How to install Odoo 20

Odoo 20 is the 2026 major release of the open-source ERP. Its headline is AI: Odoo moves from AI that drafts text to agentic AI that can take actions across apps — alongside a redesigned mobile experience and refinements across accounting, inventory, CRM, sales and payroll. Under the hood the baseline is now Python 3.12, with PostgreSQL as the database. The install process is close to Odoo 19, so if you have done this before, most of it will feel familiar.

• Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Debian for servers; Windows or macOS for local testing
• Python 3.12 or later (the minimum for Odoo 20)
• PostgreSQL 14 or newer as the database
• At least 2 GB RAM to evaluate; 4 GB RAM and 2 vCPUs for a small production instance
• Root or sudo access, and outbound internet to fetch packages

Go to odoo.com/trial, pick your first app, and Odoo provisions a hosted Odoo 20 database for you in seconds. This is ideal for evaluating the software or for teams that do not want to run a server. The free plan covers a single app; add more apps or use custom code and you move to a paid plan or to self-hosting with one of the methods below.

With Docker installed, start a database container, then start Odoo 20 linked to it:

docker run -d \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=odoo \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=odoo \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=postgres \
  --name db postgres:16

docker run -p 8069:8069 --name odoo --link db:db -t odoo:20.0

Open http://localhost:8069 and you are in. For a setup you can bring up and tear down with one command, use Docker Compose instead:

services:
  web:
    image: odoo:20.0
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8069:8069"
    volumes:
      - odoo-web-data:/var/lib/odoo
    environment:
      - HOST=db
      - USER=odoo
      - PASSWORD=odoo
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=postgres
      - POSTGRES_USER=odoo
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=odoo
    volumes:
      - odoo-db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  odoo-web-data:
  odoo-db-data:

docker compose up -d

This installs Odoo 20 as a system service and pulls in PostgreSQL and wkhtmltopdf as dependencies. First add Odoo's signed nightly repository for the 20.0 series:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Add Odoo's signed nightly repository for the 20.0 series
wget -q -O - https://nightly.odoo.com/odoo.key \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/odoo-archive-keyring.gpg

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/odoo-archive-keyring.gpg] https://nightly.odoo.com/20.0/nightly/deb/ ./' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/odoo.list

Then install and check the service:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y odoo

# Odoo starts automatically and is enabled on boot
sudo systemctl status odoo

Browse to http://your-server-ip:8069 to create your first database. The config file lives at /etc/odoo/odoo.conf and logs at /var/log/odoo/.

1. 1

   Update the server and install build dependencies

   Refresh the package index, then install Git, Python 3.12, PostgreSQL client libraries and the image/XML libraries Odoo compiles against.

2. 2

   Install and prepare PostgreSQL

   Install the database server and create an 'odoo20' role that owns the Odoo databases.

3. 3

   Install wkhtmltopdf

   Odoo needs the patched wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6.1 build to render PDF quotations, invoices and reports correctly.

4. 4

   Create a system user and clone Odoo 20

   Add a dedicated 'odoo20' user and clone the 20.0 branch from GitHub into /opt/odoo20/odoo.

5. 5

   Create a virtual environment and install requirements

   Build an isolated Python environment and install the exact dependencies pinned in Odoo 20's requirements.txt.

6. 6

   Write the configuration file

   Create /etc/odoo20.conf with the admin master password, the database user, and the addons path, then lock its permissions.

7. 7

   Run Odoo as a systemd service

   Register a systemd unit so Odoo 20 starts on boot, restarts on failure, and is managed with systemctl. Then open http://your-server-ip:8069.

