Install Azure CLI on macOS

2025-07-15

The Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) is a cross-platform command-line tool that can be installed locally on macOS computers. You can use the Azure CLI to connect to Azure and execute administrative commands on Azure resources using interactive command-line prompts or a script.

For the macOS platform, install the Azure CLI with homebrew package manager. Homebrew makes it easy to keep your installation of the Azure CLI up to date. The Azure CLI package requires macOS 13 or higher.

The current version of the Azure CLI is 2.75.0. For information about the latest release, see the release notes. To find your installed version and see if you need to update, run az version.

Install with Homebrew

Homebrew is the easiest way to manage your Azure CLI install. It provides convenient ways to install, update, and uninstall. If you don't have homebrew available on your system, install homebrew before continuing.

You can install the Azure CLI on macOS by updating your brew repository information, and then running the install command:

brew update && brew install azure-cli

Troubleshooting

If you encounter a problem when installing the Azure CLI through Homebrew, here are some common errors. If you experience a problem not covered here, file an issue on GitHub.

Completion isn't working

The Homebrew formula of Azure CLI installs a completion file named az in the Homebrew-managed completions directory (default location is /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/). To enable completion, follow Homebrew's instructions here.

For Zsh, add the following two lines to the bottom of your .zshrc file, then save and reload your Zsh profile.

autoload bashcompinit && bashcompinit
source $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/az

Unable to find Python or installed packages

There might be a minor version mismatch or other issue during homebrew installation. The Azure CLI doesn't use a Python virtual environment, so it relies on finding the installed Python version. A possible fix is to install and relink the python@3.10 dependency from Homebrew.

brew update && brew install python@3.10 && brew upgrade python@3.10
brew link --overwrite python@3.10

Azure CLI version 1.x is installed

If an out-of-date version was installed, it could be because of a stale homebrew cache. Follow the update instructions.

Proxy blocks connection

You might be unable to get resources from Homebrew unless you configure it to use your proxy. Follow the Homebrew proxy configuration instructions.

Important

If you are behind a proxy, HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY must be set to connect to Azure services with the Azure CLI. If you don't use basic auth, you should export these variables in your .bashrc file. Always follow your business' security policies and the requirements of your system administrator.

To get the bottle resources from Homebrew, your proxy needs to allow HTTPS connections to the following addresses:

https://formulae.brew.sh
https://homebrew.bintray.com

Update

The Azure CLI is regularly updated with bug fixes, improvements, new features, and preview functionality. A new release is available about once a month.

Beginning with version 2.11.0, the Azure CLI provides an in-tool command to update to the latest version.

az upgrade

This command also updates all installed extensions by default. For more az upgrade options, see the command reference page. For Azure CLI versions prior to 2.11.0, update by reinstalling as described in Install the Azure CLI.

You can also update your local Homebrew repository information and then upgrade the azure-cli package.

brew update && brew upgrade azure-cli

Uninstall

If you decide to uninstall the Azure CLI, we're sorry to see you go. Before you uninstall, use the az feedback command to let us know what could be improved or fixed. Our goal is to make the Azure CLI bug-free and user-friendly. If you found a bug, we'd appreciate it if you file a GitHub issue.

Use homebrew to uninstall the azure-cli package.

brew uninstall azure-cli

Remove data

If you don't plan to reinstall the Azure CLI, remove its data.

rm -rf ~/.azure

Other installation methods

If you can't use homebrew to install the Azure CLI in your environment, it's possible to use the manual instructions for Linux. This process isn't officially maintained to be compatible with macOS. Using a package manager such as Homebrew is recommended. Only use the manual installation method if you have no other option available.

For the manual installation instructions, see Install Azure CLI on Linux manually.

Next Steps

Now that you installed the Azure CLI on macOS, take a short tour of its features and common commands.

Get started with the Azure CLI