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The best GPU-accelerated terminal emulators: kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty and Alacritty

By Research Desk Facts checked 4 products · 61 cited quotes

kitty is the best GPU-accelerated terminal emulator for most people on macOS or Linux, at 4.1/5. It is the only one of the four that puts real numbers behind its speed claims: its performance page publishes a throughput table with the test machine and settings, plus a benchmark tool you can run yourself. On top of that come tabs, splits, tiling layouts, inline images and ligatures (letter pairs such as -> drawn as one symbol).

Want one terminal across every desktop you own? WezTerm (3.9/5) runs on Linux, macOS, Windows and two BSDs, and has a tmux-style multiplexer built in. Ghostty (3.8/5) is the pick if you want native tabs and splits that look like the rest of macOS or Linux. Alacritty (3.2/5) is for people who want a fast, bare window and already use tmux or a tiling window manager.

Our picks

  • Best overall kitty 4.1 /5
  • Best for using one terminal everywhere WezTerm 3.9 /5
  • Best native look on macOS and Linux Ghostty 3.8 /5
  • Best minimal terminal Alacritty 3.2 /5

Scores

1–5 per criterion · total is the weighted average · select a score to see its source
GPU-accelerated terminal emulators rubric: scores out of 5 and weighted totals
# Product Published performance evidence ×3 Tabs, splits and sessions ×3 Operating systems ×2 Images, ligatures and links ×2 Total
1 kitty 5425 4.1
2 WezTerm 2554 3.9
3 Ghostty 4425 3.8
4 Alacritty 4252 3.2
How each criterion is scored

Published performance evidence ×3

How much the project backs its speed claims: from no claims, through described techniques, to published benchmark figures. This measures the evidence, not our own speed test.

  1. 5 Publishes measured figures (latency or throughput) together with the test setup.
  2. 4 States benchmark results against other terminals without publishing the figures and test setup.
  3. 3 Describes specific speed techniques (such as threaded rendering or vector CPU instructions for parsing) without benchmark results.
  4. 2 General claims only, such as "fast" or "GPU-accelerated".
  5. 1 The documentation makes no performance claims.

Tabs, splits and sessions ×3

What the terminal can organize by itself, without a separate terminal multiplexer such as tmux.

  1. 5 Windows, tabs and splits plus a built-in multiplexer that keeps sessions on local or remote hosts.
  2. 4 Windows, tabs and splits built in.
  3. 3 Tabs or splits, but not both.
  4. 2 Multiple windows, but no tabs or splits.
  5. 1 One window per process, no tabs or splits.

Operating systems ×2

Which desktop operating systems the project documents support or downloads for: Linux, macOS, Windows and the BSDs.

  1. 5 Linux, macOS, Windows and at least one BSD.
  2. 4 Linux, macOS and Windows.
  3. 3 Three operating systems.
  4. 2 Two operating systems.
  5. 1 One operating system.

Images, ligatures and links ×2

How many of these four the documentation lists: inline images (through any image protocol), font ligatures, clickable links, and automatic theme switching when the system changes between light and dark mode.

  1. 5 All four.
  2. 4 Three of the four.
  3. 3 Two of the four.
  4. 2 One of the four.
  5. 1 None of the four.
01

kitty

Best overall 4.1 /5

kitty’s stated goals are “user perceived latency while typing” and smooth scrolling, and its documentation shows its work. The throughput table was measured “with the same font, font size and window size for all terminals”, on one named Linux machine, and the page sums it up bluntly: “kitty is twice as fast as the next best.” It adds that Typometer measurements on Linux give kitty “far and away the best latency of the terminals tested”. Keep in mind who ran the tests: kitty did, and you can repeat them with its kitten __benchmark__ command.

Day to day, ctrl+shift+t opens a tab, and the windows inside a tab can be arranged in layouts, like a tiling window manager. Images render inline through the Kitty Graphics Protocol, which Ghostty also supports. Fast numbers, and the receipts to match.

  • Publishes throughput figures and the setup behind them
  • Tabs, windows and tiling layouts with splits
  • Its own graphics protocol for inline images, plus ligatures and hyperlinks
  • Can switch color themes when the system changes between light and dark
  • Pre-built binaries only for macOS and Linux
  • The benchmarks are kitty's own measurements

Skip it if: Windows users, since kitty offers binaries only for macOS and Linux.

