Parallels Desktop for Mac Resources

Downloads for Parallels Desktop for Mac

Parallels® Desktop 18 for Mac System Requirements

Supported Mac Configurations

Minimum
Run most applications such as Microsoft Office, accounting software, trading software, SAP, Matlab, and more.
Best Performance
For graphics-intensive applications, high loads, and running multiple virtual machines.
Processor Apple M2 Pro, M2 Max, M2, M1 Ultra, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 chips
Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor
Apple M2 Pro, M2 Max, M1 Ultra, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 chips
Intel Core i5, Core i7, Core i9 or Xeon processor
Memory 4 GB of RAM 16 GB of RAM or more
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)
SSD drive
Graphics Apple M2, M1 Ultra, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 chips
Intel, AMD Radeon, or NVIDIA graphics cards
Apple M2 Pro, M2 Max, M1 Ultra, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 chips
AMD Radeon Pro graphics card
Operating System macOS Ventura 13.2 or newer
macOS Monterey 12.6 or newer
macOS Big Sur 11.7 or newer
macOS Catalina 10.15.7 or newer
macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer
macOS Ventura 13.2 on newer
macOS Monterey 12.6 or newer
macOS Big Sur 11.7 or newer
Internet connection is required for product installation, activation, updates, and select features.

Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Apple M-series chip):

Only ARM versions of operating systems are supported.

  • Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise editions (recommended)
  • Ubuntu Linux 23.04, 22.04, 21.10, 21.04, 20.10, 20.04 
  • Fedora Workstation 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33-1.2 
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Debian GNU/Linux 11, 10 
  • Kali Linux 2023.1, 2022.2, 2022.1, 2021.3
  • macOS Monterey 12 (in-app download)
  • macOS Ventura 13 (in-app download)

Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with Intel processors):

Only x86 versions of operating systems are supported.

  • Windows 11 (recommended)
  • Windows 10
  • Windows 8.1[1]
  • Windows 8[1]
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows 7 (SP0-SP1)[1]
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP0-SP2)[1]
  • Windows Vista Home, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise (SP0-SP2)[1]
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP0-SP2)[1]
  • Windows XP (SP0-SP3)[1]
  • Windows 2000 Professional SP4[1]
  • Windows 2000 Server SP4[1]
  • Boot2Docker
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9,8 and 7
  • CentOS Linux 9 Stream, 8, 7
  • Fedora Linux 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33
  • Ubuntu 23.04, 22.04 LTS, 21.10, 21.04, 20.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS
  • Debian GNU/Linux 11, 10
  • Suse Linux Enterprise 15
  • OpenSUSE Linux 15.2, 15.1, 15
  • Linux Mint 20, 19
  • Kali 2023.1, 2022.2, 2022.1, 2020.2, 2019, 2018
  • Elementary OS 6, 5
  • Manjaro 21, 19, 18
  • Mageia 8, 7
  • Gentoo Linux[2]
  • Solaris 11, 10[2]
  • openBSD 6[2]
  • FreeBSD 12, 11[2]
  • openVZ 7
  • eComStation 2, 1.2[2]
  • ReactOS 0.4[2]
  • Android OS (in-app download only)
  • 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]
  • OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.x[3]
  • OS X Lion 10.7.x[3]
  • OS X Lion Server 10.7.x[3]
  • Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.x[3]
  • Mac OS X Leopard Server 10.5.x[3]
  • and many more...
  • [1] — Support for the operating system is deprecated, visit KB 129252 for details.
    [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: Parallels Desktop for Mac emulates PC hardware, so operating systems that are not present in this list can work as well. You can download the Parallels Desktop trial and install an operating system of your choice. If it doesn't work and you believe it should be supported, let us know at Parallels Forum. To learn more about limitations of running Windows 11 in Parallels Desktop, please visit KB 129497.
Parallels Tools for Linux require X Window System version 1.15-1.20 and Linux Kernel version 3.1-6.3.

Moving Your PC?

You can move your files from Windows PC using Apple Migration Assistant.
To move your Windows apps, you can use the Parallels Transporter feature.

Note: Parallels Transporter is not available for Mac with Apple M-series chips.

PC system requirements to move your PC to your Intel Mac (using Parallels Transporter Agent):

  • 700 MHz (or higher) x86 or x64 processor (Intel or AMD)
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • 50 MB of available hard disk space for installation of Parallels Transporter Agent
  • Ethernet or WiFi network adapter for migrating over network
  • External USB drive for migrating via external disk
  • Supported Windows: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 *
  • * To migrate Windows Vista or older, Transporter Agent from Parallels Desktop 13 should be used.