Gephi Desktop

Since 2008, Gephi has empowered researchers, journalists and students across diverse fields to explore, manipulate, and understand complex networks.

The Gephi application in Java ("Gephi Desktop") is open-source and free under the GPL License.

Visual thinking

Like GIMP but for graph data, the user interacts with the representation, manipulate the structures, shapes and colors to reveal hidden patterns.

Gephi helps data analystsexplore networks, test hypotheses, and discover meaningful patternsin complex relational data. By enabling visual thinking through interactive interfaces, it complements traditional statistical methods and enhances analytical reasoning.

Built for Exploratory Data Analysis, Gephi embodies principles from theVisual Analytics research field.

Visual user interface
Short introduction to Gephi

Real-time visualization

Experience the fastest graph visualization engineto accelerate understanding and pattern discovery in large networks.

Powered by a custom OpenGL engine, Gephi delivers unmatched performance for interactive network exploration.

  • Handle networks with up to 100,000 nodes and 1,000,000 edges
  • Refine insights with dynamic filtering capabilities
  • Transform data using comprehensive graph manipulation tools
Drag and drop nodes
Highlight neighbors

Layout

Layout algorithms define the visual structure of your graph. Gephi offers state-of-the-art network layout algorithmsthat balance both efficiency and quality.

The Layout module enables real-time adjustment of layout settings, dramatically enhancing user feedback and experience.

  • Force-driven algorithms for natural node positioning
  • Readability optimization for clearer graph interpretation
Separate clusters
Keep your network compact

Metrics

The statistics and metrics framework offer the most common metrics for social network analysis (SNA) and scale-free networks.

  • Betweenness Centrality, Closeness, Diameter, Clustering Coefficient, PageRank
  • Community detection (Modularity)
  • Random generators
  • Shortest path

Make Cartography

Use ranking or partition data to make meaningful the network representation. Customize colors, size or labels to bring sense to the network representation.

The vectorial based preview rendering lets you put the final touch and care about aesthetics before explorting in SVG, PNG or PDF.

  • Customizable export parameters
  • Save presets

Data Table and Edition

Gephi has its own Data Laboratory to manipulate data columns, search and transform the data.

  • Powerful Search/Replace
  • Manipulate columns
  • Batch-edit, custom column merge and more

Dynamic Filtering

Filter the network to select nodes and/or edges based on the network structure ordata .

Use interactive user interface to filter the network in real-time.

Input / Output

Gephi can read the majority of graph file formats but also supportsCSV and databases import.

  • Spreadsheet import wizard
  • Database import
  • Save/Load project files

Extensible

The built-in Plugins Center automatically gets the list of plugins available from theGephi Plugin portal and takes care of all software updates.

There are various community-built plugins that extends Gephi'sfunctionalities.

Roadmap

Last updated: August 2026

Gephi Desktop has been a “beta” version for more than a decade. This just means that the team does not consider the tool to be complete yet. We aim to implement the following features before reaching version 1.0:

  • Undo/redo with an activity log (concept: a subset of the undo stack; stored in the GEXF).
  • Parallel edges, which are supported by our graph engine but not visualized or accessible from the user interface.
  • Better timeline for dynamic (i.e. temporal) graphs.
  • Improved statistics panel (better distribution reports, support for more statistics…).
  • Legend generator within Preview, at least for simple cases (note: available in Gephi Lite).
  • Unify filtering and search within the Data Laboratory.

We are also considering the following features, beyond 1.0:

  • Improved filters panel (potentially unified with appearance settings).
  • Local exploration, i.e. at least a quick overview of a subgraph.
  • Integrate other visualizations (e.g., a matrix view).
  • Rework the image export with more advanced renderers.
  • Dedicated comparison UI for networks or subgraphs.