How to Use Magnet Links
Open a magnet link in a BitTorrent client, choose the files you want, fix a link stuck on downloading metadata, and know what other peers can see while you download.
You will end up with a torrent client that opens magnet links, a download you chose file by file, and a fix for a link that sits on metadata. A magnet link is a short line of text that lets you download files through BitTorrent without a separate .torrent file. It starts with magnet:? followed by a long string of characters. That string is a fingerprint of the torrent you want to download, and it is all your torrent client needs to find the content and start pulling it in.
Gordon Mohr of Bitzi wrote the first magnet specification in June 2002. A magnet link identifies a file by its content, not by the server it sits on. As long as someone on the internet has that file and is sharing it, your torrent client can find them and download it.
The Pirate Bay shut down its tracker in November 2009 and, in February 2012, replaced the .torrent file of every torrent shared by more than 10 people with a magnet link. Both formats are in use today, and either one opens in the same client.
We checked the qBittorrent menu names and default settings against the source code of version 5.2.4, and the Transmission menu names against the source code of version 4.1.3, in October 2026.
Read the parts of a magnet link
A magnet link is a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) that identifies a file by its content, not its location. The core of every magnet link is a cryptographic hash, a unique fingerprint of the torrent. The hash is not taken from the file alone. The BitTorrent specification defines it as the SHA-1 hash of the torrent's info section, which holds the suggested file name, the piece size, and a hash of every piece. So everyone sharing the same torrent shares the same hash, but the same file packaged into a second torrent with a different name or piece size gets a different hash and a separate group of people sharing it. The hash is encoded in the xt parameter of the link. For BitTorrent, it looks like xt=urn:btih: followed by either a 40-character hexadecimal string or a 32-character Base32 string. Both formats represent the same 20-byte SHA-1 hash. A magnet link can also include a dn (display name) parameter so your client shows a human-readable filename, and one or more tr (tracker) parameters that point to servers that help your client find other people sharing the file. Only xt is required, and dn and tr are optional. When a link names no tracker, the client finds peers through DHT, which step 2 has you check. A link that starts xt=urn:btmh: instead identifies a torrent in the newer version 2 format, and one link can carry both identifiers.
Install a torrent client
You need a BitTorrent client to use magnet links. We recommend qBittorrent. It is open source, runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and its own feature list says "No Ads." Download it only from the official qBittorrent site, not from a download portal, and install it like any other application. Transmission is the one to pick for a lighter program on macOS, Windows, or Linux. Its developers say it has one of the lowest memory footprints of any major BitTorrent client and that it bundles no toolbars or ads. Deluge is a third open-source client, and step 3 gives its paste route too. Avoid torrent clients that bundle adware, cryptocurrency miners, or other unwanted software. If the installer tries to add toolbars, change your homepage, or install additional programs, cancel and pick a different client. The qBittorrent installer for Windows registers the program as one that can open magnet links, and its "Add Windows Firewall rule" option is checked by default. Leave it checked. If another program opens magnet links on Windows anyway, the Behavior page of qBittorrent's options tells you to change the default in Default Programs in Control Panel. On a Mac, open the same Behavior page and check "Use qBittorrent for magnet links" under File association. That setting is what lets a click on a magnet link in your browser open the client.
Good to know: After installing, open Tools, then Options, then BitTorrent, and confirm that "Enable DHT (decentralized network) to find more peers" and "Enable Peer Exchange (PeX) to find more peers" are checked. qBittorrent turns both on by default. DHT lets your client find peers without a tracker server, and it is the only way to find them when a magnet link names no tracker. PeX lets peers share their lists of other peers with each other.