02

WezTerm

Best for using one terminal everywhere 3.9 /5

WezTerm is the terminal that follows you around. It runs on “Linux, macOS, Windows 10, FreeBSD and NetBSD”, the widest list here, and it can “multiplex terminal panes, tabs and windows on local and remote hosts”, which its documentation compares to tmux or screen. Connect to a remote session and its tabs attach to WezTerm’s own window, with native mouse, clipboard and scrollback. The remote machine needs a compatible WezTerm installed for that.

Speed is the blank spot. WezTerm calls itself GPU-accelerated, but the pages we captured publish no benchmark results. On money, the README is plain: it is “a spare time project”, and sponsorship helps “cover the fees required to maintain the project”. Its latest release on GitHub, 20240203-110809-5046fc22, was published on 3 February 2024; kitty’s and Alacritty’s latest releases are both from 2026. The everywhere terminal, on a slow release clock.

  • Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows 10, FreeBSD and NetBSD
  • Built-in multiplexer for panes, tabs and windows on local and remote hosts
  • Ligatures, hyperlinks and inline images through the iTerm2 image protocol
  • No published benchmark figures or speed techniques
  • Remote sessions need WezTerm installed on the remote machine
  • Sixel image support is marked experimental
  • The latest release on GitHub is from February 2024

Skip it if: Anyone choosing a terminal mainly on measured speed.

03

Ghostty

Best native look on macOS and Linux 3.8 /5

Ghostty wants to feel like it was built for your desktop. Tabs and splits use “native UI components”, and on macOS the Quick Terminal “animates down below the menu bar” when you call it. Under the hood, each terminal gets “a dedicated read thread, write thread, and render thread”, and the parser uses SIMD instructions (which process several pieces of data in one CPU step).

Its speed claim is a comparison rather than a table: Ghostty and Alacritty are “usually within a few percentage points of each other”, and both are “something like 100x faster than Terminal.app and iTerm”. It is a passion project; its creator writes that it is something he works on “in my free time”. Polished, but macOS and Linux only for now.

  • Native windows, tabs and splits on macOS and Linux
  • Multi-threaded design with separate read, write and render threads
  • Kitty graphics protocol, ligatures, hyperlinks and automatic light/dark themes
  • A drop-down Quick Terminal on macOS
  • No Windows version yet; it is only planned
  • No published benchmark table or test setup

Skip it if: Windows users, until the planned Windows version arrives.

04

Alacritty

Best minimal terminal 3.2 /5

Alacritty does one thing and leaves the rest to other tools. The README says you “won’t find things like tabs or splits”, which it leaves to “a window manager or terminal multiplexer”. What you get is speed and keyboard control: press Ctrl Shift Space to drop into vi mode, then move through the scrollback, search, and select and copy text using only the keyboard.

It measures throughput with vtebench and says it “manages to consistently score better than the competition”, though the README shows no figures. One detail from kitty’s own benchmark page is worth knowing: running Alacritty inside tmux roughly halved its throughput in that test. Lean by choice, and still marked beta.

  • Runs on BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows
  • Benchmarks throughput with its own vtebench tool
  • Vi mode for moving through scrollback with the keyboard
  • No tabs or splits, by design
  • No ligatures or inline images listed
  • The project calls its own readiness "beta"

Skip it if: Anyone who wants tabs or splits without adding tmux.

Questions

Which of these terminals run on Windows?

WezTerm and Alacritty. kitty offers pre-built binaries for macOS and Linux only, and Ghostty runs on macOS and Linux with Windows support planned.

Which one is fastest?

We did not benchmark them. kitty publishes the most detailed figures, which show it ahead in its own throughput test. Ghostty says it and Alacritty are usually within a few percentage points of each other. WezTerm publishes no benchmark results.

Can I skip tmux?

With WezTerm, mostly: it has a built-in multiplexer for local and remote sessions. kitty and Ghostty have tabs and splits but no session multiplexer on the pages we captured. Alacritty has neither and expects you to use tmux or your window manager.

Method

Each terminal was scored from 1 to 5 against a published scale on four weighted criteria: published performance evidence (×3), tabs, splits and sessions (×3), operating systems (×2) and images, ligatures and links (×2). The ranking is the weighted average. Every score cites quotes from the project’s own documentation, website or GitHub README, and release dates come from GitHub release data, all captured on 5 November 2026.

We did not install or benchmark the terminals. The performance score rates how well each project backs its own speed claims, not a speed test of ours. How our rankings work