Parallels Desktop for Mac

Run Windows on Mac

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Optimized for the latest Windows 11 updates and macOS Sonoma. Power up your Mac to run Windows on a virtual desktop, plus get access to more than 200,000 of its apps to work, develop, study, test, and play. Authorized by Microsoft.

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Drag and drop files and images between Windows and Mac Apps
Open files on Finder with Windows
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Included with your Parallels Desktop subscription:
Parallels® Toolbox

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Parallels Toolbox

More than 40 one-touch productivity tools—clean your drive, take screenshots, download a video, and more—all with one click.

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Frequently asked questions

System requirements

Run most applications including Microsoft Office, accounting software, trading software, SAP, Matlab, and more.

Operating system

macOS Sequoia 15.0 or newer
macOS Sonoma 14.5 or newer
macOS Ventura 13.2 or newer
macOS Monterey 12.6 or newer
macOS Big Sur 11.7 or newer[1]
macOS Catalina 10.15.7 or newer[1]
macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer[1]

Processor

Any Apple silicon chip

Intel Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor

Memory

4 GB of RAM

Storage

600 MB for Parallels Desktop application installation

Additional disk space for the guest operating system (at least 16 GB is required for Windows OS)

Graphics

Any Apple silicon chip

Intel, AMD Radeon, or NVIDIA graphics cards

[1] — an earlier product version is installed

For graphics-intensive applications, high loads, and running multiple virtual machines.

Operating system

macOS Sequoia 15.0 or newer
macOS Sonoma 14.0 or newer
macOS Ventura 13.2 or newer
macOS Monterey 12.6 or newer
macOS Big Sur 11.7 or newer[1]
macOS Catalina 10.15.7 or newer[1]
macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer[1]

Processor

Any Apple silicon chip

Intel Core i5, Core i7, Core i9 or Xeon processor

Memory

16 GB of RAM or more

Storage

600 MB for Parallels Desktop application installation

Additional disk space for the guest operating system(s) (at least 16 GB is required for Windows OS)

Graphics

Any Apple silicon chip

AMD Radeon Pro graphics card

[1] — an earlier product version is installed

Supported guest operating systems (Mac with Apple silicon):

Only Arm versions of operating systems are supported.

  • Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise editions (recommended)
  • Windows Server 2025 (when released)
  • Ubuntu Linux 24.04, 23.04, 22.04, 21.10, 21.04, 20.10, 20.04
  • Fedora Workstation 40, 39
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Debian GNU/Linux 12, 11
  • Kali Linux 2024.2, 2023.1, 2022.2, 2022.1, 2021.3
  • CentOS Stream 9
  • macOS Monterey 12 (in-app download)
  • macOS Ventura 13 (in-app download)
  • macOS Sonoma 14 (in-app download)
  • macOS Sequoia 15 (when released)

Supported guest operating systems (Mac with Intel processors):

Only x86 versions of operating systems are supported.

  • Windows 11 (recommended)
  • Windows 10[1]
  • Windows Server 2025 (when released)
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Boot2Docker
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9,8 and 7
  • CentOS Linux 9 Stream, 8, 7
  • Fedora Linux 40, 39
  • Ubuntu 24.04, 23.04, 22.04 LTS, 21.10, 21.04, 20.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
  • Debian GNU/Linux 12, 11
  • Suse Linux Enterprise 15
  • OpenSUSE Linux 15.5 and 15.4
  • Linux Mint 20
  • Kali 2024.2, 2023.1, 2022.2, 2022.1
  • Elementary OS 7
  • Manjaro 22 and 21
  • Mageia 8
  • Gentoo Linux[2]
  • openBSD 6[2]
  • FreeBSD 12 and 11[2]
  • openVZ 7
  • eComStation 2 and 1.2[2]
  • ReactOS 0.4[2]
  • Android OS (in-app download only)
  • macOS Sequoia 15.0 (when released)[3]
  • macOS Sonoma 14.0[3]
  • macOS Ventura 13.0[3]
  • macOS Monterey 12.0[3]
  • macOS Big Sur 11.0[3]
  • macOS Catalina 10.15[3]
  • macOS Mojave 10.14.x[3]
  • macOS High Sierra 10.13.x[3]
  • macOS Sierra 10.12.x[3]
  • OS X El Capitan 10.11.x[3]
  • OS X Yosemite 10.10.x[3]
  • OS X Mavericks 10.9.x[3]
  • and many more...
  • [1] — Only the 64-bit version is supported.
  • [2] — Parallels Tools are not available for this operating system.
  • [3] — Requires a Mac computer that supports the operating system as a host OS.

Note: Support for legacy Windows OS versions (2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2) is limited. Learn more at KB 129252.
Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not included in this list can work as well. You can download the Parallels Desktop trial and install an operating system of your choice. If that OS doesn’t work and you believe it should be supported, let us know in the Parallels Forum.
To learn more about the limitations of running Windows 11 in Parallels Desktop, please visit KB 129497.

For information about supported Linux kernel versions, please visit KB 129963.