Developed and manufactured by Intel, and first introduced and released in 2010, the Core i3 is a dual-core computer processor, available for use in both desktop and laptop computers. It is one of three types of processors in the "i" series (also called the Intel Core family of processors).

Intel Core i3 processors are where the Core lineup starts for each generation. In general, Core i3 processors have lower core counts than higher-grade CPUs. This used to mean that Core i3's started with dual-core processors, but for recent generations, that core count has gone up to four on the desktop.