How to Install BeamNG Mods (Repository and Manual)

There are two ways to install mods in BeamNG.drive. Both are quick once you know the rules, and most “my mod vanished” problems come from skipping one of them.

Two ways to install

From the Repository. The official mod Repository is built into the game and the BeamNG website. One click installs the mod and keeps it updated. Use this whenever the mod is available there.
Manually. For mods from the official forum or other sites, you download a .zip and put it in your mods folder yourself. You also update these yourself.

Install from the Repository

Start BeamNG.drive.
Open Repository from the main menu or the sidebar menu.
Browse or filter by category. Check each mod’s rating and date: very old mods may not work on the current game version.
Open a mod and click Subscribe.

The game downloads the mod, enables it and keeps it updated automatically. Subscribed mods are stored in the mods\repo folder inside your user folder. Leave that folder to the game.

You can also start from the Repository on the BeamNG website. Its Subscribe button opens the game and subscribes there, and View ingame shows the mod in the in-game Repository. Download Now just downloads the zip through your browser, which means you then install it manually as below and lose automatic updates.

To stop using a Repository mod, unsubscribe from it in the game.

Install a mod manually

Download the mod. It should be a .zip file.
Do not extract it. BeamNG reads mods straight from the zip. Unzipping is the most common reason a manual install fails.
Open your mods folder. In the BeamNG launcher choose Manage User Folder, then Open in Explorer, then open current and mods. On a recent install the full path is:
```
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BeamNG\BeamNG.drive\current\mods
```
If there is no mods folder, create one with exactly that name.
Drag the zip into mods. Put it directly in mods, not in repo and not in a subfolder of your own.
Restart the game if it was running.
Check the Mods Manager. Open Mods Manager in the game. The mod should be listed and enabled. If it isn’t listed, the mod has a problem; see BeamNG mods not showing up.

Two things to watch for:

A zip inside a zip. Some downloads wrap the real mod in a second archive along with a readme. Open the download: if the top level holds another .zip, that inner zip is the mod.
The wrong folder. The game’s install folder, an old Documents\BeamNG.drive folder and a OneDrive copy of Documents all look plausible, and the game reads none of them. Where is the BeamNG mods folder explains the details.

Once loaded, a mod appears where its type belongs: vehicles in the vehicle selector, parts in the vehicle configuration menu, liveries under Paint Design in vehicle configuration, maps in the level selector and scenarios in the scenario selector.

Where to get mods safely

Start with the official Repository. Mods there have been through BeamNG’s review, and they update themselves. The official forum is the next best place, since you can see the author and read the thread.

For anything else, check the source:

Prefer the author’s own page over a site that re-uploads other people’s mods.
A BeamNG mod is a .zip. Be very wary of anything that comes as an .exe or other installer. BeamNG’s own guide warns these may contain malware.
Keep your antivirus up to date.

How to uninstall a mod

Repository mods: unsubscribe in the in-game Repository.
Manual mods: close the game, open your mods folder and delete the mod’s .zip.
Just want it off for a while? Disable it in the Mods Manager instead. It stays in the folder but isn’t loaded, and you can turn it back on later.

Don’t delete files from mods\repo by hand. Unsubscribe instead, or the game may download the mod again.

How many mods is too many?

BeamNG’s official guidance is to avoid running more than about 20 to 30 mods at the same time, because some mods conflict with each other. The more you have enabled, the longer loading takes and the harder it gets to find which mod is causing a problem.

You don’t have to delete mods to stay under that. Keep the ones you aren’t using disabled, and enable the set you want for each session. If you switch between sets often, for example one for crash testing and one for BeamMP, BeamNG mod presets and Loadouts covers ways to switch a whole set at once.