$ cat overview.md
The official app for running a Trezor hardware wallet
Trezor Suite is the desktop and browser application built by SatoshiLabs for setting up and operating Trezor hardware wallets. It took over from the older browser-only Trezor Wallet interface, and it is now the place where you check balances, prepare transactions, update firmware and change device settings. The private keys never leave the hardware. Trezor Suite is the screen, the keyboard and the bookkeeping around them.
Underneath the dashboard, Trezor Suite does four jobs. It talks to the connected device over USB. It reads blockchain data from indexing servers so your balances and history appear. It assembles unsigned transactions that the device displays and signs. And it keeps your local preferences, such as account labels, fiat currency and which coins are enabled. Every other feature in Trezor Suite, from the portfolio graph to staking, sits on top of those four.
This page walks through that architecture, the different platform builds, the day-to-day feature set, the privacy and security controls, which devices and assets are handled, and a first-run sequence for a brand new wallet. Read in order, it should leave you clear on what Trezor Suite does for you and what it deliberately leaves to the hardware. It closes with the questions people most often ask before they commit to Trezor Suite as their main wallet interface.
At a glance
$ suite --info
- developer
- SatoshiLabs
- category
- wallet interface
- desktop
- Windows / macOS / Linux
- browser
- Chromium-based
- mobile
- Lite, watch-only
- source code
- public / open source
- key storage
- on device only
- sign-up
- none required
- cost
- free with device
$ trace transport -> backend -> signature
How the app, the device and the blockchain fit together
The first link in the chain is the transport layer, the small piece of software that lets an application on your computer exchange messages with a USB device. Older setups needed a separate helper called Trezor Bridge installed alongside the browser. The desktop build of Trezor Suite ships its own transport, so there is nothing extra to install or keep updated, and that is one of the main reasons the desktop version of Trezor Suite is the recommended way to use the device.
The second link is the blockchain data source. A hardware wallet knows your keys but not your balance, so Trezor Suite queries indexing servers that watch the chains for you. For Bitcoin-style coins these run Blockbook, SatoshiLabs' own open-source indexer; other networks have their own equivalents. Trezor Suite sends the account's extended public key to the server, receives back the transaction history for the addresses derived from it, and renders your balance from that. If those servers are unreachable, balances stop refreshing even though your coins are perfectly safe.
The third link is signing. When you fill in a recipient and an amount, Trezor Suite selects inputs, calculates the fee and assembles an unsigned transaction. It then hands that transaction to the device, which shows the destination address and the amount on its own screen. Nothing is signed until you physically confirm on the hardware. The signed transaction comes back to Trezor Suite, which broadcasts it to the network.
This split is what makes the design work even on a computer you do not fully trust. Malware could tamper with what Trezor Suite displays, but it cannot forge a signature, and it cannot change what the device screen shows. Trezor Suite is honest about that limit, which is why every guide, including this one, keeps repeating the same instruction: read the address on the hardware, not in the window on your monitor.
The signing round trip
- 01 app builds unsigned transaction
- 02 payload sent to device over USB
- 03 device renders address + amount
- 04 human confirms on hardware
- 05 signature returned to app
- 06 app broadcasts to network
The computer screen is a suggestion. The device screen is the record. If the two disagree, stop and cancel the operation.
$ ls builds/
Desktop, browser and mobile builds
The desktop application is the full version. There are builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, they update themselves, and they include the transport layer and a bundled Tor client. Because it runs as a local program rather than inside a browser tab, the desktop edition of Trezor Suite is not exposed to browser extensions, tab hijacking or a stale bookmark pointing at a lookalike domain. For anyone holding meaningful amounts, this is the build to use.
The browser version exists for situations where installing software is not practical. It runs the same interface in a Chromium-based browser using WebUSB to reach the device, so Chrome, Brave, Edge and similar browsers work while others may not expose the required USB access. The web build of Trezor Suite is convenient, but it gives up the bundled Tor routing and some of the local-first extras, and it inherits whatever risk the browser environment carries.
Then there is the mobile companion, Trezor Suite Lite, available for iOS and Android. It is deliberately limited: it is a watch-only portfolio viewer. You pair it with your accounts to check balances and generate receiving addresses on the move, and it holds no key material and cannot sign a transaction. Sending funds still means connecting the device to a computer running Trezor Suite.
