Key takeaways
- Canary is for Forge and NeoForge; there is no Fabric version.
- On Fabric or Quilt, use Lithium, the original that Canary is based on.
- Radium is an older Forge port of Lithium; do not combine it with Canary.
- Rendering and memory mods complement Canary instead of competing with it.
Is there a Canary Mod for Fabric?
No. Canary is built for Forge and NeoForge only. Fabric players do not need it, because Canary exists to bring Lithium's optimizations to the Forge side. On Fabric or Quilt, install Lithium directly. It is the original project, maintained by CaffeineMC, and updates quickly for new Minecraft releases.
Searches for "Canary mod Fabric" usually come from players moving between loaders, or from modpack lists that mix Fabric and Forge mods. If a site offers a "Canary Fabric" download, be careful. It is not an official file.
How the three mods are related
- Lithium is the original, written for Fabric. Recent versions have also added NeoForge support for some Minecraft releases.
- Radium was an earlier community port of Lithium to Forge, mainly for older versions.
- Canary is the actively maintained Forge and NeoForge port that most modern Forge packs use.
Because they patch the same parts of the game, installing two of them together almost always causes a mixin crash on startup.
Canary or Lithium on NeoForge?
On NeoForge you may find both Canary and Lithium available for the same Minecraft version. Choose one. If your modpack already includes one of them, keep it, since the pack's authors tested compatibility with that choice. If you are building your own pack, pick whichever has the newest build for your exact version and check its known issues.
What to combine with Canary
Canary handles game logic. Other mods handle other bottlenecks and stack well with it:
- Embeddium for faster chunk rendering and higher FPS.
- FerriteCore for lower memory use.
- ModernFix for faster launch times and assorted fixes.
Our performance stack guide explains how they fit together, and the alternatives table compares them side by side.
Which should you pick?
Fabric or Quilt: Lithium. Forge: Canary. NeoForge: Canary or Lithium, never both. Anything older than 1.16.5: neither, as explained in our legacy versions guide.
Ready to try it? Get the right file from the Canary Mod download section, or browse frequently asked questions.
We test Canary and related performance mods on Forge and NeoForge across multiple Minecraft versions, and we update our guides when new builds or known issues appear. About our editorial process.
