Update: It's Out Now
Apple has officially announced that macOS Big Sur is now available, although it is still rolling out so it may take a few minutes to show up on your Macs.
- Apple Releases macOS Big Sur With Fresh Design, Control Center, Safari Privacy Report, Messages Updates, Maps Overhaul and More
- macOS Big Sur Features: Everything New in Today's Release
Apple's official public release of macOS Big Sur is finally set to drop on Thursday, November 12, just two days after the company released the second release candidate to developers following its "One More Thing" event.
Developers are busy putting the finishing touches on their apps to take advantage of new features in macOS Big Sur, support the new Macs with Apple's own M1 chip coming next week, and complement the refreshed macOS design, and many users will be looking to update their Macs as soon as Big Sur is available.
Although Apple has not shared an exact time for the release of macOS Big Sur, we can make some educated guesses based on Apple's localized sites for various countries and past releases.
While Apple lists the release date as November 12 in much of the world, localized sites for some countries in the Eastern Hemisphere list the launch date as November 13, as the launch time will come after midnight in those countries.
Notably, Apple lists a release date of November 12 on its Indian site, while its Thai site lists a November 13 release date.
Given that those two countries are 90 minutes apart by time zones, that pins things down relatively closely, suggesting a window between 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. The most likely release time in that window would be 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, which is a common release time for Apple. A release at that time would correspond to 11:30 p.m. on November 12 in India and 1:00 a.m. on November 13 in Thailand. This same method also accurately pinpointed when iOS 14 was released.
It's worth noting, however, that major macOS releases over the past several years have typically come closer to 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, so it's certainly possible it could be a bit later than our prediction of 10:00 a.m.
There are no guarantees Apple will stick to its usual release timing, but given our best of guess of 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time release, here's a breakdown of what that corresponds to in other time zones in the United States and around the world:
- Honolulu, Hawaii -- 8:00 a.m. HST
- Anchorage, Alaska -- 9:00 a.m. AKST
- Cupertino, California -- 10:00 a.m. PST
- Vancouver, Canada -- 10:00 a.m. PST
- Phoenix, Arizona -- 11:00 a.m. MST
- Denver, Colorado -- 11:00 a.m. MST
- Chicago, Illinois -- 12:00 noon. CST
- New York, New York -- 1:00 p.m. EST
- Toronto, Canada -- 1:00 p.m. EST
- Halifax, Canada -- 2:00 p.m. AST
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- 3:00 p.m. BRT
- London, United Kingdom -- 6:00 p.m. GMT
- Berlin, Germany -- 7:00 p.m. CET
- Paris, France -- 7:00 p.m. CET
- Cape Town, South Africa -- 8:00 p.m. SAST
- Helsinki, Finland -- 8:00 p.m. EET
- Moscow, Russia -- 9:00 p.m. MSK
- Istanbul, Turkey -- 9:00 p.m. TRT
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- 10:00 p.m. GST
- Delhi, India -- 11:30 p.m. IST
- Jakarta, Indonesia -- 1:00 a.m. WIB next day
- Shanghai, China -- 2:00 a.m. CST next day
- Singapore -- 2:00 a.m. SGT next day
- Perth, Australia -- 2:00 a.m. AWST next day
- Hong Kong -- 2:00 a.m. HKT next day
- Seoul, South Korea -- 3:00 a.m. KST next day
- Tokyo, Japan -- 3:00 a.m. JST next day
- Brisbane, Australia - 4:00 a.m. AEST next day
- Adelaide, Australia -- 4:30 a.m. ACDT next day
- Sydney, Australia -- 5:00 a.m. AEDT next day
- Auckland, New Zealand -- 7:00 a.m. NZDT next day
macOS Big Sur is compatible with most 2013 and later machines, outlined below:
- 2015 and later MacBook
- 2013 and later MacBook Air
- Late 2013 and later MacBook Pro
- 2014 and later iMac
- 2017 and later iMac Pro
- 2014 and later Mac mini
- 2013 and later Mac Pro
The operating system update does not support the following Macs that were capable of running macOS Catalina:
- 2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pro
- 2012 MacBook Air
- 2012 and 2013 iMac
- 2012 Mac mini
For all of the details on what's new in macOS Big Sur, make sure to check out our roundup which offers a thorough look at the refreshed design, updates to key apps, and other new features.
