Source

Lua is free software distributed in source code. It may be used for any purpose, including commercial purposes, at absolutely no cost.

All versions are available for download. The current version is Lua 5.5 and its current release is Lua 5.5.1.

lua-5.5.1.tar.gz 2026-07-24, 390K, sha256: 1c4b4068d67061f2a2231ad2b5422e77acea1487ea9890f6320af614f4373dce

Tools

The main repository of Lua modules is LuaRocks. See also Awesome Lua. Pre-compiled Lua libraries and executables are available at LuaBinaries. The lua-users wiki lists many user-contributed addons for Lua.

Building

Lua is implemented in pure ISO C and compiles unmodified on all platforms that have an ISO C compiler. Lua also compiles cleanly as C++.

Lua is very easy to build and install. There are detailed instructions in the package but here is a simple terminal session that downloads the current release of Lua and builds it on common platforms:

curl -L -R -O https://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.5.1.tar.gz
tar zxf lua-5.5.1.tar.gz
cd lua-5.5.1
make all test

If you have trouble building Lua, read the FAQ.

If you don't have the time or the inclination to compile Lua yourself, get a binary or try a live demo.

Giving credit

If you use Lua, please give us credit, according to our license. A nice way to give us further credit is to include a Lua logo and a link to our site in a web page for your product.

Supporting Lua

You can help to support the Lua project by buying a book published by Lua.org and by making a donation.

You can also help to spread the word about Lua by buying Lua products at Zazzle.