Based on the classification of the homogeneous Boolean functions of degree 4 in 8 variables we present the strategy that we used to count the number of all bent functions in dimension 8. There are $$99270589265934370305785861242880 \approx 2^{106}$$such functions in total. Furthermore, we show that most of the bent functions in dimension 8 are nonequivalent to Maiorana–McFarland and partial spread functions.