Guitar Pro isn't free — but you don't always need to pay. A clear breakdown of what costs money, what's free, and how to open and play .gp files in your browser without buying the desktop app.
TL;DR — Guitar Pro 8 is a paid desktop app, not free. The official mobile app only opens files from Arobas’ own catalogue. To open and play a .gp, .gp5 or .gpx file someone has sent you, use a free browser player — open one in the myguitartutor Guitar Pro Player without installing anything. To export to PDF, use the free Guitar Pro to PDF converter.
If you’ve searched “is Guitar Pro free”, you’re probably in one of three situations:
- A teacher or friend sent you a .gp5 file and you have no idea how to open it.
- You want to write your own tabs and you’re wondering whether the cost is justified.
- You used to have Guitar Pro 5 or 6, your licence is gone, and you want to know if the modern version is any cheaper.
Different situations, different answers. Let’s go through them honestly.
The short version
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Guitar Pro 8 (desktop, Windows + macOS) | Paid — around £70 / $70 one-off, 7-day free trial |
| mySongBook Tab Player (mobile) | Free, but only plays Arobas’ own paid catalogue (not your own .gp files) |
| TuxGuitar (desktop, all platforms) | Free, open source, more limited than Guitar Pro 8 |
| Browser-based players like our Guitar Pro Player | Free, no install, no upload — opens your .gp / .gp5 / .gpx files |
| Cracked / pirated Guitar Pro | Don’t — common malware vector, and you don’t need it anyway |
Why Guitar Pro itself isn’t free
Guitar Pro is made by Arobas Music in France. It’s been a commercial product since version 1 (1997). Version 8 (the current one as of writing) is a one-off purchase — no subscription, no recurring fee — but it isn’t free. They offer a 7-day trial. Once that’s up, the editor stops working until you buy a licence.
This is fine when you’re writing tabs every day. It’s a hard sell when you just want to open one file your guitar teacher emailed you.
What the free mobile app actually does
There’s a free Guitar Pro-branded mobile app: mySongBook Tab Player. It’s iOS and Android, made by Arobas, and it’s confusingly named because most people assume “Guitar Pro free mobile” means a free version of the desktop app.
It isn’t. It’s a player for mySongBook, Arobas’ subscription tab catalogue. You can play any tab from their library — but you can’t import an arbitrary .gp file. If a friend sends you a transcription as a .gp5, the mobile app can’t open it.
This catches a lot of people. If “open this file my teacher sent me” is the goal, mySongBook isn’t the answer.
The free options that actually work
Three real options to open a Guitar Pro file without paying:
1. A browser-based Guitar Pro player
Open the file in any modern browser. No install, no signup, no upload. The file is parsed locally by JavaScript and rendered to your browser’s canvas. Playback uses the Web Audio API.
This is the route we’d recommend if all you need is to view, play, and practice along with a tab someone has shared. Our own free Guitar Pro Player does this — supports .gp, .gp3, .gp4, .gp5, .gpx and .gp7, with playback, tempo control, count-in, metronome, and per-track mute. It runs entirely in your browser. The file never leaves your device.
2. TuxGuitar
Free, open-source desktop app. Reads and writes Guitar Pro formats. Older interface, fewer features than modern Guitar Pro, but the price is right. Works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Best for users who specifically want a desktop install and need basic editing.
3. The 7-day trial
Arobas offer a full-featured 7-day trial of Guitar Pro 8. If you genuinely need the editor for a short project — transcribing one song, preparing tabs for a single class — this is fine. Don’t start the trial until you’re ready to use it; the clock starts from install.
When the paid app is worth it
If any of these describe you, just buy Guitar Pro 8:
- You’re writing your own transcriptions — the editor’s depth (articulation, dynamics, fingering, mixing) is the whole product
- You’re publishing or selling tabs — the export quality and engraving polish matter
- You’re a working guitar tutor building a library of teaching materials and you’ll use it weekly
It’s a one-off purchase. Spread over years of use, it costs less than a single in-person guitar lesson. The pricing complaint usually evaporates once you’ve used the editor seriously for a week.
When the free browser player covers everything you need
If you’re in any of these situations, a free browser player is genuinely all you need:
- A teacher or friend has sent you a
.gp5file - You’ve downloaded a free tab from a community site and want to play it
- You want to practice along with a transcription at half-speed
- You want to mute the lead guitar in a tab and play along with the backing
- You need to print a tab and don’t have Guitar Pro to do it
For the first four, open the file in our Guitar Pro Player — the playback controls handle slowdowns, looping and per-track muting in the browser. For the last one (printing), our companion tool Guitar Pro to PDF converts the file to a clean, paginated PDF without the watermarks most free converters add.
A note on cracked Guitar Pro
We get asked this enough that it’s worth saying clearly: don’t pirate it. Cracked installers are one of the more common malware vectors specifically targeting musicians (it’s a niche but well-known one). The legitimate options above cover everything most people actually need. If you genuinely need the editor, the 7-day trial plus the one-off purchase is the answer — not a torrent.
So — is Guitar Pro free?
No, the editor isn’t.
But you almost certainly don’t need the editor — you need to open and play a file someone sent you. That part is free, and it works in your browser. Try it now.
Related
- Free Guitar Pro Player — open, view and play
.gp/.gp5/.gpxfiles in any browser - Free Guitar Pro to PDF Converter — clean A4 PDFs from any Guitar Pro file
- How to plan a guitar lesson — where printed tabs fit into a lesson structure
- Free online guitar metronome — pairs well with the player’s tempo slider for slow-practice work