We will go through how to download and install the popular Stable Diffusion software AUTOMATIC1111 on Windows step-by-step.
Stable Diffusion is a text-to-image AI that can be run on a consumer-grade PC with a GPU. After this tutorial, you can generate AI images on your own PC.
Table of Contents
- Systems requirements
- Installation steps
- Options
- Next Step
- RTX 4000 series graphic cards
- Updating AUTOMATIC1111
- Frequently Asked Questions
- AUTOMATIC1111 does not start after updating.
- Does it work on AMD GPU?
- What Python version should I use?
- How to resolve NaN errors when generating images?
- How to resolve out-of-memory errors?
- Python doesn’t work correctly.
- Is there an easier way to install AUTOMATIC1111?
- I tried everything, but it still does not work.
Systems requirements
Your PC should run Windows 10 or higher with a discrete Nvidia video card (GPU) with 4 GB VRAM or more. An integrated GPU will not work.
If your PC does not meet these requirements, alternatives are
- Fully managed A1111 service – Think Diffusion. (Affiliate link, you get 20% extra credits.)
- Cloud service – Google Colab.
- Mac Apple Silicon M1/M2.
Installing on AMD GPU
AUTOMATIC1111 does not officially support AMD GPUs, but it is possible to make it work if you are tech-savvy or willing to try. See the unofficial installation guide on the official GitHub page.
Installation steps
Step 1: Install python
You will need Python 3.10.6. (DON’T use Python 3.11 or newer) There are two ways to install Python on Windows
Option 1: Install from the Microsoft store.
Option 2: Use the 64-bit Windows installer provided by the Python website. (If you use this option, make sure to select “Add Python to 3.10 to PATH“)
I recommend installing it from the Microsoft store.
First, remove all Python versions you have previously installed. You can do that in Control Panel → Add or remove programs.
Visit Python 3.10 on Microsoft Store and install the Python software.
This step is most likely to go wrong. Let’s do a check.
Press the Windows key on your keyboard and type “cmd” to find a program called “Command Prompt”.
Open the Command Prompt App. You should see a black terminal like you are a hacker…
Type “python” and press Enter. You should see you see it prints out Python 3.10. This tells you your Python is installed correctly.
Now you can close the Command Prompt App.
Don’t proceed to the next step until you get Python 3.10 installed correctly.
If you don’t see Python 3.10 running, try
- Restarting the PC
- Removing all the previous versions of Python and reinstalling from the Microsoft Store
- If the one from Microsoft Store doesn’t work for you, remove it and try the one on the Python website.
Step 2: Install git
Git is a code repository management system. You will need it to install and update AUTOMATIC1111.
Go to this page to download the windows version.
Open the installer. Click Install to accept the license and install the software.
Follow the instruction to complete the installation.
Step 3: Clone web-ui
This step downloads the Stable Diffusion software (AUTOMATIC1111).
Press the Window key (It should be on the left of the space bar on your keyboard), and a search window should appear. Type cmd
.
Click on Command Prompt. The command prompt window would show up.
First, make sure you are in your home folder by typing the following command and then pressing Enter. (Tip: You should be able to use right-click to paste in Command Prompt.)
cd %userprofile%
You should see your prompt shows something like C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME
>.
Next type the following command and press Enter to clone the AUTOMATIC1111 repository.
git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui.git
A folder called stable-diffusion-webui
should be created in your home directory.
It’s ok to clone the repository in a different folder instead of %userprofile%
, as long as you can find the newly created stable-diffusion-webui
folder. You will need to change the folder location accordingly in the following steps.
Step 4: Download a model file
Next, go to the newly created folder in File Explorer. Put in
%userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui
in the address bar and press enter.
Navigate to the folder models and then Stable-diffusion. You should see a file Put Stable Diffusion checkpoints here.txt
like below.
Download the Stable Diffusion v1.5 model checkpoint file (download link). Put it in that folder.
Step 5: Run webui
Now in File Explorer, go back to the stable-diffusion-webui
folder. That is, go back up two levels or type
%userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui
again in the address bar.
Find a file called webui-user.bat
. Double-click to run and complete the installation.
