Download Android SDK Command Line Tools (Updated for Android 17)

The Android SDK / Android Studio Command Line tools are a collection of core utilities provided by Google, and you can download them here for the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. These utilities are used to manage SDK components, create emulators, accept licenses and build a clean Android development environment from the terminal. Developers prefer using the command-line tools when they do not want to install and configure Android Studio and only need a couple of packages for some quick tasks.

The new Android Command Line tools replaces the previously know SDK Tools package with better features. If you want a lightweight Android development setup without installing the full Android Studio IDE, these are the files you need. This package is released concurrently with new Android Studio versions and is installed in the android_sdk/cmdline-tools/version/bin/ directory.

List of Command Line Tools

The Android SDK is composed of multiple packages that are required for app development. You can install and update each package using Android Studio’s SDK Manager or the sdkmanager command-line tool. All these tools have been updated for the latest Android 17 APIs.

We have listed below all these packages that you can download in the command-line format.

Android SDK Command-Line Tools:

The basic list of Android command line tools include the following:

apkanalyzer: Provides insight into the composition of your APK after the build process completes.

avdmanager: Lets you create and manage Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) from the command line.

lint: Scans code to help you identify and correct problems with the structural quality of your code.

retrace: For applications compiled by R8, retrace decodes an obfuscated stack trace that maps back to your original source code.

sdkmanager: Lets you view, install, update, and uninstall packages for the Android SDK

These tools are located in: android_sdk/cmdline-tools/version/bin/

Android SDK Build Tools

This package is required to build Android apps. Most of the tools in this package are invoked by the build tools and not intended for you. However, the following command-line tools might be useful:

AAPT2: Parses, indexes, and compiles Android resources into a binary format that is optimized for the Android platform and packages the compiled resources into a single output.

apksigner: Signs APKs and checks whether APK signatures will be verified successfully on all platform versions that a given APK supports.

zipalign: Optimizes APK files by ensuring that all uncompressed data starts with a particular alignment relative to the start of the file.

These tools are located in: android_sdk/build-tools/version/

Note: You can have multiple versions of the build tools to build your app for different Android versions. So in case you are working on an app that targets Android 13, you can download the build tools for that API release.

Android SDK Platform Tools

The Android SDK Platform Tools are updated for every new version of the Android platform to support new features and fix or improve the tools, and each update is backward compatible with earlier platform versions.

adb: Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile tool that lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device. You can also use it to install an APK on a device. (Read: ADB Commands List)

etc1tool: A command-line utility that lets you encode PNG images to the ETC1 compression standard and decode ETC1 compressed images back to PNG.

fastboot: Flashes a device with platform and other system images. (Read: Fastboot Commands List)

logcat: Invoked by adb to view app and system logs.

These tools are located in: android_sdk/platform-tools/

One important thing to remember is that this package does not include ADB and Fastboot by default. Those are part of the Platform Tools package and can be installed separately with sdkmanager or downloaded directly from our Platform Tools guide.

Android Emulator

This package is required to use the Android Emulator. It includes the following:

emulator: A QEMU-based device-emulation tool that you can use to debug and test your applications in an actual Android run-time environment.

mksdcard: Helps you create a disk image that you can use with the emulator to simulate the presence of an external storage card, such as an SD card.

These tools were located in: android_sdk/emulator/

Note: The latest version of Android Emulator (36.4.10) is not located as part of the SDK Command Line tools. Google stopped distributing the command-line packages of the Android Emulator at revision 25.3.0. So to download the latest version, you will need to install Android Studio.

Download Android SDK Command-Line Tools

Here are the direct links to download the latest available Android SDK Command-Line tools package for all major desktop platforms of your choice. The current package build is 14742923.

Platform	Download
Windows	commandlinetools-win-14742923_latest.zip
macOS	commandlinetools-mac-14742923_latest.zip
Linux	commandlinetools-linux-14742923_latest.zip

If you want the complete IDE with emulator, layout editor, debugger and project management tools, see our guide to Android Studio Panda 2 (2025.3.2).

Who Should Download This?

For Android developers, a full installation of Android Studio is still a better choice as you’d be working with several packages in the Android SDK. However, when you only want to use a single tool or work in batches for quick tasks, these Android SDK Command Line tools are much faster, smaller in size and will get the job done without having to fuss around with configurations.

This package is particularly useful if you:

• Set up Android SDK tools without Android Studio:
  If you only need essential SDK components like build tools or platform tools packages, the command line tools allow you to install and manage them without downloading the full Android Studio IDE.
• Work on remote servers, VMs, or lightweight dev machines:
  Many developers build Android apps on remote environments, cloud servers, or minimal development systems where installing a full graphical IDE is unnecessary or impractical.
• Need sdkmanager to install SDK components:
  The command line tools include sdkmanager, which allows you to download and update Android build tools, platform tools, emulator packages, and other SDK components directly from the terminal.
• Use automation, CI pipelines, or build servers:
  Modern Android projects often use automated build systems such as CI/CD pipelines. The command line tools integrate perfectly into scripts and automated workflows, so building apps will be much faster.
• Prefer a command-line workflow:
  Some developers simply prefer working from the terminal (or any CLI) for speed, flexibility, and better control over their development environment.

