How To Download VirtualBox For M1 & M2 Macs

VirtualBox is a free virtual machine for Macs that allows you to run Windows on a Mac.

However, if you’re confused about how to download VirtualBox for Apple Silicon M1 and M2 chip Macs, here we show you how to do it.

Can You Install VirtualBox On M1 & M2 Macs?

Since VirtualBox 7.0, Oracle has stopped releasing stable versions of VirtualBox for Apple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs based on the ARM chip architecture.

You can however still download and install Test Builds and Development Builds for version 7.0 of VirtualBox which do work on Apple Silicon Macs.

These are basically beta versions of VirtualBox and are extremely unstable on M1 and M2 chip Macs though.

Can You Run Windows On M1 & M2 Macs With VirtualBox?

The bad news is currently you can’t run Windows on an Apple Silicon M1 or M2 Mac with VirtualBox.

At the moment, M1 and M2 chip Macs can only run Windows ARM which VirtualBox isn’t capable of running.

VirtualBox also doesn’t support x86 emulation which allows Intel only compatible Windows apps to run in Windows ARM.

You can however install Windows on M1 and M2 Macs using Parallels which is also far easier to use than VirtualBox and can setup Windows on a Mac in literally a few clicks.

How To Download VirtualBox for M1 & M2 Macs

To download VirtualBox for Apple Silicon Macs go to the VirtualBox Test Builds page and scroll down to the box that labelled “Latest 7.0.x test builds”.

The version of VirtualBox that works on M1 and M2 chips is the “macOS/ARM64 BETA” which is currently 7.0.x revision 158798.

Alternatively, you can also try the Development Snapshot which is also the download labelled “macOS/ARM64 BETA“.

However, both the Test Builds and Development Snapshot downloads are extremely unstable and we don’t recommend using VirtualBox on M1 or M2 chips at this time.

Added to the fact that neither can run Windows on Apple Silicon Macs anyway, it’s really not worth downloading VirtualBox if you want to run Windows on Apple Silicon M1/M2 Macs.

We strongly recommend using another virtual machine for M1 and M2 Macs at this time.

Parallels is the best way to run Windows on a Mac and requires far less configuration than Virtual Box with Windows 11 installed in literally a matter of a few clicks.

You can also read our guide to the best ways to run Windows on a Mac for more.