The biggest change in the 3D modeling toolset in Maya 2025 is the Smart Extrude system, which has been ported from the related application - 3ds Max. First introduced in 3ds Max 2021.2 and continuously updated over the next three years, the Smart Extrude system aims to provide a more intuitive way of extruding geometry compared to existing tools. It combines extrusion, cutting, merging, and joining as a single operation, allowing for the rapid creation of complex shapes.
Users can extrude faces interactively in the viewport, with Maya automatically restoring and stitching faces that were extruded, reducing the need for manual cleanup. Existing Maya modeling tools have also been updated: the Bevel node can now filter input edges.

Instead of applying the bevel operation to the entire mesh, the Poly Bevel Filter allows it to be applied only to selected faces, hard edges, or edges exceeding a threshold angle. When applying bevel to a mesh resulting from a boolean operation, by default, the bevel now affects only the edges created at the boolean intersection. If the input boolean meshes change, the bevel is updated automatically, as shown above. Additionally, Extrude Edge now automatically creates UVs for newly created edges or faces. The new UV files will be offset relative to the original UV files in UV space, requiring less manual tweaking.

Character riggers now have a new "Deformation" widget in the attribute editor, allowing them to view deformers and topology modifiers affecting an object without the need to use the Node Graph. It provides quick access to essential information about each deformer, such as vertex count and component types, and also allows for reordering, disabling, or reactivating deformers. Updates to existing rigging features include the ability to use the Proximity Wrap deformer as a proxNet deformer.

The Bake Deformer Tool, used for baking complex rigs for export to game engines and other applications with limited deformer support, has received another update: the new Range of Motion option allows setting poses only from a specific point of animation.
Among other changes is the ability to adjust the size of joint label text and automatically orient the secondary joint axis in the Orient Joint Options and Joint Tool settings. Animators have been given a new Motion Trail Editor, accessible from the Visualize menu. It consolidates settings that were previously scattered across multiple Maya interface windows, including the Outliner, Channel Box, and Attribute Editor. Existing Maya animation tools have also been updated, and the Dope Sheet has undergone a significant overhaul. As a result of the update, it has a "cleaner, better-organized interface," more akin to a graphic editor, with new visual indicators for keyframe properties and customizable colors for identifying keyframe sets. The workflow for working with keyframes has been improved, including a new Ripple Edit feature for moving and scaling keys. New keyboard shortcuts have been added to the Graph Editor for creating curves.

It is worth noting that in addition to the application updates, the new set of tools for shading graph creation in USD, introduced in Maya 2024, has received another update: LookdevX 1.3 now includes support for MaterialX. Users can now simultaneously use USD shading graphs and MaterialX in a single Maya session, as well as assign MaterialX materials directly to Maya geometry. USD support in Maya has also been expanded: USD for Maya 0.27 - the latest version of the Universal Scene Description plugin, enables bulk loading and unloading of prims. Additionally, prims can now be moved, rotated, and scaled directly in the viewport using the Universal Maya Manipulator. Furthermore, there have been several minor improvements and updates in Hydra for Maya.

The Maya integration plugin with Autodesk's Arnold renderer received a significant update: in version MtoA 5.4.0, support for MaterialX shader networks was added to LookdevX.
Other changes include support for smoothed samples in progressive and adaptive rendering, which generate "more accurate noise distribution" with fewer smoothing passes. The majority of the Arnold GPU rendering engine has also been rewritten using OptiX 8 - the current version of NVIDIA's ray tracing GPU framework, resulting in "significantly" faster startup times and improved performance scaling across multiple GPUs. The GPU engine now also supports multiple rendering sessions. Among other changes are support for global light sampling in volumetric lighting, support for AOV groups of point lights, and a new Overlay visualizer for printing text on rendered images.

The Bifrost extension for Maya has also received a significant update: in Bifrost 2.9.0.0, features from the Bifrost Fluids legacy toolkit, called BOSS (Bifrost Ocean Simulation System), have been added. Like in the original versions, they can be used to model spectral waves created by wind with foam and can also be controlled using basic Bifrost graphs. Additionally, a new connection called points_to_liquid_surface allows using point caches from Bifrost Fluids simulations and other sources such as MPM simulations in the graph.

The Substance plugin for Maya, designed for editing procedural materials in the Substance 3D format from Adobe, has also been updated: Substance 2.5.0 now defaults to GPU usage, which enhances performance. Furthermore, Maya Bonus Tools - a free collection of experimental tools and scripts for Maya from Autodesk - is now included in the Maya installer instead of being downloaded separately.

Autodesk has also released Maya Creative 2025, a corresponding update to the trimmed-down edition of Maya aimed at small studios and available on a paid basis. It includes most of the new features of Maya 2025, except for the Bifrost update.

Maya 2025 is available for Windows 10 and above, RHEL and Rocky Linux 8.7/9/3, as well as macOS 12.0 and above. The software is only available through subscription. The subscription cost is $235 per month or $1,875 per year. In many countries, artists earning less than $100,000 per year and working on projects costing less than $100,000 per year are eligible for the Maya Indie subscription, which currently costs $305 per year. Maya Creative can be purchased on a paid basis starting at $3 per day, with the minimum subscription cost being $300 per year.