---
title: Testing your GitHub Pages site locally with Jekyll
intro: 'You can build your {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site locally to preview and test changes to your site.'
redirect_from:
  - /articles/setting-up-your-pages-site-locally-with-jekyll/
  - /articles/setting-up-your-github-pages-site-locally-with-jekyll/
  - /articles/testing-your-github-pages-site-locally-with-jekyll
product: '{% data reusables.gated-features.pages %}'
versions:
  free-pro-team: '*'
  enterprise-server: '*'
---

Anyone with read permissions for a repository can test a {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site locally.

### Prerequisites

Before you can use Jekyll to test a site, you must:
  - Install [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/).
  - Create a Jekyll site. For more information, see "[Creating a {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} site with Jekyll](/articles/creating-a-github-pages-site-with-jekyll)."

{% data reusables.pages.recommend-bundler %}

{% data reusables.pages.jekyll-install-troubleshooting %}

### Building your site locally

{% data reusables.command_line.open_the_multi_os_terminal %}
{% data reusables.pages.navigate-publishing-source %}
3. Run your Jekyll site locally.
  ```shell
  $ bundle exec jekyll serve
  > Configuration file: /Users/octocat/my-site/_config.yml
  >            Source: /Users/octocat/my-site
  >       Destination: /Users/octocat/my-site/_site
  > Incremental build: disabled. Enable with --incremental
  >      Generating...
  >                    done in 0.309 seconds.
  > Auto-regeneration: enabled for '/Users/octocat/my-site'
  > Configuration file: /Users/octocat/my-site/_config.yml
  >    Server address: http://127.0.0.1:4000/
  >  Server running... press ctrl-c to stop.
  ```
3. To preview your site, in your web browser, navigate to `http://localhost:4000`.

### Updating the {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} gem

Jekyll is an active open source project that is updated frequently. If the `github-pages` gem on your computer is out of date with the `github-pages` gem on the {% data variables.product.prodname_pages %} server, your site may look different when built locally than when published on {% data variables.product.product_name %}. To avoid this, regularly update the `github-pages` gem on your computer.

{% data reusables.command_line.open_the_multi_os_terminal %}
2. Update the `github-pages` gem.
    - If you installed Bundler, run `bundle update github-pages`.
    - If you don't have Bundler installed, run `gem update github-pages`.

### Further reading

- [{% data variables.product.prodname_pages %}](http://jekyllrb.com/docs/github-pages/) in the Jekyll documentation