Quick start

MNE-Python requires Python version 3.6 or higher. If you’ve never worked with Python before, skip ahead to the last paragraph of this page. For users already familiar with Python:

• If you only need 2D plotting capabilities with MNE-Python (i.e., most EEG/ERP or other sensor-level analyses), you can install MNE-Python using pip:

  $ pip install mne
  

  The only hard dependencies are NumPy and SciPy, though most users will want to install Matplotlib too (for plotting).

• If you need MNE-Python’s 3D rendering capabilities (e.g., plotting estimated source activity on a cortical surface) it is a good idea to install MNE-Python into its own virtual environment. To do this with conda:

  $ conda create --name=mne --channel=conda-forge mne
  $ #                   ↑↑↑                       ↑↑↑
  $ #             environment name            package name
  

  This will create a new conda environment called mne. If you need to convert structural MRI scans into models of the scalp, inner/outer skull, and cortical surfaces you also need FreeSurfer.

For users unfamiliar with Python, the Installing MNE-Python page has detailed instructions for different operating systems, and there are instructions for Installing Python if you don’t already have it. The Advanced setup page has additional tips and tricks for special situations (servers, notebooks, CUDA, installing the development version, etc). The Contributing guide has additional installation instructions for (future) contributors to MNE-Python (e.g, extra dependencies for running our tests and building our docs).

MNE-Python Homepage Overview of the MNE tools suite