Step 1 — Update and install dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt install -y git python3 python3-pip python3-dev python3-venv \
  build-essential wget \
  libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev libpq-dev \
  libtiff5-dev libjpeg8-dev libopenjp2-7-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev \
  liblcms2-dev libwebp-dev libharfbuzz-dev libfribidi-dev libxcb1-dev \
  node-less npm

Step 2 — Install PostgreSQL and create the user

sudo apt install -y postgresql
sudo -u postgres createuser -s odoo20

Step 3 — Install wkhtmltopdf

sudo wget https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/packaging/releases/download/0.12.6.1-3/wkhtmltox_0.12.6.1-3.jammy_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -y ./wkhtmltox_0.12.6.1-3.jammy_amd64.deb

Step 4 — Create the user and clone Odoo 20

# Create a dedicated system user and clone the 20.0 branch
sudo useradd -m -d /opt/odoo20 -U -r -s /bin/bash odoo20
sudo su - odoo20 -s /bin/bash
git clone https://github.com/odoo/odoo.git --depth 1 --branch 20.0 --single-branch /opt/odoo20/odoo

Step 5 — Virtual environment and Python packages

cd /opt/odoo20
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip wheel
pip install -r odoo/requirements.txt
deactivate
exit

Step 6 — Configuration file

Create /etc/odoo20.conf with the following contents, then lock down its permissions:

[options]
admin_passwd = CHANGE_ME_to_a_strong_master_password
db_host = False
db_port = False
db_user = odoo20
db_password = False
addons_path = /opt/odoo20/odoo/addons
logfile = /var/log/odoo20/odoo20.log
xmlrpc_port = 8069

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/odoo20
sudo chown odoo20:odoo20 /var/log/odoo20
sudo chmod 640 /etc/odoo20.conf
sudo chown odoo20:odoo20 /etc/odoo20.conf

Step 7 — Run Odoo 20 as a service

Create /etc/systemd/system/odoo20.service:

[Unit]
Description=Odoo 20
Requires=postgresql.service
After=network.target postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=odoo20
Group=odoo20
ExecStart=/opt/odoo20/venv/bin/python3 /opt/odoo20/odoo/odoo-bin -c /etc/odoo20.conf
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now odoo20
sudo systemctl status odoo20

Odoo 20 is now running. Open http://your-server-ip:8069 to create your first database.

1. 1

   Download the Windows installer

   Get the Odoo 20 .exe from odoo.com/download, or from nightly.odoo.com/20.0/nightly/exe/ for the latest 20.0 build.

2. 2

   Run the installer

   Double-click the .exe and follow the wizard. Choose the 'Odoo Server' components; the installer sets up PostgreSQL and the Python runtime automatically.

3. 3

   Finish and open Odoo

   When it completes, Odoo runs as a Windows service. Open http://localhost:8069 to create your first database.

# Install the toolchain (Python 3.12 is the minimum for Odoo 20)
brew install python@3.12 postgresql@16 node
brew install libxml2 libxslt libjpeg openssl@3 libffi

# Start PostgreSQL and create a superuser role for Odoo
brew services start postgresql@16
createuser -s $(whoami)

Then clone Odoo 20, create a virtual environment, install the requirements, and launch it:

git clone https://github.com/odoo/odoo.git --depth 1 --branch 20.0 --single-branch odoo20
cd odoo20
python3.12 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip wheel
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Launch Odoo — then open http://localhost:8069
./odoo-bin --addons-path=addons -d odoo20

Open http://localhost:8069 to finish setup in the browser.

• Create your database: set the master password, database name, email and a strong admin password. Leave 'demo data' off for anything you will keep.
• Change the admin_passwd (master password) in the config from its default before exposing the server.
• Put Odoo behind a reverse proxy (Nginx) with HTTPS, and set proxy_mode = True in the config.
• For production, set the number of workers based on CPU cores rather than running single-process.
• Take regular database and filestore backups.

Prefer to initialise the database from the command line (useful for automation or headless servers)? On a source install you can create and load the base module in one shot:

# Optional: create and initialise the database from the CLI instead of the browser
sudo su - odoo20 -s /bin/bash
/opt/odoo20/venv/bin/python3 /opt/odoo20/odoo/odoo-bin \
  -c /etc/odoo20.conf -d odoo20 -i base --stop-after-init
exit
sudo systemctl restart odoo20

# See what is holding port 8069, or change Odoo's port in odoo20.conf
sudo ss -lptn 'sport = :8069'

# Follow the live log to see the real error behind a 500 or a failed boot
sudo journalctl -u odoo20 -f
# (source install) or:
sudo tail -f /var/log/odoo20/odoo20.log