Last update: Jul 22, 2020, Contributors: Dominik Schrempf, Meaningseeking, Minh Bui

Getting started

Recommended for users who just downloaded IQ-TREE the first time.

IQ-TREE web server

The quickest is to try out the IQ-TREE web server, where you only need to upload an alignment, choose the options and start the analysis. There is a web server tutorial here.

If you want to use the command-line version, follow the instructions below.

Installation

For reasons of performance, IQ-TREE is a command-line program, i.e., IQ-TREE needs to be run from a terminal/console (command prompt under Windows).

Packages and bundles

Ready made IQ-TREE packages are available for the following distributions/repositories (command to install iqtree):

• Debian Linux: sudo apt-get install iqtree
• Arch Linux (AUR)
• Anaconda: conda install -c bioconda iqtree
• Homebrew: brew install brewsci/bio/iqtree2
• FreeBSD: pkg install iqtree

Manual download

IQ-TREE for Windows, MacOSX and Linux can be downloaded here.

• Extract the .zip (Windows, MacOSX) or .tar.gz (Linux) file to create a directory iqtree-X.Y.Z-OS, where X.Y.Z is the version number and OS is the operating system (Windows, MacOSX or Linux).
• You will find the executable in the bin sub-folder. Copy all files in bin folder to your system search path such that you can run IQ-TREE by entering iqtree from the Terminal.

Now you need to open a Terminal (or Console) to run IQ-TREE. See below the guide for Windows users and Mac OS X users.

For Windows users

Since IQ-TREE is a command-line program, clicking on iqtree.exe will not work. You have to open a Command Prompt for all analyses:

1. Click on “Start” menu (below left corner of Windows screen).
2. Type in “cmd” and press “Enter”. It will open the Command Prompt window (see Figure below).

3. Go into IQ-TREE folder you just extracted by entering e.g. (assuming you downloaded version 1.5.0):

    cd Downloads\iqtree-1.5.0-Windows
   

   (assuming that IQ-TREE was downloaded into Downloads folder).

4. Now you can try an example run by entering:

    bin\iqtree -s example.phy
   

   (example.phy is the example PHYLIP alignment file also extracted in that folder).

5. After a few seconds, IQ-TREE finishes and you may see something like this:

Congratulations ;-) You have finished the first IQ-TREE analysis.

For Mac OS X users

1. Open the “Terminal”, e.g., by clicking on the Spotlight icon (top-right corner), typing “terminal” and press “Enter”.

2. Go into IQ-TREE folder by entering (assuming you downloaded version 1.5.0):

    cd Downloads/iqtree-1.5.0-MacOSX
   

   (assuming that IQ-TREE was downloaded into Downloads folder).

3. Now you can try an example run by entering

    bin/iqtree -s example.phy
   

   (example.phy is the example PHYLIP alignment file also extracted in that folder).

4. After a few seconds, IQ-TREE finishes and you may see something like this:

Congratulations ;-) You have finished the first IQ-TREE analysis.

Minimal command-line examples

A few typically analyses are listed in the following. Note that it is assumed that iqtree executable was already copied into system search path. If not, please replace iqtree with actual path to executable.

• Infer maximum-likelihood tree from a sequence alignment (example.phy) with the best-fit model automatically selected by ModelFinder:

    iqtree -s example.phy
  

• Infer maximum-likelihood tree using GTR+I+G model:

    iqtree -s example.phy -m GTR+I+G
  

• Perform ModelFinder without subsequent tree inference:

    iqtree -s example.phy -m MF
  

• Combine ModelFinder, tree search, SH-aLRT test and ultrafast bootstrap with 1000 replicates:

    iqtree -s example.phy -B 1000 -alrt 1000
    # for version 1.x, change -B to -bb
  

• Perform edge-linked proportional partition model (example.nex):

    iqtree -s example.phy -p example.nex
    # for version 1.x change -p to -spp
  

• Find best partition scheme by possibly merging partitions:

    iqtree -s example.phy -p example.nex -m MF+MERGE
  

• Find best partition scheme followed by tree inference and ultrafast bootstrap:

    iqtree -s example.phy -p example.nex -m MFP+MERGE -B 1000
    # for version 1.x change -B to -bb
  

• Use 4 CPU cores to speed up computation:

    iqtree -s example.phy -T 4
    # for version 1.x change -T to -nt
  

• Determine the best number of cores to use under GTR+R4 model:

    iqtree -s example.phy -m GTR+R4 -T AUTO
    # for version 1.x change -T to -nt
  

• Show all available options:

    iqtree -h
  

Where to go from here?

Please continue with the Beginner’s tutorial for further usages.