The full list of macOS (Mac OS X) versions

Published August 21, 2023•Updated October 27, 2023 by Per C.

Apple released the first version of macOS (originally called Mac OS X) on March 24, 2001. Since then, Apple has released over a dozen major updates to their desktop operating system. The first 15 versions started with a "10" (10.0 - 10.15), but that changed with the 16th version, which Apple called macOS 11.

The company also changed the name from Mac OS X to OS X (dropping the "Mac") with the release of OS X 10.8. A few years later, Apple brought back the "Mac" with the release of macOS 10.12. Since then, Apple has stuck with "macOS," matching its other OS names, such as iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

Speaking of names, each version of Mac OS X / OS X / macOS has a code name — a real-world title that corresponds with the version number. Apple used cat names for the first nine versions but switched to California landmarks in 2013 with the release of OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

macOS 10.13 was also known by its code name "High Sierra"

The complete list of macOS versions from 2001 to 2023 is below. Each line includes the version number, code name, and release date.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X 10.0 "Cheetah" (March 24, 2001)
Mac OS X 10.1 "Puma" (September 25, 2001)
Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" (August 24, 2002)
Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" (October 24, 2003)
Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" (April 29, 2005)
Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" (October 26, 2007)
Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" (August 28, 2009)
Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" (July 20, 2011)

OS X

OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" (Just 25, 2012)
OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" (October 22, 2013)
OS X 10.10 "Yosemite" (October 16, 2014)
OS X 10.11 "El Capitan" (September 30, 2015)

macOS

macOS 10.12 "Sierra" (September 20, 2016)
macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" (September 25, 2017)
macOS 10.14 "Mojave" (September 24, 2018)
macOS 10.15 "Catalina" (October 7, 2019)
macOS 11 "Big Sur" (November 12, 2020)
macOS 12 "Monterey" (October 25, 2021)
macOS 13 "Ventura" (October 24, 2022)
macOS 14 "Sonoma" (September 26, 2023)

NOTE: The above list does not include macOS Server releases. Apple released the first version of Mac OS X Server on March 16, 1999, roughly two years before the first consumer release.