Parallels Desktop 26 for Mac system requirements
| Minimum Run most applications such as Microsoft Office, accounting software, trading software, and more |
Best Performance For graphics-intensive applications, software development, high loads, and running multiple virtual machines |
|
| Processor | Any Apple silicon chip (M-series or A18 Pro) Core i5, Core i7, Core i9, Intel Core M or Xeon processor |
Any Apple silicon chip (M-series) 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 | Any Apple silicon chip (M-series or A18 Pro) Intel, AMD Radeon, or NVIDIA graphics cards |
Any Apple silicon chip (M-series) AMD Radeon Pro graphics card |
| Operating System | macOS Tahoe 26.0 or newer (when released) macOS Sequoia 15.5 or newer macOS Sonoma 14.7 or newer macOS Ventura 13.7 or newer macOS Monterey 12.7 or newer[1] macOS Big Sur 11.7 or newer[1] macOS Catalina 10.15.7 or newer[1] macOS Mojave 10.14.6 or newer[1] |
macOS Tahoe 26.0 or newer (when released) macOS Sequoia 15.5 or newer macOS Sonoma 14.7 or newer macOS Ventura 13.7 or newer |
Internet connection is required for product activation, updates, and select features.
[1] – the marked OS version is not supported by Parallels Desktop 26, and the product installer will set up an earlier product version; support of guest operating systems can be limited. It is recommended to update macOS if possible.
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)
- Windows Server 2025 (when released)
- Ubuntu Linux 25.04, 24.04, 23.04, 22.04, 21.10, 21.04, 20.10, 20.04
- Fedora Workstation 42, 41, 40, 39
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, 9
- Debian GNU/Linux 12, 11
- Kali Linux 2025.2, 2024.2, 2023.1, 2022.2, 2022.1, 2021.3
- CentOS Stream 10, 9
- macOS Monterey 12 (in-app download)
- macOS Ventura 13 (in-app download)
- macOS Sonoma 14 (in-app download)
- macOS Sequoia 15 (in-app download)
Parallels Desktop 26 features a preview version of x86 emulation that allows you to run some of the x86 operating systems. Learn more at KB 130217
Supported Guest Operating Systems (Mac with an Intel processor)
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
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Boot2Docker
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, 9, 8, 7
- CentOS Linux Stream 10, 9
- Fedora Linux 42, 41, 40, 39
- Ubuntu 25.04, 24.04, 23.04, 22.04 LTS, 21.10, 21.04, 20.04 LTS
- Debian GNU/Linux 12, 11
- Suse Linux Enterprise 15
- Kali 2025.2, 2024.3, 2023.4, 2022.2, 2022.1
- openBSD 6[2]
- Android OS (in-app download only)
- macOS Sequoia 15.0[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 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.
Was this article helpful?
Tell us how we can improve it.