Psychtoolbox
Psychtoolbox is an open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox that provides high-precision visual and auditory stimulus presentation for academic neuroscience, vision science, and psychology research laboratories globally. It integrates with specialized research hardware (eye trackers, response boxes, EEG, colorimeters) and is maintained by a community under lead developer Mario Kleiner.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1995
- HeadquartersBoston, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Psychtoolbox does
Psychtoolbox is an open-source software project providing a MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox for vision and neuroscience research, originally founded around 1995 and continuously developed under lead maintainer Mario Kleiner. The core product (PTB-3) delivers high-performance 2D and 3D graphics with sub-millisecond timing precision, low-latency audio playback and capture via PsychPortAudio, and integration with specialized research hardware including SR-Research Eyelink eye trackers, VPixx DataPixx/ViewPixx/Propixx display systems, CRS Bits++/Bits#, Cedrus and CMUBox response boxes, EGI EEG systems, and Photo Research colorimeters. The PsychImaging pipeline provides color calibration, gamma correction, and psychometric routines such as the QUEST threshold-seeking algorithm. The toolbox supports standard operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS including Apple Silicon), HDR displays, and VR/AR devices, with current versions built against Matlab R2025b and Octave 6-10.
The primary customer base consists of academic neuroscience and vision science research laboratories and university psychology departments that require millisecond-accurate stimulus presentation and precise response timestamping for psychophysics and perception experiments. Secondary use cases include cognitive psychology and behavioral research. Distribution is community-led via GitHub releases, a Discourse forum, academic citations, and presentations at the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) conference.
The business model is freemium: the core software is freely distributed under GNU GPL, with optional paid priority support, community membership, and commercial licensing keys sold through psychtoolbox.net, plus targeted sponsorship contracts from partners such as MathWorks for platform compatibility work. Revenue is not disclosed, and the project operates without venture capital, private equity, or institutional investment. Ownership and control rest with the open-source community, with Mario Kleiner serving as the primary maintainer and institutional contributions from Max Planck Institute, University of York, and individual academic developers.
Psychtoolbox firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Psychtoolbox
- Legal name
- Psychtoolbox
- Website
- https://psychtoolbox.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1995
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Psychtoolbox is an open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox that provides high-precision visual and auditory stimulus presentation for academic neuroscience, vision science, and psychology research laboratories globally. It integrates with specialized research hardware (eye trackers, response boxes, EEG, colorimeters) and is maintained by a community under lead developer Mario Kleiner.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Psychtoolbox is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Boston
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Psychtoolbox business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Open Source Distribution: Psychtoolbox is freely available as open-source software under GNU GPL. Users can download from GitHub without charge.
- Commercial Support and Services: Paid commercial support, priority support services, community membership, and extended services available through psychtoolbox.net for academic institutions and commercial users requiring professional support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free Open Source - Core software |
| Subscription | Annual | Priority Support / Community Membership |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels6 records
Psychtoolbox product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Psychtoolbox-3 (PTB-3) is an open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox that provides high-performance 2D and 3D graphics, sub-millisecond accurate visual and auditory stimulus presentation, and precise timing control for vision science, neuroscience, and psychophysics research experiments. It interfaces directly with computer hardware through OpenGL, supports video playback/capture via GStreamer, low-latency audio via PsychPortAudio, and integrates with research-grade hardware including eye trackers (Eyelink, iViewX), response boxes (Cedrus, RTBox, CMUBox), EEG systems (EGI NetStation), HDR displays, VR/AR devices, and VPixx/CRS display hardware. The core software is distributed free under GNU GPL, with paid commercial support, priority support, and community membership subscriptions available through psychtoolbox.net.
Product overview
Psychtoolbox-3 (PTB-3) is a unified, open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox for vision and neuroscience research. It provides an integrated platform combining visual and auditory stimulus generation (via high-performance 2D/3D graphics with OpenGL), precise timing and synchronization capabilities, audio playback and capture, and comprehensive response collection from multiple input devices. The product is delivered as a single integrated toolbox rather than separate modules, with specialized functionality organized into subfolders including Eyelink (eye tracking), PsychPortAudio (audio), PsychDataPixx (high-precision timing displays), PsychImaging (image processing pipeline), and various hardware drivers. Some functionality is available in Python via PsychoPy. The toolbox supports HDR displays, VR/AR devices, multiple operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS), and specialized research hardware including response boxes, eye trackers, EEG systems, and photometric calibration devices.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Psychtoolbox-3 (PTB-3) Open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox providing high-performance 2D/3D OpenGL graphics, sub-millisecond visual and auditory stimulus presentation, precise timing control, PsychPortAudio low-latency audio, PsychImaging color calibration pipeline, and integration with eye trackers (Eyelink, iViewX), response boxes (Cedrus, RTBox, CMUBox), EEG (EGI NetStation), VR/AR HMDs, HDR displays, and VPixx/CRS display hardware. Distributed under GNU GPL via GitHub for vision and neuroscience research.
- Commercial Support and Priority Support Subscriptions Paid priority support, community membership, license keys, and extended commercial services sold through psychtoolbox.net for academic institutions and commercial users requiring professional support and commercial licensing unavailable under the GNU GPL.
Quantifiable outcome
- Supports stimulus presentation on Matlab R2025b (Linux, Windows, macOS) and Octave 6-10 across all major platforms
Companies that use Psychtoolbox
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Psychtoolbox technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration14 records
AI capability6 records
Feature8 records
Psychtoolbox partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- MathWorkscoreMathWorks sponsored development work to improve Psychtoolbox compatibility with Matlab R2025a and newer versions. This partnership ensures seamless integration with the latest Matlab releases and includes sponsorship for compatibility fixes related to Matlab's new JavaScript-based GUI and WebGL graphics system.
