Maxent is now open source!

Use this site to download Maxent software for modeling species niches and distributions by applying a machine-learning technique called maximum entropy modeling. From a set of environmental (e.g., climatic) grids and georeferenced occurrence localities, the model expresses a probability distribution where each grid cell has a predicted suitability of conditions for the species. Under particular assumptions about the input data and biological sampling efforts that led to occurrence records, the output can be interpreted as predicted probability of presence (cloglog transform), or as predicted local abundance (raw exponential output).

Here you can download the open-source release of Maxent (under an MIT license; suggested citation below). See below for key changes in the current version.

The idea for Maxent was first conceived of here at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) through a public-private partnership between the AMNH and AT&T-Research. Steven Phillips and the other developers of Maxent are still engaged in its development and maintenance, and the Google group will remain the main mechanism for user questions. Much additional information can be found in the Google group, software tutorials, and other resources listed below.

Main changes in Version 3.4.1

Main changes in Version 3.4.0

Download

Current version 3.4.1

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Citation

If you use the application for analyses that result in a publication, report, or online posting, the following represents a proper citation of the software itself:

Steven J. Phillips, Miroslav Dudík, Robert E. Schapire. [Internet] Maxent software for modeling species niches and distributions (Version 3.4.1). Available from url: http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org/open_source/maxent/. Accessed on .

**For information about earlier versions, please refer to the readme file on github or contact the developers mrmaxent@gmail.com
Source Code
Tutorials
Datasets used in the Ecological Modelling paper

Discussion Group

There is a long-standing google discussion group for users of this software at http://groups.google.com/group/Maxent.  Sign up for this group for discussions and questions about the software, and also to get information about updates, bugs, etc.

Tutorial

A tutorial explaining how to use this software is provided in the download section as a PDF.  The data that go along with this tutorial are available as a zip file.

If you would like to reference the tutorial in a publication, report, or online posting, an appropriate citation is:

Steven J. Phillips. 2017. A Brief Tutorial on Maxent. Available from url: http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org/open_source/maxent/. Accessed on .

A teaching exercise using a previous version of Maxent can be downloaded from the AMNH website:

Steven J. Phillips. 2009. A Brief Tutorial on Maxent. Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History. Lessons in Conservation, Vol. 3, pp. 108-135.

Additional teaching resources regarding Maxent can be found on Robert P. Anderson's site

Maxent species distribution modeling approach publications