This last step is going to take a while. When it is done, you will see a message
Running on local URL: http://127.0.0.1:7860
like the one below.
In your web browser, go to the URL
http://127.0.0.1:7860/
You should see the AUTOMATIC1111 webui! Put in a prompt (e.g. “a cat”) and hit Generate to test if Stable Diffusion is running correctly.
When you are done using Stable Diffusion, close the cmd
black window to shut down Stable Diffusion.
To rerun Stable Diffusion, you need to double-click the webui-user.bat
.
Options
You can speed up Stable Diffusion models with the --opt-sdp-attention
option. If you have less than 8 GB VRAM on GPU, it is a good idea to turn on the --medvram
option to save memory to generate more images at a time.
To enable them, right-click on the file webui-user.bat
and select Edit. (You may need to select “Show More Options” first if you use Windows 11).
Replace the line
set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=
With
set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=--opt-sdp-attention --medvram
Save and close the file.
Double-click the webui-user.bat
file to run Stable Diffusion.
Additional arguments
Add --gradio-img2img-tool color-sketch
to COMMANDLINE_ARGS to enable the color sketch tool, which could be helpful in img2img. For example, the new line should look like:
set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=--opt-sdp-attention --medvram --gradio-img2img-tool color-sketch
If you want to use the computer as a server and access the GUI with another computer, use the add --listen
to enable a connection from another computer. You will need to grant permission to allow outside connection the first time you run it.
Next Step
That’s it! I hope you will have fun making AI images.
If you are new to Stable Diffusion, check out the Quick Start Guide for some quick tips to use Stable Diffusion.
Head to our beginner’s series to learn Stable Diffusion step by step.
Check out this prompt generator for building high-quality prompts.
RTX 4000 series graphic cards
Good news for you if you use RTX 4070, RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 Nvidia graphic cards. The latest version of AUTOMATIC1111 supports these video card. (with torch 2.0 and cuda 11.8)
I will provide a benchmark speed so that you can make sure your setup is working correctly. The settings are:
- batch size: 4
- batch count: 10
- Image size: 512×512
- Sampling steps: 20
- Sampling method: Euler a
- Model: SD v1.5
Using a batch size of 1 is not recommended, as the measured speed is likely to be highly dependent on other components on your system.
You should see the speed of generating each image. Pick a stable value, usually in the middle like the 5th batch. The speed is in it/s (iterations per second).
You should get about 10 its/s on RTX 4090. (Note that this is 4 images per iteration) This is the max speed you can get nowadays.
You can use one of the following speed-up parameters.
Option 1:
--xformers
Option 2:
--opt-sdp-no-mem-attention --no-half-vae --opt-channelslast
Option 2 is slightly faster, but test them out to see what works best for you.
Updating AUTOMATIC1111
By default, your copy of AUTOMATIC1111 won’t be automatically updated. Given how fast things are moving, you will likely need to update your copy at some point to use the latest and the coolest.
There are two options for updating it. (1) Updating every time when you run it, and (2) Updating only when needed.
Updating every time you run
To update whenever you run webui, edit the file webui-user.bat
. Add “git pull” before the line calling webui.bat. The file should look something like
@echo off
set PYTHON=
set GIT=
set VENV_DIR=
set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=--xformers --medvram
git pull
call webui.bat
From now on, webui will update itself every time it starts.
Updating as needed
It may not be a good idea to use the latest version because something could be broken. Updating periodically or only if you need a new feature is a more prudent approach.
To update the webui, open Command Prompt (cmd) and go to webui’s directory using the command below. (You will need to change %userprofile%
if you installed it somewhere else.)
cd %userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui
And run the command
git pull
Resetting webui
If git pull shows an error, it is usually because you have accidentally changed some files. You can reset the webui folder with the following two commands.
cd %userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui
git checkout -f master
And then run git pull again.
git pull
Note that all files will be reset. You will need to make changes to webui-user.bat
again.
Reverting back to a previous version
Sometimes the latest version of webui is broken, and you don’t want to use it. You can revert back to a previous version by following the instructions below.
Step 1: Go to this page to view previous versions. Each row is a previous version.
