Contrary to what everyone else is saying here, anti-virus is not essential.
Yes, it's good practice to have it running and updated. Yes, it's convenient for securing your computer. If however you only install software that's trusted, and don't install random software from the internet (e.g. those dozens of Bitcoin scripts and software from weird publishers), you should be fine.
I'd say a well configured firewall would yield much more mileage compared to anti-virus, but these are two types of software that do completely different things, and some anti-virus software includes a firewall.
I've stopped using anti-virus as of about 10 years ago. I've yet to get an infection. Then again, I don't visit weird websites and I have very high security settings on all of my devices. Script execution on websites disabled, everything updated to the latest, running privacy protection software, and so on.
So, if you don't download crazy software all the time, then you probably don't need anti-virus; but if you install a lot of software (even trusted), and it can be exploited, then yes, you do need anti-virus.
My two cents.