Open a magnet link
Before you open a link, know what BitTorrent does with it. Your client uploads pieces of the content to other peers while it downloads, and every peer you connect to can see your IP address. Open only links to content you are allowed to share (FAQ 2 below), and read step 7 first if your IP address matters to you. There are two ways to open a magnet link. The first is clicking it. Your browser recognizes the magnet: protocol and asks which application to use. Select your torrent client. If the prompt offers to remember the choice, accept it, and the browser stops asking. The second is copying and pasting, which works when the browser does not hand the link over and lets you read the link before opening it. Right-click the magnet link and copy the link address. In qBittorrent, open File and choose Add Torrent Link, or press Ctrl+Shift+O on Windows. Paste the link and click Download. In Transmission, the menu command is Open Torrent Address on a Mac and Open URL on Windows. In Deluge, start adding a torrent, click URL in the Add Torrents window, and paste the link. Either way, the torrent appears in your client and starts fetching its metadata.
Wait for metadata and choose your files
A magnet link carries no file list, so your client first has to fetch the torrent's metadata from other peers. That exchange is a published BitTorrent extension, BEP 9, which lets peers send each other the metadata that a .torrent file would have contained. While it runs, qBittorrent shows "Retrieving metadata..." in the add window and "Downloading metadata" in the torrent list. How long it takes depends on how many peers are sharing the torrent. If the status does not change, use the check in the warning below. Once the metadata arrives, your client shows the full file list. If the torrent contains more than one file, uncheck the ones you do not want. After you confirm, the download begins. Your client connects to several peers at once, downloads different pieces from each one, checks every piece against the hashes in the metadata, and assembles the pieces in the correct order.
Heads up: If the status stays on "Downloading metadata," check the seed and peer counts for the torrent. If both show zero, nobody is sharing it and the download cannot proceed. Remove it and look for the same content from another source. If peers are listed and nothing arrives, run the checks in FAQ 3 below.
Check that other peers can reach you
Your torrent client listens on a port for incoming connections from other peers. If your router or firewall blocks that port, you can still download, but only from peers your client contacts itself, not from peers that start the connection themselves. That shrinks the pool you can pull from, and how much it costs you depends on the swarm. qBittorrent sets this up on its own. It picks a random listening port the first time it runs, and "Use UPnP / NAT-PMP port forwarding from my router" is on by default under Options, Connection, which asks your router to open that port. Check the result while a torrent with peers is running. Hover over the connection icon in the status bar at the bottom of the window. "Online" means a peer has connected to you from outside, and there is nothing to fix. If it shows the "No direct connections" message instead, work through two fixes. First, check the firewall. On Windows, open the Windows Security app, select Firewall & network protection, then Allow an app through firewall, and confirm qBittorrent is checked. On a Mac with the firewall turned on, choose Apple menu, System Settings, click Network, then Firewall, then Options, and set qBittorrent to allow incoming connections. Second, check the router. UPnP works only if it is switched on in the router itself. Turn it on in the router's admin page, or forward the port by hand. Note the number under "Port used for incoming connections" in Options, Connection, log in to the router (its address is on the router's label or in its manual), and forward that port, both TCP and UDP, to your computer's local IP address.
Find magnet links from legitimate sources
A magnet link is only a delivery mechanism. Whether using one is legal and safe depends on the content it points to (FAQ 2 below), so start with publishers that distribute their own work this way. Linux distributions do. Ubuntu and Debian offer .torrent files for their install images, and Arch Linux puts a magnet link right on its download page. Either kind opens in the same client. The Internet Archive has offered BitTorrent downloads since August 2012, when it announced over a million torrents, among them live music concerts, feature films, audiobooks, old time radio, and books. Academic Torrents is a platform built by researchers for sharing massive datasets and academic papers. Some open-source projects distribute releases via torrent too, LibreOffice among them. FOSS Torrents tracks new releases of free and open-source projects and creates and seeds a torrent for each one. For a link from any other source, check that the torrent has seeds, read the comments if the site has them, and compare the file size with what the content should be. Skip a file that is far smaller or larger than it should be.