Step 2: Pick a previous version you want to revert back to. You can look at the date and comment to make a judgment.
Step 3: Press the copy button to copy the hash code of the version.
Step 4: In the command prompt, run the following commands. The hash code (highlighted below) is just an example. You will paste the one you just copied.
cd %userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui
git checkout 076d624a297532d6e4abebe5807fd7c7504d7a73
If you see errors, reset the webui (see the previous section) and retry.
After checking out the previous code, delete the venv
folder and restart WebUI.
Frequently Asked Questions
AUTOMATIC1111 does not start after updating.
Delete the venv
folder and restart AUTOMATIC1111.
If it still doesn’t work, delete both the venv
and the repositories
folders and restart.
If it still doesn’t work and you have recently installed an extension, delete the folder of that extension in the extensions
folder. Delete the venv
folder and restart.
Does it work on AMD GPU?
No, you have to have an NVIDIA GPU.
What Python version should I use?
Python 3.10.6. Later versions of 3.10 work fine. But don’t use 3.11 or later.
How to resolve NaN errors when generating images?
Add --no-half
argument to webui-user.bat (See Adding arguments)
How to resolve out-of-memory errors?
Use --lowvram
instead of --medvram
argument in webui-user.bat (See Adding arguments)
For optimizing memory usage for SDXL models:
- Nvidia (12GB+)
--xformers
- Nvidia (8GB)
--medvram-sdxl --xformers
- Nvidia (4GB)
--lowvram --xformers
See this article for more details.
Python doesn’t work correctly.
Try removing the previously installed Python using Add or remove programs.
There are two options for installing Python listed. Try the other one if the one you used didn’t work.
Is there an easier way to install AUTOMATIC1111?
The above is the official install instructions. Two alternatives:
- Recently they started to tag release builds. They are supposed to work after downloading and unzipping.
- There’s an unofficial easy installer for Windows you can try.
I tried everything, but it still does not work.
You can use Google Colab to run AUTOMATIC1111. This is what I use. The notebook launches AUTOMATIC1111 with one mouse click.
Or Use AUTOMATIC1111 online.
Worked fine for the most part. When testing python I had to run `py` rather than `python` and adjust the PYTHON variable in `webui-user.bat` to match
Shit don’t work 🙁
“You can try updating A1111, deleting (or renaming if you want to restore it) the venv folder, and restart. The venv folder will regenerate.”
Thanks.
It would not let me reply to your original post.
I am afraid I don’t know how to update A1111. Is there a tutorial for that?
Yes it is on this post 🙂
https://stable-diffusion-art.com/install-windows/#Updating_AUTOMATIC1111
Hi, I did the installation according to the instructions and everything without any problem, the problem occurred when I tried to generate a simple picture of a cat up to 90%, the cat was visible, as soon as the picture was generated at 100%, it was all gray, respectively, it generated only a gray picture without anything… I tried a complete reinstallation, as well as various instructions such as –precision full –no-half, but still the same problem. Don’t know how to fix it please?
seems to be an issue with the VAE. Try setting VAE to automatic in settings.
I have VAE set to automatic and the problem still persists :/
Version Stable diffusion v1.5 downloand link not working anymore… :/ It write this:
Invalid username or password.
Launching Web UI with arguments: –xformers –medvram
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 48, in
main()
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 44, in main
start()
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py”, line 465, in start
import webui
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\webui.py”, line 13, in
initialize.imports()
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\initialize.py”, line 39, in imports
from modules import processing, gradio_extensons, ui # noqa: F401
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\processing.py”, line 14, in
import cv2
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\lib\site-packages\cv2\__init__.py”, line 181, in
bootstrap()
File “C:\Users\User\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\lib\site-packages\cv2\__init__.py”, line 153, in bootstrap
native_module = importlib.import_module(“cv2”)
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\importlib\__init__.py”, line 126, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing cv2: The specified module could not be found.
Press any key to continue . . .
ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement torch==2.1.2 (from versions: 2.2.0, 2.2.0+cu121, 2.2.1, 2.2.1+cu121, 2.2.2, 2.2.2+cu121, 2.3.0, 2.3.0+cu121)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for torch==2.1.2
make sure you use python 3.10
Hi, new problem here.