All three builds of Trezor Suite share the same visual language and the same account structure, so switching between them does not mean relearning anything. What changes is capability, not layout.
$ suite --features
What you actually do with it day to day
Dashboard and portfolio
The landing view in Trezor Suite totals everything across your accounts in the fiat currency you choose and plots it over time. Because Trezor Suite reads price data separately from balance data, the graph is a convenience layer, not part of the wallet's accounting. You can hide the whole thing instantly with discreet mode, which blurs balances so a glance over your shoulder reveals nothing.
Accounts, receiving and sending
One device holds many accounts, and Trezor Suite lets you add them per coin and per address type. Receiving means asking for a fresh address and verifying it on the device display before you hand it out. Sending means entering the recipient, choosing a fee, and confirming on the hardware. Trezor Suite keeps the flow the same for every supported chain so the muscle memory carries over.
Coin control and fee handling
For Bitcoin and similar chains you can open coin control and pick exactly which unspent outputs fund a payment, which matters if you care about not merging coins with different histories. Trezor Suite offers preset fee tiers or a rate you type in yourself, and a pending Bitcoin transaction that is stuck can be bumped through replace-by-fee from inside Trezor Suite rather than with an external tool.
Labels and record keeping
Raw transaction lists age badly, so Trezor Suite lets you name accounts, addresses and individual transactions. Those labels are encrypted with a key derived from your device, so they are readable only when the hardware is connected. Account history can also be exported to a file for accounting or tax work, which spares you copying figures out of a block explorer by hand.
Trade and staking
A trade area aggregates third-party providers through Invity, a SatoshiLabs company, so you can buy, sell or swap without funds landing in a separate custodial wallet first. Staking is available for a small number of networks, notably Ethereum, through an integrated provider. These are optional conveniences bolted onto Trezor Suite, and each one involves a third party with its own terms, limits and identity checks.
Device management and extras
Firmware installs and updates, PIN changes, homescreen and device naming, backup checks and a full device wipe all live in the settings area of Trezor Suite. There is also a sign and verify tool for proving control of an address with a message signature, plus a language selector and a switch that turns anonymous usage analytics off entirely.
$ privacy --status
Privacy controls worth knowing about
Any wallet that shows you a balance has to ask somebody for it, and that request links your addresses to your IP address. The desktop build of Trezor Suite addresses this with a single Tor toggle: flip it on and blockchain queries are routed through the Tor network, so the servers answering see a relay rather than your connection. The switch sits in the privacy settings of Trezor Suite rather than being buried somewhere obscure. It is slower, and worth it if you would rather not build a public trail of lookups.
The stronger option is to stop asking strangers altogether. Trezor Suite can be pointed at a custom Bitcoin backend, which means your own Blockbook or Electrum server. In that setup the only machine learning your addresses is one you run, and you are no longer depending on anyone else's infrastructure for uptime either. It takes real effort to maintain, so treat it as an advanced choice rather than a default.
Smaller things help too. Trezor Suite requires no account, no email and no password: your settings and labels live on your own machine, which is why moving to a new computer means setting your preferences up again. Discreet mode covers balances on shared screens. Analytics can be declined during setup or switched off later in settings.
One historical note, because people still ask. Trezor Suite once offered a Bitcoin CoinJoin feature that relied on an outside coordinator; when that coordinator shut down in 2024 the feature went with it. Coin control remains the practical privacy tool in Trezor Suite today, and it is a good habit regardless of what mixing services exist.
Privacy toggles at a glance
- tor routing
- desktop only
- custom backend
- blockbook / electrum
- discreet mode
- all builds
- coin control
- utxo chains
- analytics
- optional / off
- user account
- not required
$ verify --chain-of-trust
The security model in practice
Security in this system is layered, and Trezor Suite is responsible for only some of the layers. The device PIN protects against someone who physically takes your hardware; it is entered in a way that keeps the real digits on the device, and wrong guesses get progressively slower. The recovery seed, written down during setup, is the actual backup of your funds. If both device and seed are lost, no support ticket and no reinstall of Trezor Suite can bring the coins back.
Above the PIN sits the passphrase feature, which is where hidden wallets come from. A passphrase is not a second password on one wallet; each different passphrase deterministically opens a completely different set of accounts. Trezor Suite treats them as separate wallets, showing an empty portfolio for one you have never used. That property is powerful and unforgiving in equal measure: a mistyped character silently produces a different, empty wallet, and a forgotten passphrase is unrecoverable.
