OBS Studio 33.0.1 Final

OBS Studio is free, open-source software for live streaming and screen recording on Windows.

It mixes your game, screen, webcam, microphone and browser overlays into one picture, then streams it to Twitch or YouTube, records it, or both.

Version 33.0.1 arrived on 29 October 2026, with no watermarks, time limits or paid upgrades.

What OBS Studio Actually Does

You build scenes from sources: a game capture, a webcam, a window, an image or a web page. Switch between scenes with one click or a hotkey, for example from "Starting soon" to "Gameplay" to "Be right back".

• Stream to Twitch, YouTube, Kick or any custom RTMP server.
• Record to MP4, MKV or MOV, with each audio source on its own track for editing later.
• Clean up sound with a per-source mixer, noise suppression, a noise gate and VST plugins.
• Use it as a webcam - the Virtual Camera sends your scene to Zoom, Teams or Discord.

What Is New in 33.0

OBS 33 updates the browser engine behind browser sources and docks to a September 2026 build, a big jump from the 2024 one it replaced. Plugins now load from a new folder layout, and older third-party plugins keep working from their old place until OBS 34.

Sources snap more sensibly in the preview, number boxes behave properly, and audio monitoring got its own hotkeys. Game Capture detects full-screen games better, and NVENC now works on Windows on ARM.

The 33.0.1 hotfix fixes crashes when signing in to Twitch, YouTube and other service integrations, plus a memory leak in the image slideshow source.

Which Download to Pick

The download page has the 64-bit installer, a portable zip and a native build for Windows on ARM. OBS 33 needs 64-bit Windows 10 or 11.

Version 31.0.4 is also there for older setups, and the Linux .deb for Ubuntu 26.04. On a Mac, use OBS Studio for Mac.

Getting Smooth Streams

Let your graphics card do the encoding. NVIDIA NVENC, AMD AMF and Intel Quick Sync take the load off the processor, so games keep their frame rate while you stream.

Keep the driver current: NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon, and the Intel Graphics driver on Intel chips.

On first launch, the Auto-Configuration Wizard tests your PC and connection and picks sensible settings.

No suitable graphics card? OBS falls back to the x264 encoder on the processor, which looks great but needs a strong CPU.

After You Record

Record to MKV: if OBS or Windows crashes, the file survives. Turn on automatic remux in Settings, Advanced, and OBS converts it to MP4 for editing when you stop.

LosslessCut trims recordings in seconds without re-encoding. For real editing, Shotcut is free and simple, and DaVinci Resolve handles bigger projects.

To shrink a long recording, HandBrake re-encodes it, and MKVToolNix splits or joins MKV files and their audio tracks.

Playing Your Recordings

VLC Media Player plays every format OBS records, including HEVC and AV1. For Windows Media Player and other apps, the K-Lite Codec Pack adds the decoders they need.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

For a quick screen grab or a short clip, OBS is more than you need. ShareX records a region in two clicks, and ScreenToGif makes small animated GIFs.

If you want a simple paid recorder with a game mode, Bandicam is the familiar choice.

Quick questions

More recorders, editors and encoders are in our Multimedia Tools section.

Download OBS Studio 33.0.1 and set up your first scene, or tell us what you stream.