After launching webui-user.bat, it opens the Stable Diffusion page in the Chrome browser.
when I try to generate the “a cat” prompt, this text appears under the image preview
“AttributeError: ‘NoneType’ object has no attribute ‘lowvram'”
I’ve looked through all the files, but I have no idea how to fix it.
I understand that the “lowvram” parameter is missing somewhere. But where?
Hi, after clicking on webui-user.bat
I’have this message in red:
Version: v1.9.3
Commit hash: 1c0a0c4c26f78c32095ebc7f8af82f5c04fca8c0
Installing torch and torchvision
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121
Collecting torch==2.1.2
Using cached https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121/torch-2.1.2%2Bcu121-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl (2473.9 MB)
ERROR: THESE PACKAGES DO NOT MATCH THE HASHES FROM THE REQUIREMENTS FILE. If you have updated the package versions, please update the hashes. Otherwise, examine the package contents carefully; someone may have tampered with them.
torch==2.1.2 from https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121/torch-2.1.2%2Bcu121-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl#sha256=9925143dece0e63c5404a72d59eb668ef78795418e96b576f94d75dcea6030b9:
Expected sha256 9925143dece0e63c5404a72d59eb668ef78795418e96b576f94d75dcea6030b9
Got dba2917daacb9de3d858e4352674eca4404a417bef28760e82e76994da4a6f9b
Why and what do I do?
Thank you
Solved I had to update pip
Hy. I already follow all your steps and run stable diffusion in chrome succesfuly.
But after I type a prompt and click “generate” nothing happened.
Specs:
WIN. 11
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: Nvidia GTX1660
Please Help me. Thank You.
Do you see any error messages in terminal?
Just a quick note for anyone else trying to get Stable Diffusion working on WSL2
(Windows 11 with WSL2 and Ubuntu 22.04.4 selected as distribution):
It worked fine at least on my 4080RTX, the key part (at least for me) was that the default python installed for the default Ubuntu distribution kept trying to use python 3.9.
Which resulted in an error code:
Error code: 137
(aliasing python3.10 and/or PATH$ to include the supported python 3.10 version didn’t work for me, what did work for me was setting it in the webui-user.sh before trying to run webui.sh
uncomment the line containing python_cmd and update value to the (currently) supported Python path:
python_cmd=/usr/bin/python3.10
This solved my issue.
I encountered this error. I have installed pip module manually. Any other recommendations?
venv “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\Python.exe”
Python 3.10.6 (tags/v3.10.6:9c7b4bd, Aug 1 2022, 21:53:49) [MSC v.1932 64 bit (AMD64)]
Version: v1.8.0
Commit hash: bef51aed032c0aaa5cfd80445bc4cf0d85b408b5
Installing torch and torchvision
C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\python.exe: No module named pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 48, in
main()
File “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 39, in main
prepare_environment()
File “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py”, line 380, in prepare_environment
run(f'”{python}” -m {torch_command}’, “Installing torch and torchvision”, “Couldn’t install torch”, live=True)
File “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py”, line 115, in run
raise RuntimeError(“\n”.join(error_bits))
RuntimeError: Couldn’t install torch.
Command: “C:\stable-diffusion\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\python.exe” -m pip install torch==2.1.2 torchvision==0.16.2 –extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu121
Error code: 1
Press any key to continue . . .
your python installation is missing the pip package.
You can try removing it and installing python 3.10 from the microsoft store.
start all over.
Hi, nothing happens when I double click the webui-user.bat file, some git command prompt like thing opens for like half a second then closes itself and nothing happens
You can try running in the command prompt to see what error message is. It is usually your python not installed correctly.