Backups themselves come in two shapes. The classic single recovery seed of 12, 20 or 24 words is written once and stored safely. Models that support Shamir Backup can instead split the secret into several shares with a threshold, so that recovering needs, say, any three of five. Trezor Suite guides both flows, and Trezor Suite can also run a check that confirms the words you wrote down really do match the device without exposing your seed to the computer.
Firmware is the other pillar. Devices only run firmware signed by SatoshiLabs, and Trezor Suite handles both the initial installation on a fresh device and later updates. On models with a secure element there is also an authenticity check that Trezor Suite runs so you can confirm the hardware in your hand is genuine and not a substitute inserted somewhere in the supply chain. Buy from an official channel, check the packaging, and let the app do the cryptographic part.
Finally, the boring rule that prevents most real losses. Trezor Suite will never ask you to type your recovery seed into the computer during normal use. Any web page, chat message, email or support agent that asks for those words is an attack, without exception.
! phishing advisory
Fake installers and lookalike domains are the most common way people lose funds. Download Trezor Suite only from the official source, verify signatures if you know how, and never enter recovery words anywhere except on the device itself during a genuine recovery you started.
$ devices --supported
Hardware the app works with
Every Trezor model in circulation is managed through Trezor Suite, including the original Trezor Model One from 2014, so an older device does not get stranded on obsolete software. What differs between models is the screen, the presence of a secure element and, in a few cases, which networks are supported at all. Trezor Suite adapts its interface accordingly, which is why two people looking at the same app can see slightly different options.
| model | input | secure element | backup options | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model One | two buttons, mono screen | no | single seed | some networks unsupported |
| Model T | colour touchscreen | no | single seed or Shamir | on-device text entry |
| Safe 3 | two buttons, mono screen | yes | single seed or Shamir | authenticity check |
| Safe 5 | colour touchscreen, haptics | yes | single seed or Shamir | authenticity check |
If you own more than one device, Trezor Suite can keep them all configured and switch between them from the device menu. That is common for people who split holdings between a daily-use wallet and a long-term one they connect twice a year.
$ assets --list
Coins and tokens you can hold
Trezor Suite handles the major networks natively: Bitcoin, Ethereum along with ERC-20 tokens, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Cardano, Solana and XRP among others, plus their test networks for anyone experimenting. For Bitcoin you can also choose which address type an account uses, from legacy through SegWit to Taproot, and run several accounts of different types side by side.
The list is curated rather than exhaustive, and that is intentional. Every added chain means more code to audit, more device firmware to verify and more indexing infrastructure to keep running. If a coin you hold is outside the set, the usual route is a third-party wallet that supports your device through the Trezor Connect integration layer, in which case that wallet's interface replaces the send and receive screens of Trezor Suite while the hardware still guards the keys.
Token handling deserves one note. Trezor Suite shows ERC-20 balances inside the relevant Ethereum account rather than as separate wallets, because they share the same address and the same gas. Sending a token therefore requires a small balance of the network's native coin for fees, a detail that catches out newcomers who moved only tokens across.
$ diff builds
Which build to use, side by side
The table compares the three official builds of Trezor Suite with the fourth option people often end up using: a third-party wallet that talks to the same hardware. It is not a ranking. Most people run the desktop build of Trezor Suite as home base and reach for the others when circumstances demand.
| capability | suite desktop | suite web | suite lite | third-party wallet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sign transactions | yes | yes | no | yes |
| firmware updates | yes | yes | no | no |
| bundled tor | yes | no | no | varies |
| custom backend | yes | limited | no | varies |
| install needed | yes | no | yes | yes |
| dapp access | no | no | no | yes |
The one row that surprises people is dapp access. Trezor Suite is a wallet interface, not a browser for decentralised applications, so connecting to a lending protocol or an NFT marketplace means driving the device through a compatible third-party wallet instead. Firmware and backup operations stay in Trezor Suite regardless of what else you use.
$ init wallet --first-run
Setting up a new wallet in five steps
Trezor Suite walks you through the whole sequence, which takes twenty to thirty minutes on a first device, and most of that is writing words down carefully. Do it somewhere private, without a camera pointing at your desk, and do not rush the backup step.
