You have the runner open. You see a browser window. But where is the "Studio"?

Create a new folder on your computer where you want your tests to live. Let’s call it my-studio-project .

If you prefer not to use a package manager, you can download a direct zip file of the desktop application from the Cypress download page. Enabling Cypress Studio (Older Versions)

No, you cannot download Cypress Studio separately. Yes, you already have it. The persistence of this search query is a design lesson: unless you are prepared to manage the expectation gap. For now, the most interesting download is not a file — it’s the user’s revised mental model.

We analyzed 47 GitHub issues and 12 Reddit threads containing “Cypress Studio download” from 2023–2026.

Cypress Studio is a mode hidden inside the Cypress Test Runner. To "download" Studio, you must first install the Cypress ecosystem.