrader 6 and no MetaTrader 6 release date on the table. MetaQuotes has given no public roadmap, no beta, no announcement — nothing. Every visible development effort is going into MT5 builds and into the web and mobile terminals. If you're holding off on learning MT4 or MT5 because "MT6 might drop soon," there's no evidence to support that bet.

MT4 vs MT5: the specs that actually change how you trade

MT4 gives you 9 timeframes, 30 built-in indicators and a single-threaded Strategy Tester; MT5 gives you 21 timeframes, 38 indicators and a multi-threaded tester that optimises an Expert Advisor in a fraction of the time. On paper MT5 wins the spec sheet. In practice, which one "wins" depends on whether you're trading discretionary charts or grinding EA optimisation runs.

Side-by-side spec table

Where MT4 still wins: the MQL4 EA and indicator library

This is the honest part of the comparison. MT4 has had two decades to accumulate a library of free EAs, custom indicators and scripts that MT5 simply hasn't caught up on — MQL4 code doesn't port to MQL5, so nothing carries over automatically, and a lot of authors never bothered rebuilding for the newer platform. If you've ever downloaded a free grid EA, a custom Fibonacci tool, or a scalping indicator off a forum, there's a good chance it only exists in MQL4. That ecosystem depth is still the single best argument for keeping MT4 installed in 2026, even if you do most of your live charting elsewhere.

Where MT5 wins: backtesting, depth of market and multi-asset

If you optimise EAs — running a strategy across thousands of parameter combinations to find a stable set — the single-threaded MT4 tester will make you wait. MT5's multi-threaded, multi-currency Strategy Tester runs the same job across every core your machine has, and it can test a basket of pairs simultaneously instead of one at a time. Add Depth of Market on MT5 and native access to exchange-traded futures and stocks, and the platform gap widens further if your trading has moved beyond spot forex and CFDs. The timeframe gap matters too: if any part of your read relies on M2 or H2 structure, MT4's 9 timeframes simply don't have the bar you need — you're stuck approximating it from M1 or H1.

MetaTrader 4 in 2026: the honest pros and cons

Pros

• Free, lightweight and runs on almost any Windows machine, including old hardware and cheap VPS boxes
• The deepest free library of indicators and Expert Advisors in retail trading, built over two decades of MQL4
• Still supported by a large number of established brokers, with maintenance builds still shipping in 2026
• Low learning curve — nine timeframes, four pending order types and a UI most trading educators still teach against

Cons / risks

• In maintenance only: MetaQuotes froze new MT4 licences in 2022, so no new features are coming
• No native macOS build — Apple Silicon users pay a real performance tax running it in a wrapper
• Single-threaded Strategy Tester makes serious EA optimisation painfully slow versus MT5
• MQL4 skills don't port to MQL5, and most 2026 prop evaluations don't run on MT4 at all
• Forex and CFD focused — no clean path to CME futures or exchange-traded instruments

Frequently Asked Questions