-
01Get the app from the official source
Download the desktop build for your operating system, or open the web build in a Chromium-based browser. Type the address rather than trusting a search result or an advert, since fake copies of Trezor Suite are the classic first-step attack.
-
02Connect the device and install firmware
New devices ship without firmware, so Trezor Suite installs it on first connection and verifies the signature. On models with a secure element, let Trezor Suite run its authenticity check at this point.
-
03Create the wallet and write the backup
Choose a single seed or, if your model supports it, a Shamir backup split into shares. The words appear only on the device screen. Write them on paper or metal, never in a photo, note app or password manager, then let Trezor Suite check that your copy matches.
-
04Set a PIN, and consider a passphrase
Pick a PIN you will not forget and that is not four repeated digits. A passphrase adds a hidden wallet on top, which Trezor Suite supports fully, but only enable it once you understand that losing the passphrase loses those funds permanently.
-
05Add accounts and test with a small amount
Enable the coins you hold, add an account, then send a small test amount in and back out again. Verifying the receiving address on the device display before you use it is the habit Trezor Suite is designed around, and it is worth practising while the stakes are low.
Once that is done, keep the backup somewhere separate from the device, and consider a second copy in another location. Trezor Suite can be reinstalled on any machine at any time; the words on paper are the part that cannot.
$ maintain --routine
Updates, upkeep and common snags
Updates arrive on two tracks. The desktop build of Trezor Suite updates itself, and device firmware updates are offered inside Trezor Suite when a new signed release is available. Read the notes before applying a firmware update and make sure your recovery backup is on hand first, not because updates typically go wrong, but because that is the one situation where having the seed nearby genuinely matters.
The most frequent complaint is a device that is not detected. Nine times out of ten the cause is mundane: a charge-only USB cable, a hub that does not pass data, a browser that has not been granted USB permission, or another wallet application holding the connection open. Try the supplied cable, a direct port, and closing anything else that might be talking to the device before assuming Trezor Suite is at fault.
The second most frequent complaint is balances that will not load. That is the backend link, not your coins. Check your connection, try the Tor toggle in either direction, and if you configured a custom server confirm it is actually running and synced. Your funds are recorded on the chain regardless of what Trezor Suite can currently display.
For anything stubborn, Trezor Suite can export a diagnostic log from its settings, which is what support will ask for. Two rules apply while troubleshooting: never share your recovery words with anyone offering help, and never install firmware or an application copy that someone sends you directly. Genuine builds of Trezor Suite come from the official download page and nowhere else.
$ faq --top
Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything?
No. Trezor Suite is free software that comes with the hardware, with no subscription and no account. Costs appear only through network fees when you transact and through the third-party providers behind the trade features in Trezor Suite.
Can I use it without a device?
Not for real funds. Trezor Suite is an interface for hardware, so signing anything needs the device connected. You can explore the layout and use test networks, but there is no software-only wallet mode.
What happens if my computer dies?
Nothing happens to your coins. Install Trezor Suite on another machine, connect the device, and your accounts reappear from the blockchain. Local extras such as labels and settings do not travel with you, so expect to redo those.
Is my seed ever on the computer?
In normal use, no. Seed words are generated and displayed on the device, and Trezor Suite never needs them. The only exception is a recovery you deliberately start, and even then the words are entered in a way that keeps them off the host where the model allows it.
Can I connect to dapps with it?
Not directly. Trezor Suite handles balances, transfers and device management, while decentralised applications are reached through a compatible third-party wallet that uses your device for signing.
Do I still need Trezor Bridge?
The desktop build of Trezor Suite includes its own transport, so a separate bridge is no longer part of the normal setup. If you have an old standalone bridge installed from years ago, it can conflict with current versions of Trezor Suite and is best removed.
Does it support multiple devices and wallets?
Yes. Trezor Suite recognises each connected device separately and treats every passphrase as its own wallet, so a daily-spending device and a long-term one coexist in the same application without mixing accounts.
Can I verify what the app is doing?
The source code for Trezor Suite is published, so it can be read, audited and in principle built yourself. For most users the practical verification is simpler: confirm addresses and amounts on the device screen, which is the check no software on your computer can bypass.
$ refs
Background reading
For general background on the hardware and on wallet concepts more broadly, encyclopedic references are a reasonable starting point before you dig into the technical documentation that accompanies Trezor Suite.