How to install Figma plugins

No. Figma retired the old install button years ago. Plugins are available to run in any file as soon as you find them, and Figma keeps a list of your recent ones. What people call 'installing' today is really one of two things: opening a plugin from its Community page for the first time, or saving it so it's pinned to your account. Saved plugins follow you across files and, if you've linked profile connections, across your connected accounts too.

Plugins also run on demand only. Figma's help center spells out the rules: you run them manually, you can run one plugin at a time, and a plugin can't keep working in the background after you close it.

1. Open the plugin's page on the Figma Community (figma.com/community).
2. Click Open in. For paid plugins the button says Buy; plugins marked 'In-app purchases' usually come with a free trial.
3. Pick a recent file or click New file. If the creator attached a playground file, Figma opens that instead so you can try the plugin on sample content.
4. Click Save at the top of the Community page if you plan to use it again.

Inside a design file you have three ways to reach plugins, and they all lead to the same list.

• Tools tab. Click Tools in the navigation bar on the left, open the filter and choose Plugin. You'll see recents and suggestions, plus a search bar that reaches the whole Community. Click a plugin to open its details, then Run.
• Actions menu. Click Actions in the toolbar or press Cmd + K (Ctrl + K on Windows), switch to the Plugins & widgets tab and search. This is the fastest route if you know the plugin's name.
• Right-click. Right-click a layer and choose Plugins in the context menu to run one without leaving the canvas.

To repeat the last plugin you ran, press Cmd + Option + P on Mac or Ctrl + Alt + P on Windows. Some plugins also accept typed parameters straight from the actions menu, so you can run them without opening a panel at all; the plugin's own docs will say if it supports this.

Plugins built by Figma

Figma now publishes its own plugins, such as chart generators, alongside Community ones. In the Tools tab, set the source filter to From Figma to see them. They're free to use. If you have access to the Figma agent, you can also ask it to generate a custom plugin for a one-off job, which is useful when no Community plugin does exactly what you need.

Dev Mode keeps plugins in the right sidebar. Toggle into Dev Mode, click Plugins in the right sidebar, then pick from your recent or saved plugins or search the Community. Only plugins built for Dev Mode show up here, which is why a plugin you use in design mode can be missing.

If you use a Dev Mode plugin every day, pin it. Find it on the Plugins tab, open the More menu and choose Pin to top. Organization admins can pin plugins for everyone, and those appear with your own pins.

1. Hover over the stack of recently used icons in the FigJam toolbar and click More.
2. Open the Plugins tab. Your recent plugins are listed first; click Browse more in Community to search further.
3. Click a plugin to see its details, then Run to use it on the current board.

The same More menu has a Widgets tab. Widgets stay on the board for everyone, plugins run only for you. See Figma plugins vs widgets if you're not sure which one you need.

In Figma Slides, click Actions (the / icon) in the toolbar, open the Plugins tab and pick a recent or saved plugin, or search the Community. In Figma Buzz, the Plugins tab sits in the left panel, and a plugin can open in that panel or in a separate modal.

Since nothing is installed, look for recent and saved plugins. In design files, FigJam and Slides, both appear at the top of the plugin list under a saved and recent section. In Dev Mode they're in the Plugins tab of the right sidebar. Outside a file, open your Community profile and select the Saved tab, which only you can see. To drop a plugin from that list, click Remove from saves.

Published plugins behave the same in the Figma desktop app and in a supported browser (Figma supports stable releases of browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Safari). The desktop app matters in two cases. You need it to develop plugins or load one from a local manifest.json under Plugins > Development, and it's the place to clear Figma's cache if plugins start misbehaving. When you're offline, Figma only lets you run plugins that are already open and don't rely on outside browser APIs.

Plugins are available on the Starter plan and to anyone with a paid seat in an organization or enterprise. What you can run depends on your seat:

• Full seat: Figma Design, Dev Mode, FigJam, Slides and Buzz.
• Dev seat: Dev Mode, FigJam, Slides and Buzz, but not Figma Design.
• Collab seat: FigJam and Slides.
• View seat: no plugins in any product.

File access matters too. Plugins can change the file, so in Figma Design and FigJam you need edit access to run them. If you can only view a file, duplicate it to your drafts or ask the owner for edit access.

On the Organization and Enterprise plans, admins can switch plugin approval to Only admin-approved plugins (Admin > Settings > Extensions > Plugin approval). Once that's on, you'll only see approved plugins, and Enterprise admins can approve them per workspace, so a plugin may work in one workspace and not another.

To ask for one, open Actions in a file, go to the Plugins & widgets tab, search for the plugin, click it and choose Request approval. You can also start from the plugin's Community page by clicking Open in and then New file. Add a sentence on why you need it, because every admin gets the request by email and in Figma. Private plugins published inside your organization skip approval.

Plugins run third-party code and can read things like your username, your cursor position and every layer in the file. Two labels on the Community page help you judge that:

• Network access. 'No access to network' means the plugin can't send anything anywhere. 'Restricted' lists the exact domains it can reach. 'Unrestricted' and 'Unknown' mean it can contact any domain.
• Data security info available. The developer answered Figma's security questionnaire and Figma reviewed it. Click the label to read the answers.

Figma doesn't support third-party plugins itself, so bugs go to the developer. Every listing has a support contact. If a plugin opens but doesn't work, start with Figma plugins not working.

The Community has thousands of plugins and many do the same job. Our best Figma plugins directory groups them by task, with picks and trade-offs for each. Two good starting points: