Download MongoDB Compass for Windows PC v1.53.1 for Windows PC

MongoDB's official free GUI: explore documents visually, build aggregation pipelines stage by stage, analyse schemas and indexes, and fix slow queries...

Features

• Schema analysis samples your documents and visualises field types, value ranges and distributions, instantly exposing the inconsistent document shapes that schemaless storage quietly accumulates.
• The aggregation pipeline builder previews results after every stage and exports the finished pipeline to production code in several languages, removing the guesswork from a syntax that is hard to debug blind.
• The three-edition split is genuinely useful in practice: Readonly for safe production browsing by support staff, and Isolated for environments where any outbound network call except the database connection is forbidden.
• Query performance tooling with visual explain plans, index suggestions and the ability to create or drop indexes in the UI shortens the loop between noticing a slow query and fixing it.
• The embedded mongosh shell sits inside the same window, so operations Compass does not expose as buttons are one click away instead of requiring a second tool and a second connection.

Considerations

• Compass is an Electron application and feels it, using several hundred megabytes of memory and pausing on huge collections where a lean native client or the shell stays responsive.
• It works only with MongoDB and MongoDB-compatible APIs, so developers who also run PostgreSQL or MySQL still need a separate general-purpose database client.
• First-time users regularly install the wrong edition or paste an Atlas SRV string without the required database user, and the resulting timeout and authentication errors do not clearly explain which mistake was made.

Get mongodb-compass-1.53.1-win32-x64.msi from mongodb.com — this is the standard full edition, not the Readonly or Isolated builds, which are listed as separate downloads on the same page.

Double-click the MSI and follow the wizard; Compass installs per-user without needing a separate runtime, and adds a Start menu shortcut when finished.

Open Compass, click New Connection, and either paste a connection string such as mongodb://localhost:27017 or mongodb+srv:// for Atlas, or fill in host, port and authentication fields individually.

Click Connect; Compass lists databases on the left. Open a collection to browse documents, view its schema analysis, indexes and validation rules in the tabs across the top.

Use the Aggregations tab to build a pipeline stage by stage with live previews, and open the embedded mongosh shell at the bottom of the window whenever a task is faster typed than clicked.

What different versions of MongoDB Compass are there?

There are three editions of the same version number. Compass (the standard download on this page) is the complete tool with full CRUD, aggregation building and index management. Compass Readonly removes all write and delete capability so it is safe for browsing production data. Compass Isolated has identical database features to the standard edition but initiates no network requests other than the connection to your MongoDB server — no telemetry, auto-update or third-party services — for high-security environments. Choose the standard edition unless you have a specific reason for the other two.

Cannot connect Compass to mongoDB on localhost — Server selection timed out after 10000 ms

That error almost always means no MongoDB server is actually listening. First confirm mongod is running: on Windows check the MongoDB service in services.msc, or start mongod manually. Then make sure the connection string is exactly mongodb://localhost:27017 (try 127.0.0.1 if localhost resolution is odd), and that Windows Firewall is not blocking port 27017. The close cousin error, connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:27017, means the same thing: Compass reached the address and nothing was there to answer.

Can MongoDB Compass work offline?

Yes, with a local or LAN MongoDB server. Compass itself needs no internet connection to browse, query and edit data on a server it can reach. For strict environments, install the Isolated edition instead of the standard one: it disables telemetry, automatic update checks and other outbound requests entirely, so the only network traffic is the connection to your MongoDB deployment.

How do I connect to MongoDB, running in Github codespaces, using MongoDB Compass?

Compass cannot reach a Codespace's MongoDB directly through the web-based port forwarding used for HTTP, because the MongoDB wire protocol needs a real TCP tunnel. The workable route is SSH port forwarding: forward port 27017 from the Codespace environment to your own machine (for example with an SSH reverse/forward tunnel through a reachable host), then connect Compass to mongodb://localhost:27017 on your PC. Expect this to be fiddly; for short sessions, using mongosh inside the Codespace terminal is usually simpler.

Is MongoDB Compass free?

Yes. All three editions of Compass — standard, Readonly and Isolated — are free to download and use, including for commercial work, against both self-hosted MongoDB and MongoDB Atlas. Compass is proprietary freeware from MongoDB, Inc. rather than open source, and some surrounding Atlas cloud services are paid, but the Compass application itself has no license fee or feature paywall.