What is aria2 used for?

aria2 is a lightweight command-line download utility that supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink with multi-source downloads. It is a good fit for accelerating large file downloads and driving downloads from scripts or web front ends.

Is aria2 open source?

Yes. aria2 is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at aria2/aria2 and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. aria2 is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What are some alternatives to aria2?

Similar open-source tools in the Productivity category include Taskwarrior, AriaNg and Persepolis. SaaS products in the same category include Fade In, Freedom and Habitify.

Is aria2 actively maintained?

The most recent commit to aria2 was on 25 June 2026. The project has 43k stars on GitHub.

aria2: open-source productivity

About aria2

aria2 is a lightweight, cross-platform command-line download utility that works with several protocols and several sources at once. It supports HTTP and HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink, and can fetch a single file from multiple locations to use as much bandwidth as is available.

Its BitTorrent client supports DHT, PEX, encryption and magnet URIs, plus selective downloads, web seeding, local peer discovery and UDP trackers. It also understands Metalink v4, Metalink version 3 and Metalink/HTTP, which add file verification and integration between protocols. The process can be driven remotely through built-in XML-RPC and JSON-RPC interfaces, the latter available over HTTP and WebSocket, so other programs and web front ends can drive it.

aria2 is written in C++ and licensed under GPL-2.0. The website offers source distributions and binaries for macOS, Windows and Android, and the project says it keeps memory and CPU use low, which suits small devices and servers.

Key features

Multi-source, multi-connection downloads
HTTP/HTTPS, FTP and SFTP support
Full-featured BitTorrent client
Metalink support
JSON-RPC and XML-RPC remote control
Low memory and CPU usage

Good fit for

→Accelerating large file downloads
→Driving downloads from scripts or web front ends

Built with: C++
Tags: download-manager; bittorrent; metalink; command-line; http; ftp; cross-platform; cpp

aria2: questions and answers

What is aria2 used for?: aria2 is a lightweight command-line download utility that supports HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent and Metalink with multi-source downloads. It is a good fit for accelerating large file downloads and driving downloads from scripts or web front ends.
Is aria2 open source?: Yes. aria2 is open source under the GPL-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at aria2/aria2 and is written mainly in C++.
Is aria2 free?: Yes. aria2 is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to aria2?: Similar open-source tools in the Productivity category include Taskwarrior, AriaNg and Persepolis. SaaS products in the same category include Fade In, Freedom and Habitify.
Is aria2 actively maintained?: The most recent commit to aria2 was on 25 June 2026. The project has 43k stars on GitHub.