How to Install Esptool on Windows 10

This article on how to install Esptool on Windows 10 was written because I remembered that I had been for a time wondering how to do it. If you’re a Windows user, you’re probably used to graphical interfaces. You’re also used to easy installs – download an installer file, run or open the file, follow the installation instructions, and it’s done.

Installing Esptool is a two-part process. First you download and install Python. Then, you run a Python command to install Esptool.

pip install esptool

Esptool runs on the scripting and programming language Python. Therefore, we need to install Python first before we install Esptool.

How to Install Python

On Windows 10, you may simply type “python” on the Windows search box beside the Windows Start button and download Python from the Windows App Store. An issue with this procedure is that you may get an older version of Esptool from the App Store.

Picture of Python download page from Windows App Store, the first step in installing Esptool on Windows 10

If you want to get the latest version of Python, downloading the installer from the Esptool download page is the way to go.

Screenshot of download page of Python where a newer version is available for download

Run the downloaded Esptool installation file. As of this writing, the installation file for the latest version is python-3.8.1.

You may want to put a check mark on the Add Python 3.8 to PATH before clicking on the Install Now button. This will make it easier to start the Python and the Esptool program. Without the check mark, before you can run Python or Esptool, you would need to find the directory where you installed Python. You then would have to change your current directory to the Python’s folder.

Image of the Python 3.8.1 installer showing annotation for the Add Python 3.8 to PATH

How to Install Esptool

After successfully installing Python, open a command prompt window.

Type cmd on the Windows search box and click on the Command Prompt app. Then type the command pip install esptool.

pip install esptool

Screenshot of the Windows command prompt showing the command used for installing Esptool on Windows 10

A successful Esptool installation will look like the screenshot below.

A screen grab of the output on command prompt after running the esptool installer and showing the successful installation of Esptool on Windows 10

Testing the Esptool Installation

A quick test of the Esptool installation can be done by issuing the command esptool.py version.

esptool.py version

A screenshot of the command prompt for testing if the Esptool was indeed successfully installed on Windows 10

Congratulations! You now have Esptool installed and ready for use on your ESP8266 or ESP32 development board.

Examples of Possible Uses

esptool.py chip_id

esptool.py flash_id

esptool.py read_flash 0 0x400000 firmware_backup.bin

References on How to Install Esptool on Windows 10

Esptool Wiki on Github
Python on Wikipedia
Python Website