# How to set up Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi > Install Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi Imager, reach it in your browser, complete onboarding and keep a backup habit from day one. - Published: 2026-10-23 - Topic: [Backup & Recovery](https://futuretechnologyhq.com/topic/backup-recovery/) - URL: https://futuretechnologyhq.com/article/home-assistant-raspberry-pi-5-setup/ - Publisher: [Future Technology](https://futuretechnologyhq.com/), free to read. Quote as "Future Technology" with a link to the article. ## Key points - Home Assistant OS is the recommended installation type for most users, and it is installed on a Raspberry Pi using Raspberry Pi Imager. - Within a few minutes of connecting the Pi you should be able to reach Home Assistant at homeassistant.local, or at homeassistant:8123 or the Pi's IP address followed by :8123 if that fails. - Use a proper power supply: mobile chargers may not be suitable and a computer's USB port will not supply enough power. - Onboarding takes only a few minutes in your browser, and the owner account cannot be recovered if you lose its credentials, so store them somewhere safe. ## Article *This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. [Full disclosure](/affiliate-disclosure/).* It needs a small computer under the telly and a little patience. That computer is a Raspberry Pi, and the software is Home Assistant. This guide takes you from an empty box to a working installation and a first automation. It follows the official instructions and the 2026.10 release, as of October 2026. ## What you need You need a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 and a proper power supply. The power supply matters. Mobile chargers may not be suitable, since some are designed to provide full power only to that manufacturer's handsets. USB ports on your computer will not supply enough power and must not be used. Here is what I would buy: - **The board.** The [Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CK2FCG1K?tag=futuretech0d6-21) is more than a basic Home Assistant install strictly needs. I like it because the same board can later run Pi-hole, a photo server or a handful of containers alongside it. Our [Raspberry Pi home server guide](/article/raspberry-pi-home-server-2026/) covers that route. - **The card.** The [SanDisk Extreme microSDXC](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09X7C2GBC?tag=futuretech0d6-21) is a sensible, well-known choice for a Pi. Check which capacity suits you before you buy. - **The power supply.** Use an appropriate power supply for your Raspberry Pi. ## Which installation type to choose Home Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers, such as the Raspberry Pi, or on virtual machines. It includes Home Assistant Core and the Home Assistant Supervisor, and it supports apps. The Supervisor keeps it up to date, which removes the need for you to manage an operating system. It is the recommended installation type for most users, and it is the one this guide uses. There is another route. Home Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focuses on Docker. If you want to check its limitations and installation instructions, the project has a separate page for Home Assistant Container on a Raspberry Pi. ## Step 1: write Home Assistant to the card Do this on your laptop or desktop. Install Raspberry Pi Imager and use it to write Home Assistant OS to your microSD card. Pick the image for your board, whether that is a Raspberry Pi 4 or a Raspberry Pi 5, and choose your card as the target. Everything on the card will be erased, so check you have selected the right one. If Raspberry Pi Imager is not supported by your platform, you can download the Home Assistant image and use another imaging tool, such as Balena Etcher. The download links on the official page are separate for the two boards, so make sure you copy the right one: - For the Raspberry Pi 5, use the file named haos_rpi5-64-18.3.img.xz. - For the Raspberry Pi 4, use the file named haos_rpi4-64-18.3.img.xz. Both are hosted on GitHub, in the home-assistant/operating-system repository. ## Step 2: first boot Put the card in the Pi and connect it to your network. Then connect the power, using a proper supply. You do not need a screen for this. Within a few minutes after connecting the Raspberry Pi, you will be able to reach your new Home Assistant. ## Step 3: open Home Assistant On your computer, open **homeassistant.local** in a browser. If that does not work, try these in turn: 1. **homeassistant.local:8123**, which is worth trying if the address does not open without a port number. 2. **homeassistant:8123**. 3. The Pi's IP address followed by **:8123**, written as http://X.X.X.X:8123, with X.X.X.X replaced by your Raspberry Pi's IP address. Your router's device list will show it. If you are running an older Windows version or have a stricter network configuration, you might need to use homeassistant or the plain IP address instead. Once you can see the welcome screen, the Raspberry Pi setup is finished and you can continue with onboarding. ## Step 4: onboarding After Home Assistant has been installed, there are five steps to complete the setup. The entire onboarding takes only a few minutes and is done in your browser, so no command-line or coding is required. Open the address shown in your installation guide. On the welcome screen, you can either create a new installation or restore an existing installation from a backup. For a fresh install, you create an account. This account is an administrator account, so it will always be able to change everything. Enter a name, a username and a password, repeat the password under Confirm password, then select Create account. Store those details somewhere safe, such as a password manager. There is no way to recover the owner credentials. Next you enter the location of your home. On the Help us help you screen, you select which information you are willing to share. Finally, you review the final setup screen. The [official onboarding guide](https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/onboarding/) walks through each screen. ## Back up from day one This is the step people skip, and the one they regret. The onboarding screen itself offers a way to restore an existing installation from a backup, which tells you how central backups are to the way Home Assistant works. A restore is only possible if you made a backup in the first place. Open the backup settings in Home Assistant, set up automatic backups and keep a copy somewhere that is not the Pi itself, such as a network drive or cloud storage. This is the [3-2-1 backup rule](/article/3-2-1-backup-rule-how-to/) in miniature: more than one copy, and not all of them on the same device. ## Build one automation you will notice Skip the clever stuff. Start with something you will see happen tonight, such as turning on a light or smart plug at sunset. During onboarding you enter the location of your home. Create the automation from the Automations section of the settings, choose a sun trigger set to sunset, and pick a light or plug as the action. Save it and check it at dusk. The pattern is always the same: a trigger, a condition if you need one, and an action. ## Keep it healthy - **Update on purpose.** The release notes for each version list every change, so read them before big updates. The 2026.10 changelog, for example, is a long list of changes, including additions to integrations and dependency bumps. - **Protect the power.** Sudden power cuts are rough on any Pi. A small UPS helps if your area is prone to them. Our [UPS guide for home servers](/article/best-ups-for-nas-home-server/) explains what size to look at. ## What to do next Once it is running, add one thing a week. A motion sensor in the hallway. A smart plug on the kettle you always forget. A dashboard on an old tablet. If you also want to block ads across the house, run [Pi-hole](/article/pi-hole-block-ads-every-device/) on a second Pi. Home Assistant rewards small, boring wins. Get the basics solid, back them up, and the clever stuff will come. ## Sources - [Raspberry Pi installation](https://www.home-assistant.io/installation/raspberrypi) - [onboarding guide](https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/onboarding/) - [Home Assistant 2026.10 changelog](https://www.home-assistant.io/changelogs/core-2026.10/) - [Raspberry Pi 5 product page](https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5/)