How to Create a Monero Wallet Step by Step for Beginners

Short answer: Install Cake Wallet on a phone, Feather on a desktop, or the official Monero GUI if you want to run your own node. Choose "Create new wallet", write the 25-word seed phrase on paper, confirm it, set a PIN or password, and the wallet is ready to receive XMR. It takes about five minutes, no account and no ID are involved, and nobody but you ever sees the seed.

Monero wallets are self-custodial by design. There is no sign-up, no email and no recovery link: the seed phrase you write down during setup is the wallet. That is the one part of this guide worth slowing down for, and the rest is a handful of clicks.

Which Monero wallet should a beginner pick?

Pick by device first and by node preference second. All four wallets below hold the same coins on the same network, and a seed from one restores in another.

When choosing a Monero wallet, start with your device and then consider your node preference.

• Cake Wallet is available on iOS, Android, macOS, Linux, and Windows. It uses a remote node by default, but you can configure a custom node if you prefer. It is a good choice for people using Monero on a phone for the first time.
• Feather is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It uses a remote node by default and also supports connecting to your own node. It is best suited for desktop users who want a lightweight wallet.
• Monero GUI is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports both full nodes and remote nodes. It is a good option for users who want to run their own node or manage larger balances.
• Monerujo is available on Android and uses a remote node by default. It also supports Ledger, making it a good choice for Android users who want hardware-wallet support.
• Stack Wallet is available on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms. It uses a remote node by default and is useful for people who want to hold XMR alongside other cryptocurrencies.

Overall, pick a wallet based on your device first and your node preference second. All of these wallets support the same coin: XMR (Monero).

There is no "official app store" gatekeeper for Monero, so download links matter more than usual. Take Cake Wallet from cakewallet.com, Feather from featherwallet.org and the GUI from getmonero.org, and verify the hashes or signatures if the site offers them.

How to create a Monero wallet in Cake Wallet (about 5 minutes)

1. Install Cake Wallet from the official site or your platform's app store, open it and choose Monero when it asks which wallet to create.
2. Tap "Create New Wallet" and give it a name. Nothing about this name leaves the device.
3. Write the 25-word seed phrase on paper in the order shown. Do not screenshot it, do not put it in a notes app, and do not photograph it.
4. Confirm the words when the app asks you to re-enter a few of them. This step exists because a mistyped seed is discovered years later, when it is too late.
5. Set a PIN and enable biometric unlock if the device supports it. The PIN protects the app on the phone; the seed protects the coins everywhere else.
6. Open the receive screen and copy your address. It starts with 4 and is long. Every new payment can use a fresh subaddress, which starts with 8.
7. Send a small test amount first, wait for it to arrive, then move the rest. This proves the address and your backup routine before real money is on the line.

How to create a wallet in the official Monero GUI

The GUI is the reference implementation and the one to use if you plan to run a node. On the first launch it asks whether to run in Simple mode with a remote node or Advanced mode with your own.

1. Download the GUI from getmonero.org, verify the hash if you can, and unpack it.
2. Choose your language, then "Create a new wallet" and pick a folder to store the wallet files.
3. Write down the 25-word seed shown on screen and set a wallet password. The password encrypts the files on this computer and is not a substitute for the seed.
4. Choose Simple mode to use a remote node, or Advanced mode to sync your own copy of the blockchain. A full node needs well over 200 GB of disk, and a pruned node roughly a third of that.
5. Wait for the wallet to sync to the current block height. With a remote node this is minutes; with a full node the first sync can take a day or more.

What to do right after the wallet is created

• Store the seed offline, twice. Two paper copies in two places beat one copy in a safe. Metal backup plates exist for a reason: paper burns and ink runs.
• Write down the restore height. It is the block height at creation. Restoring a wallet without it forces a scan from the beginning of the chain, which is slow but not fatal.
• Never store the seed as plain text. Cloud notes, password manager exports, photos and chat messages are all ways seeds have been lost or stolen.
• Use subaddresses for incoming payments. A new subaddress per sender keeps your accounting clean, and it costs nothing to generate them.

How do I get XMR into the new wallet?

You need coins from somewhere, and most regulated exchanges no longer list Monero, so a swap is the usual route. On Swapuz you can swap BTC to XMR or swap USDT to XMR without an account: paste the address from your new wallet, send the deposit, and the Monero arrives in 5 to 30 minutes. Fees are a 0.8% service fee plus the network fee, both shown before you confirm.

Incoming XMR often shows as locked for about twenty minutes. That is the Monero unlock time of ten blocks, not a problem with the wallet.

FAQ

Do I need to run my own node?

No. Cake Wallet, Feather and Monerujo use remote nodes out of the box and are perfectly usable that way. A remote node cannot see your amounts or your balance, because it never holds your keys, but it does see that an IP address is asking for blocks. Running your own node removes even that, and it is the standard advice for large balances.

What is the difference between the 25-word seed and a 16-word one?

The classic Monero mnemonic is 25 words, where the last word is a checksum. Some wallets also offer Polyseed, a newer 16-word format that stores the creation date, so no separate restore height is needed. Both are valid; keep whichever your wallet generated and label it so you know which format it is.

How long does the first sync take?

With a remote node, a new wallet is ready in minutes because there is no old history to scan. A restored wallet has to scan from its restore height, which takes longer the further back it goes. A full node syncing the whole chain from scratch usually takes a day or more on a normal connection.

Can one seed hold several wallets?

One seed is one wallet, but that wallet has accounts and unlimited subaddresses inside it, which covers most of what people want separate wallets for. If you need genuinely separate balances, create a second wallet with its own seed.

Is a Monero wallet anonymous by itself?

The chain hides amounts, senders and receivers by default, so the wallet is private on-chain. What it does not hide is your network connection: use the wallet's Tor option or your own node if you do not want a remote node operator to see your IP asking for blocks.

Read Next on the Swapuz Blog

• Why XMR Still Matters for Privacy-Focused Swaps
• How to Choose the Right Crypto Wallet
• How to Keep Your Crypto Assets Safe

Last updated: September 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Always download wallet software from its official source and verify it where possible.