How to add beatmaps to osu!

Every osu! beatmap ships as a .osz file. Installing one takes seconds — here's how, on both versions of the game.

A .osz is osu!'s beatmap package: one file containing the song's audio, the chart data (note placements and timing), and any background image. Whether you downloaded it from the official website, got it from a friend, or generated one with AI, the install steps are the same.

osu! lazer (the current version)

1. Drag the .osz file onto the osu! window. That's it — lazer imports it instantly and shows a notification when it's done.
2. Alternatively, double-click the .osz in your file manager. If osu! is associated with the file type, it opens the game and imports automatically.
3. Go to song select and search the song's title — the new map is ready to play.

osu! stable (the classic version)

1. Double-click the .osz, or drag it onto the osu! window. The game imports it and usually jumps straight to the map.
2. If you prefer doing it manually: move the .osz into your Songs folder (default %localappdata%\osu!\Songs, or find it via osu! settings → "Open osu! folder"), then press F5 in song select to refresh the beatmap list.

The map isn't showing up?

• Check the game-mode filter. An osu!mania map won't appear when song select is filtered to another mode. In stable, set the mode filter (bottom of song select) to osu!mania; in lazer, switch the active ruleset. Mania maps show their key count, like [4K] or [7K].
• The file downloaded as .zip? Some browsers rename it. A .osz is a zip archive with a different extension — rename it back to .osz and import again. Don't extract it.
• Dropped it in Songs but nothing happened? In stable you must press F5 while in song select (or restart the game) before new files are picked up.
• Imported the same map twice? osu! deduplicates by beatmap content — a re-import of the identical map replaces rather than duplicates.

Where do beatmaps come from?

The main source is the official listing at osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets — hundreds of thousands of hand-made maps, searchable by mode and difficulty. If the song you want has never been mapped, that's the gap DanceGAI fills: upload the audio and generate a playable osu!mania mapset for it in about a minute, then install the .osz exactly as above.