Apple releases a new version of macOS every year. We expect macOS 16, the next generation of the operating system that powers its desktop and laptop Macs, to release in 2025.
When will macOS 16 be released?
Apple has yet to say anything publicly about macOS 16. That makes sense: macOS 15, which will debut in 2024, has not been announced as of this writing. Still, if we look at the past, we can get an idea of when macOS 16 was released. The last four new versions of macOS were released on these dates:
- MacOS 14: September 26, 2023
- MacOS 13: October 24, 2022
- MacOS 12: October 25, 2021
- MacOS 11: November 12, 2020
Given these dates, expect macOS 16 to be released in September or October 2025.
Before that, it will be publicly revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 in June. Expect a public beta of macOS 16 to be available throughout summer 2025, leading up to the macOS 16 release date.
Estimated Lifewire release date
Expect to see macOS 16 released in September or October 2025.
macOS 16 price
Unless there is a major change, macOS 16 will be free.
Although there was a time when Apple charged for major updates to its operating system, it’s been over 10 years since that happened (OS X 10.9 Mavericks was the first free update; it was released in 2013). So expect to get macOS 16 for free.
macOS 16 Features
Given that macOS 16 won’t debut until 2025 and macOS 15 hasn’t even been announced as of this writing, there aren’t many rumors or solid ideas about what features that this operating system update will offer. There are, however, a few rumors and some educated guesses we can make about what this will bring.
- Major overhaul: macOS 16 will bring a major overhaul to the operating system, according to Apple’s top journalist Marc Gurman (he reported the rumor in his Power On e-newsletter). It’s unclear exactly what this redesign will bring at this time.
- More AI: Although AI features are bound to arrive in macOS 15 in 2024, expect to see even more in macOS 16 (and for many years to come). What these features will be is unclear and will likely depend on what happens in 2024, but expect AI to be everywhere.
- Apple Vision Pro features: Apple’s Vision Pro space computing headset is the company’s biggest and most dramatic new launch in years. With so many exciting new features and concepts in its visionOS, it’s entirely reasonable to assume that some Apple Vision Pro features will appear in macOS 16.
We’ll update this article as the rumor mill heats up and macOS 16 becomes clearer.
Devices supported by macOS 16
New versions of macOS generally support desktop and laptop Macs released within 5-6 years before the macOS upgrade. For example, macOS 14 was released in 2023 and supported hardware as old as the 2017 iMac Pro, while macOS 13 arrived in 2022 and supported the iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro 2017.
If this model is valid with macOS 16, expect that you will need a Mac released in 2019 or 2020 (or newer) to use macOS 16.
The latest news on macOS 16
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