- VPixx TechnologiescoreVPixx provides hardware (DataPixx, ViewPixx, Propixx, Bits#) that Psychtoolbox supports with specialized drivers and imaging pipeline integration for high-precision display control in vision research.
- Cambridge Research Systems (CRS)corePsychtoolbox provides comprehensive support for CRS hardware including Bits#, Bits++, OptiCal, and ColorCal colorimeters. CRS devices enhance Psychtoolbox's high-precision display capabilities.
- SR-Research (Eyelink)corePsychtoolbox includes the Eyelink Toolbox for integration with SR-Research Eyelink eye trackers, enabling eye tracking in vision science experiments with video feedback during calibration.
- David Brainard (University of Colorado)majorDavid Brainard and his laboratory contribute extensively to Psychtoolbox's color calibration, colorimetric, and psychometric functions including PsychCal, Munsell color space conversions, and radiometric routines.
- Diederick C. NiehorstermajorContributed significant improvements to Psychtoolbox including PsychSignal, PsychOneliners, PsychProbability toolboxes, PsychRTBox enhancements, and various other improvements to staircase functions and general toolbox routines.
- Max Planck Institute for Biological CyberneticsmajorProf. Heinrich Buelthoff supported development of Psychtoolbox including the 64-bit macOS port by allowing developer time allocation at the institute.
- University of York, CanadaminorProf. Keith Schneider donated hardware to support Psychtoolbox development, specifically an Apple MacBookPro for 64-bit macOS port work.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Psychtoolbox competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- MathWorks (MATLAB): Parent platform vendor for Psychtoolbox. MathWorks sponsors ongoing compatibility work and MathWorks' broader toolboxes (Image Processing, Computer Vision, Data Acquisition) provide overlapping stimulus and timing capabilities that are more general but less specialized.
Direct peers
- PsychoPy: Open-source Python-based psychophysics toolkit that explicitly bundles some Psychtoolbox functionality. Direct peer in the same stimulus-presentation and vision-research category, with a more graphical Pythonic interface competing for the same researcher user base.
- E-Prime: Commercial psychology experiment authoring software from Psychology Software Tools. Long-standing proprietary alternative to Psychtoolbox in academic psychology and cognitive neuroscience labs.
- Inquisit: Commercial psychology experiment platform from Millisecond with strong adoption in cognitive psychology research. Direct peer in stimulus presentation and response timing for behavioral experiments.
- jsPsych: JavaScript-based library for running behavioral and cognitive experiments in a web browser. Direct peer targeting psychology and neuroscience researchers with a different delivery model (browser-based) but overlapping use cases.
- Presentation (Neurobehavioral Systems): Commercial stimulus delivery and experiment generation software widely used in vision and cognitive neuroscience. Direct paid competitor to Psychtoolbox for visual stimulus presentation with millisecond timing.
- OpenSesame: Open-source Python-based graphical experiment builder for psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Competes directly with Psychtoolbox for behavioral experiment design with a more accessible GUI.
Emerging players
- APEX: Open-source Python and Matlab framework for designing and running psychology and neuroscience experiments. Direct peer in stimulus presentation for academic research, with a smaller user community than Psychtoolbox.
- SR Research Experiment Builder: Experiment building software bundled with SR-Research Eyelink eye trackers. Overlaps with Psychtoolbox's eye-tracking integration but is narrower in scope and tied to a single hardware vendor.
Broad incumbents
- Tobii Pro Lab: Commercial eye-tracking research software from Tobii. Comparable through its eye-tracking data visualization and timing synchronization, but bundled with proprietary hardware rather than open-source.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Psychtoolbox social profiles
Digital presencePsychtoolbox financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Psychtoolbox leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Psychtoolbox funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Psychtoolbox M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Psychtoolbox
What does Psychtoolbox do?
Psychtoolbox-3 (PTB-3) is an open-source MATLAB and GNU Octave toolbox that provides high-performance 2D and 3D graphics, sub-millisecond accurate visual and auditory stimulus presentation, and precise timing control for vision science, neuroscience, and psychophysics research experiments. It interfaces directly with computer hardware through OpenGL, supports video playback/capture via GStreamer, low-latency audio via PsychPortAudio, and integrates with research-grade hardware including eye trackers (Eyelink, iViewX), response boxes (Cedrus, RTBox, CMUBox), EEG systems (EGI NetStation), HDR displays, VR/AR devices, and VPixx/CRS display hardware. The core software is distributed free under GNU GPL, with paid commercial support, priority support, and community membership subscriptions available through psychtoolbox.net.
Is Psychtoolbox a public or private company?
Psychtoolbox is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was Psychtoolbox founded?
Psychtoolbox was founded in 1995. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Psychtoolbox based?
Psychtoolbox is headquartered in Boston, United States, in the North America region.
How does Psychtoolbox make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Open Source Distribution is the primary driver. The others are commercial Support and Services.
Who are Psychtoolbox's main competitors?
MathWorks (MATLAB) is listed as an others. Direct peers are PsychoPy, E-Prime, Inquisit, jsPsych, Presentation (Neurobehavioral Systems) and OpenSesame. Emerging players are APEX and SR Research Experiment Builder. Tobii Pro Lab is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Psychtoolbox have an API?
No public API is recorded for Psychtoolbox.