How to Install Android SDK Command Line Tools

The basic installation process is the same on Windows, macOS and Linux. The main difference is where you store the SDK folder and how you add it to your system path / terminal.

1. Create an Android SDK folder

First, create a folder where you want to keep your Android SDK files.

Examples:

• Windows: C:\Android\sdk
• macOS: ~/Library/Android/sdk
• Linux: ~/Android/Sdk

You can use another location if you want, but it is best to keep everything inside one dedicated SDK folder.

2. Extract the ZIP file

Download the correct ZIP package for your platform and extract it. After extraction, you will get a folder named cmdline-tools.

Move that folder inside your SDK directory so the final structure looks like this:

android-sdk/
└── cmdline-tools/
    └── latest/
        ├── bin/
        ├── lib/
        ├── NOTICE.txt
        └── source.properties

If the extracted folder is not already named latest, rename it to latest. This part is important because many tools expect the modern cmdline-tools/latest structure.

3. Add the tools to your PATH

You should add these folders to your PATH so you can run the tools from any terminal window:

• cmdline-tools/latest/bin
• platform-tools (after you install it)

Windows

Add the following paths to the system Path variable:

C:\Android\sdk\cmdline-tools\latest\bin
C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools

You can also set:

ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=C:\Android\sdk

macOS / Linux

Add these lines to your shell profile such as .zshrc or .bashrc:

export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="$HOME/Android/Sdk"
export PATH="$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/platform-tools:$PATH"

Then reload your shell:

source ~/.zshrc

or:

source ~/.bashrc

If you run into any issues, here is an informative video that explains all the steps of installation:

How to Use sdkmanager

Once the command-line tools are installed, open Terminal or Command Prompt and run:

sdkmanager --list

This command shows all available SDK packages that you can install.

To install the most commonly needed components, run:

sdkmanager "platform-tools" "cmdline-tools;latest"

If you want to add Android platforms, build tools or emulator packages, you can install them like this:

sdkmanager "platform-tools" "emulator" "build-tools;YOUR_VERSION" "platforms;android-YOUR_API_LEVEL"

After installation, accept all required licenses with:

sdkmanager --licenses

This step is important. Without accepting licenses, many Android build tools will fail later.

Recommended Packages to Install After Setup

After installing the command-line tools, most users usually add these components next:

• platform-tools for ADB and Fastboot
• build-tools for APK and app build tasks
• platforms;android-XX for the Android API level you are targeting
• emulator if you want to run Android virtual devices
• system images if you want to create and boot AVDs

Create an Emulator from the Command Line

If you want to use emulators without opening Android Studio, you can do that too.

First install the required packages:

sdkmanager "emulator" "platform-tools" "system-images;android-XX;google_apis;x86_64"

Then create a virtual device:

avdmanager create avd -n Pixel_Test -k "system-images;android-XX;google_apis;x86_64"

You can then launch the emulator from terminal using the emulator binary once it is installed.

Common Problems and Fixes

sdkmanager is not recognized

This usually means your PATH is not set correctly. Make sure cmdline-tools/latest/bin is added to your environment path and restart the terminal.

ADB is missing

ADB is not included in the Command Line Tools package. Install Platform Tools with:

sdkmanager "platform-tools"

Or download them directly from our Android SDK Platform Tools guide.

Wrong folder structure after extraction

A lot of users extract the ZIP and leave it as:

android-sdk/cmdline-tools/

That is not enough for the newer layout. It should be:

android-sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/

Make sure the bin folder sits inside latest.

License errors during builds

Run:

sdkmanager --licenses

and accept all prompts.

Should You Use Command Line Tools or Android Studio?

If you only want SDK management, ADB/Fastboot setup, build automation or a lean development environment, Android SDK Command Line Tools are the better choice.

If you need a full editor, profiler, emulator manager, visual layout tools and Gradle project integration in one place, then Android Studio is still the better download.

A lot of advanced users actually install both. They use Android Studio for project work, and still rely on command-line tools for scripting, debugging and manual package management.

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Conclusion

Android SDK Command Line Tools remain one of the most useful downloads for Android developers and advanced users. They give you a smaller and more flexible setup, while still letting you install the exact SDK components you need for your workflow. If you think this information is not enough and you need additional help, there is always the official Android documentation.

If you run into issues during setup, also check our guides on how to set up ADB and Fastboot with Android SDK on Windows and how to install ADB and Fastboot on macOS.