Hi,
When I run webui_user.bat, it give me this error message :
venv “C:\Users\janis\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\Python.exe”
Python 3.10.11 (tags/v3.10.11:7d4cc5a, Apr 5 2023, 00:38:17) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)]
Version: v1.8.0
Commit hash: bef51aed032c0aaa5cfd80445bc4cf0d85b408b5
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\Users\janis\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 48, in
main()
File “C:\Users\janis\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py”, line 39, in main
prepare_environment()
File “C:\Users\janis\stable-diffusion-webui\modules\launch_utils.py”, line 386, in prepare_environment
raise RuntimeError(
RuntimeError: Torch is not able to use GPU; add –skip-torch-cuda-test to COMMANDLINE_ARGS variable to disable this check
Appuyez sur une touche pour continuer…
Can anyone help me about what I have to do to resolve this?
Thanks!
It appears your PC has no GPU. You need one to run SD
I have a 3060 ti and am trying to install this for the first time. I followed the instructions but installed python 3.12, then uninstalled and installed 3.10 instead as instructed from the windows store. I now get this error when running the webui batch file. I’d really appreciate some help
venv “C:\Users\guswo\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\Python.exe”
No Python at ‘”C:\Users\guswo\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.12_qbz5n2kfra8p0\python.exe’
Your delete and reinstall A1111 to see if that fixes it.
I’m using the collab and trying to use version 1.5. Since the most recent update I’m now getting the following error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘torchvision.transforms.functional_tensor’. Is there some way I can fix the code to roll back and updates?
the most recent update simply load v1.8.0 instead of v1.7.0. Are you saying you are trying to load v1.5.0? You can post the whole error message
Yes, I’m trying to load v1.5.0. Before the update, I was able to load v1.5.0 just fine. Here is the error:
2024-03-19 23:23:30.305660: E external/local_xla/xla/stream_executor/cuda/cuda_dnn.cc:9261] Unable to register cuDNN factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuDNN when one has already been registered
2024-03-19 23:23:30.305707: E external/local_xla/xla/stream_executor/cuda/cuda_fft.cc:607] Unable to register cuFFT factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuFFT when one has already been registered
2024-03-19 23:23:30.307059: E external/local_xla/xla/stream_executor/cuda/cuda_blas.cc:1515] Unable to register cuBLAS factory: Attempting to register factory for plugin cuBLAS when one has already been registered
2024-03-19 23:23:30.314216: I tensorflow/core/platform/cpu_feature_guard.cc:182] This TensorFlow binary is optimized to use available CPU instructions in performance-critical operations.
To enable the following instructions: AVX2 AVX512F FMA, in other operations, rebuild TensorFlow with the appropriate compiler flags.
2024-03-19 23:23:31.355701: W tensorflow/compiler/tf2tensorrt/utils/py_utils.cc:38] TF-TRT Warning: Could not find TensorRT
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gradio_client/documentation.py:103: UserWarning: Could not get documentation group for : No known documentation group for module ‘gradio.mix’
warnings.warn(f”Could not get documentation group for {cls}: {exc}”)
/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gradio_client/documentation.py:103: UserWarning: Could not get documentation group for : No known documentation group for module ‘gradio.mix’
warnings.warn(f”Could not get documentation group for {cls}: {exc}”)
no module ‘xformers’. Processing without…
no module ‘xformers’. Processing without…
No module ‘xformers’. Proceeding without it.
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘torchvision.transforms.functional_tensor’
There’s likely an incompatibility between v1.5.0 and the colab env. Looks like the version of torchvision is incorrect. You can try copying the notebook and install it.
The notebook works for v1.8.0. I won’t be able to support multiple versions of A1111.
Hey! I’ve got everything set up and working, but do you remember the prompt you used for the image at the very top of the page? I’m testing out models and the like to get a feel for what I like, and that’s an amazing image, but I’m having a ton of trouble nailing it down and it’d serve as a great example for what a “good” prompt looks like.
unfortunately it is long lost. you can check out https://stable-diffusion-art.com/sdxl-styles/
How do fix this issue
“xformers wasn’t build with cuda support” my gpu is rtx 2060
Try not using xformers. Use the sdp option. See
https://stable-diffusion-art.com/speed-up-stable-diffusion/
When I went in my command prompt to download the folder and put in git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui.git and then go to the folder %userprofile%\stable-diffusion-webui it shows that there is nothing in the folder. Is there any way I can delete the folder and try re cloning it in the command prompt?