Just use official TailwindCSS v4 Standalone executables for Windows, macOS or Linux.
Source: Guide for TailwindCSS v4 Standalone (executables)
Download
Manually, you can download the appropriate executable using the following links:
Or, automatically, you can use the same links to generate the executable directly in CMD and rename it to tailwindcss, on any system:
Windows
Option 1: PowerShell
# Download Tailwind CSS standalone
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-windows-x64.exe" -OutFile "tailwindcss.exe"
# Make it executable (if needed)
# No additional permissions needed on Windows
Option 2: Command Prompt
REM Download Tailwind CSS standalone using curl (Windows 10 1803+)
curl -L -o tailwindcss.exe https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-windows-x64.exe
macOS
For ARM (M1/M2/M3)
# Download for macOS ARM (M1/M2/M3)
curl -sLO https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-macos-arm64
chmod +x tailwindcss-macos-arm64
mv tailwindcss-macos-arm64 tailwindcss
For Intel
# Download for macOS Intel
curl -sLO https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-macos-x64
chmod +x tailwindcss-macos-x64
mv tailwindcss-macos-x64 tailwindcss
Linux
For x64
# Download for Linux x64
curl -sLO https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-linux-x64
chmod +x tailwindcss-linux-x64
mv tailwindcss-linux-x64 tailwindcss
For ARM64
# Download for Linux ARM64
curl -sLO https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/latest/download/tailwindcss-linux-arm64
chmod +x tailwindcss-linux-arm64
mv tailwindcss-linux-arm64 tailwindcss
Usage
Note: The usage example is based on the automation setup, so I'm assuming your downloaded file is named either tailwindcss or tailwindcss.exe.
At this point, you can't use it globally yet, but you can already run it with /path/to/tailwindcss. Let's assume you downloaded it into the same folder as your project - in that case, you can access it directly using ./tailwindcss (or ./tailwindcss.exe).
(I'll cover how to make it globally accessible at the end of the answer.)
Import Tailwind in your CSS
Traditionally, for every TailwindCSS v4 project, place the required CSS imports in your project's main CSS file.
./src/input.css
@import "tailwindcss";
Start the Tailwind CLI build process
Now, just like when running the Tailwind CLI installed via npm, you can use the downloaded executable file with similar flags. Run the executable CLI tool to scan your source files for classes and build your CSS.
./tailwindcss.exe -i ./src/input.css -o ./output.css --watch
Tip: With the --watch flag, the command runs continuously until stopped and regenerates output.css on every file change. Without the flag, the command runs only once.
Start using Tailwind in your HTML
You need to reference the generated output.css properly in your main HTML file.
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link href="./output.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="text-3xl font-bold underline">
Hello world!
</h1>
</body>
</html>
How to use executable globally
Windows
To use the downloaded executable globally on Windows, it's best to place it in a folder separate from your project - for example, C:\bin or something similar, where you can keep all such executables.
After that, add the chosen folder to your PATH environment variable; and tailwindcss.exe can be run from anywhere.
macOS and Linux
On macOS and Linux, simply copy the file to /usr/local/bin. Or, if you don't have permission, you can use an alternative folder, e.g.: ~/bin.
After that, the tailwindcss can be run from anywhere.
