The stability of the crystal structure and the electronic state of isolated point defects have been studied in Bi 2 Te 3 . The structure is related to p -bonding, giving a basic cubic cell further stabilized by the formation of units of five layers of planes along the axis of the cubic cell. The impurities are treated via the Lifshits-Koster-Slater method. Antistructure defects appear as single donors (Te Bi ) or single acceptors (Bi Te ). Vacancies are strong perturbations: V Te are double donors and V Bi are triple acceptors. The impurities of column IV when substituted for Te give a resonance (or bound state) close to the gap. Their electrical activity may then vary from double acceptor to inactive.