How to download and install Docker on Mac

Before you download

Docker Desktop is free for personal use, education, non-commercial open source and small businesses (fewer than 250 employees and under $10 million a year). Larger companies need a paid subscription. The builds for Apple Silicon and Intel are separate. To know your chip:

1. Choose Apple menu › About This Mac.
2. If you see Chip with Apple M1, M2 or later, take the build for Apple Silicon. If you see Processor with Intel, take the one for Intel.

Docker supports the current macOS and the two before it, so Docker Desktop needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

How to install Docker Desktop

1. Open Docker.dmg in your Downloads folder.
2. Drag Docker to the Applications folder and wait for the copy to finish: the app is large.

3. Open Docker from Applications and click Open when macOS asks about an app downloaded from the internet.
4. Accept the Docker Subscription Service Agreement.
5. Choose Use recommended settings and enter your Mac password: Docker installs a helper that needs administrator rights.
6. Wait until the whale icon in the menu bar stops moving: Docker is running.

On Apple Silicon, Docker itself doesn’t need Rosetta, but a few optional tools for Intel containers do. To install Rosetta, run in Terminal:

What to set up after the first launch

• Check that it works. Run docker run hello-world in Terminal: Docker downloads a tiny image and prints a greeting.
• Disk usage. All images, containers and volumes live in one disk image that only grows. Set a limit in Settings › Resources › Advanced.
• Opening at login. Docker starts with your Mac by default. Turn it off in Settings › General if you use it only now and then.
• The installer. Move Docker.dmg from Downloads to the Trash once Docker runs: it takes over half a gigabyte.

To free the space taken by stopped containers, unused images and build cache, run:

If Docker won’t install or start

• «Docker is damaged and can’t be opened». The download was incomplete. Delete it and download it again from Docker’s website.
• Docker is stuck on «Starting the Docker Engine». Quit it from the whale menu, restart your Mac and open Docker again. Troubleshoot › Reset to factory defaults in the whale menu helps when it still hangs, but deletes all images and containers.
• Nothing helps. Remove Docker Desktop completely, its disk image included, and install it again: see how to uninstall Docker on Mac.

Alternatives to Docker

• OrbStackA light, fast way to run containers on a Mac.
• Rancher DesktopFree and open source, with Kubernetes built in.
• Podman DesktopRuns containers without a background daemon.