Good to know: When the download finishes, leave your torrent client open so it keeps seeding. Arch Linux and Debian both ask for this on their download pages. FAQ 6 below explains seeding and the share ratio to aim for.
Stay safe when using magnet links
The magnet link itself is harmless. It is a text string containing a hash. The risk comes from what you download and where you get it. Always scan downloaded files with updated antivirus software before opening them, especially executable files like .exe, .msi, .dmg, or .sh. The piece check from step 4 proves you received the torrent the link named. It does not prove the content is safe. Leave protocol encryption at its default. In qBittorrent that is "Allow encryption" under Options, BitTorrent, and switching to "Require encryption" only cuts you off from peers that do not use it. Do not treat it as protection. BitTorrent's protocol encryption is obfuscation, designed to make the traffic hard to identify, and a 2010 Chalmers University of Technology report showed that it can be identified anyway from statistically measurable properties of the connections. If privacy is a concern, use a VPN. A VPN encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP address from other peers in the swarm. This is a privacy measure, not a security measure. Finally, do not download files that claim to be paid software or paid content given away for free. Microsoft's security documentation warns that pirated software is sometimes bundled with malware and other unwanted software, and FAQ 2 below covers the legal side.
If clicking a magnet link opens nothing, or opens the wrong program, paste the link into the client instead (step 3), then fix the association from step 2. If the torrent sits on "Downloading metadata," run the checks in FAQ 3 below. If a download crawls, look at the seed count first, then check the connection icon from step 5. When the download is done, scan it before you open it (step 7) and leave the client seeding (FAQ 6 below). For audio from YouTube, our guide on how to convert YouTube to MP3 legally covers the licensed routes.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
A .torrent file is a small binary file that contains the full metadata for a download, including the file list, piece sizes, piece hashes, and tracker URLs. Your client reads it and immediately knows what to download. A magnet link is a text string that contains only the content hash and optionally a display name and tracker URLs. Your client has to discover the rest of the metadata from other peers before the download can begin. The end result is the same. The only practical difference is the metadata step at the start of a magnet download, which lasts until your client reaches a peer that has the metadata (step 4).
A magnet link is only an identifier, so what matters legally is the content it points to. Keep in mind how BitTorrent works, though. Your client uploads pieces to other people while it downloads, so fetching copyrighted material this way also means distributing it. Downloading Linux distributions, public domain content from the Internet Archive, academic datasets, and open-source software is legal. Downloading copyrighted content without permission is not. The technology is neutral. The copying is what the law cares about. This is general information, not legal advice, and copyright law differs by country.
Your client has to reach at least one peer that has the full metadata before anything else can happen. Check three things in order. First, look at the seed and peer counts. If both are zero, nobody is sharing the torrent and no setting will fix it. Second, confirm that DHT is on (step 2). A magnet link that names no tracker can find peers only through DHT. The status bar at the bottom of qBittorrent shows "DHT:" followed by the number of nodes it has reached, and the label disappears when DHT is switched off. Third, check the connection icon and your firewall (step 5).
No. The hash in the link is permanent and always identifies the same torrent. A link stops working only when nobody is sharing that torrent. When every seed and peer goes offline, the link still opens in your client, but there is nobody to download from, and it works again as soon as someone with the complete torrent comes back online. A torrent with one or two seeders becomes unavailable whenever those people close their clients.
Yes. In qBittorrent, right-click a torrent in your list, open Copy, and select Magnet link. Send that text to anyone, and their client downloads the content from you and from everyone else who is seeding. To share a file of your own, open Tools, choose Torrent Creator, build a torrent from the file, keep it seeding, and copy its magnet link the same way.
Seeding means keeping your torrent client open after a download finishes so that other people can download pieces of the file from you. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer system, which means there is no central server hosting the file. Every downloader also becomes an uploader. A torrent stays downloadable only while people who hold the complete content keep sharing it. Seed until the Ratio column in qBittorrent reads at least 1.0, which means you have uploaded as much data as you downloaded.