Wokwi

What Wokwi is

Wokwi is an online electronics simulator. You pick a board, add parts such as LEDs, buttons, sensors and displays, wire them in the browser, and run real firmware on a simulated microcontroller. Supported chips include the ATmega328P (Arduino Uno and Nano), the ATmega2560 (Arduino Mega), a wide range of ESP32 variants including the ESP32, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3, several STM32 parts such as the STM32C031 and the STM32F103 "Blue Pill", and the RP2040 on the Raspberry Pi Pico. It is made by Wokwi B.V.

Is it worth your time?

For learners, very much. You can practise GPIO, PWM, interrupts, timing and I2C before you own any hardware, and you cannot burn anything by miswiring. The ESP32 simulation includes Wi-Fi: a virtual access point called Wokwi-GUEST gives the simulated board internet access through a public gateway, so you can test HTTP or MQTT code without a board. Wokwi's own documentation notes that public gateway traffic is monitored for security, so never send private data through it.

It is also the best way to ask for help: share a link to a project that runs, and whoever helps you sees exactly your wiring and code.

What it cannot replace

A simulator does not reproduce loose jumper wires, weak power supplies, noisy sensors or the exact behaviour of every module. Use it to learn and to test logic, then build on real hardware, where you will meet the electrical problems that make embedded work what it is.

Free or paid?

According to Wokwi's pricing page, the free Community plan includes unlimited simulations and unlimited public projects. Paid plans (Hobby, Hobby+ and Pro, priced per month) add faster builds, private projects and extras such as the Wokwi for VS Code extension, and the Pro plan adds CI minutes for automated testing in GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. Check the pricing page for current prices.

Prerequisites and time

None beyond basic programming. You can run the first example in minutes. Most learners keep using it through a whole course for quick experiments.

What you can do with it

• Try every example from a beginner course without hardware.
• Test interrupt, timer and non-blocking code, and watch pins in the logic analyser view.
• Prototype an ESP32 Wi-Fi or MQTT sketch before wiring the real device.
• Share a reproducible project link with a mentor or a forum.

Common questions

Can I simulate a Raspberry Pi running Linux? No. Wokwi simulates microcontrollers, including the Raspberry Pi Pico, not Linux single-board computers.

Does it work with the Arduino IDE? You write code in the browser editor, or use the VS Code extension on a paid plan, including with ESP-IDF and PlatformIO projects.

Best for: learners on Arduino, ESP32 or STM32 who want fast, safe practice, and anyone asking for help with a circuit.