Install a preview version of Visual Studio for Mac

Important

Visual Studio for Mac was retired on August 31, 2024 in accordance with Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy. While you can continue to work with Visual Studio for Mac, there are several other options for developers on Mac such as the preview version of the new C# Dev Kit extension for VS Code.

Learn more about support timelines and alternatives.

Before a new version of Visual Studio for Mac is officially released, it's available as a preview. The preview release gives you a chance to try out new features and get the latest bug fixes before they're fully incorporated into the product. You can learn more about what's new in the latest preview release by seeing the Preview Release notes.

Preview releases of Visual Studio for Mac can be installed side-by-side with the officially released stable version.

Download and install the preview release of Visual Studio for Mac to get started.

If you already have a version of the Preview release installed, you can update to the latest preview using the following steps:

1. Go to Visual Studio > Check for Updates....
2. If a new update is available, it will start downloading.
3. Select the Restart and Install Updates button to start installing the updates.

For more information on updating in Visual Studio for Mac, see the update article.