How to Create a MetaMask Wallet

In this guide, learn how to create a MetaMask wallet & get testnet ETH so you can start building on Ethereum. Learn more.

How to Create a MetaMask Wallet - thirdweb Guides

Head over to the MetaMask Website and download the browser extension.

Metamask website

After downloading and installing MetaMask, the following screen should pop up.

Welcome Screen of Metamask

You can either log in to your existing wallet with your Secret Recovery Phrase or create a new wallet. We'll go ahead and create a new wallet.

Get started by creating a new wallet

Choose whether you want to share data with MetaMask or not. Up to you...

Select if you want to share data with metamask

Create a password. The password should be a minimum of 8 characters. Make sure to add numbers, special signs and capital letters.

Create a new password

A Secret Recovery Phrase is the key to your wallet. Make sure you save your Secret Recovery Phrase properly.

Secure your wallet with secret recovery Phrase

Here is an example of a Secret Recovery Phrase. This is not the same as your Private Key. The Secret Recovery Phrase is used to login to your wallet from any device, and the Private Key is used to interact with your wallet when developing applications (think of it as admin access)

You will be asked to confirm your Secret Recovery Phrase. You need to pick the exact order as shown before.

Confirm your Secret Recovery Phrase

Congratulations! You created a wallet!

congrats! Your wallet has been created

Export your private key

You should be logged in to MetaMask inside your browser. Head over to the top right corner and click on the three dots and then click on Account details

Select Account details

The following screen should pop up. Click on Export Private Key.

Click on Export Private Key

MetaMask will ask you for your password. Fill in your password and click Confirm.

Enter your password

After filling in your password, your Private Key will be exposed. Be aware. Don't share your Private Key with anyone or else they can execute transactions from your wallet and access your funds.

You can now see your private key

Getting ETH on Goerli Testnet

To execute transactions we need ETH to pay for gas, but paying for ETH on mainnet is quite expensive! Luckily we can make use of so-called "testnets". Testnets are networks that operate and behave just like the mainnet.
So we can deploy our smart contracts on the testnet and test them before we deploy our smart contract.

Learn more about testnets on our Which Blockchain & Network Should I use guide.

We can switch between networks inside our wallet by clicking the current network located at the top:

Switch networks in your wallet

Head over to this Goerli Faucet and paste your wallet in the input field.

After a couple of minutes, you'll receive some free ETH so you can start developing your applications!