Do Intel MacBooks still get support in 2026?

Intel MacBooks are finally being phased out of software support, just over six years after Apple announced its first batch of Macs powered by its in-house processors. Even though no Intel Macs will get support for the upcoming macOS 27 Golden Gate, which will be released later this fall, some of these computers will still receive software updates in 2026. Indeed, Apple continues to release incremental updates for macOS 26 Tahoe.

At this point, the latest Intel Macs supporting macOS Tahoe are the 16-inch MacBook Pro released in 2019, a 13-inch MacBook Pro released in early 2020, a 27-inch iMac released in early 2020, and the 2019 Mac Pro. Apple typically offers up to three years of security patches after upgrading to a new version of macOS. These Macs were introduced in late 2019 and early 2020, so they will likely receive possible software updates for a few more years. On top of that, Intel Macs that can run macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 14 Sonoma will still receive software updates in 2026.

However, if you’re expecting an Intel MacBook to benefit from the new Siri AI and even the long-awaited bug fixes and general stability that macOS Golden Gate promises to deliver later this year, then your best option is to upgrade your Mac with an Apple Silicon option – and with Apple recently announcing a new financing program, this could be the best deal for some customers who need a new Mac but don’t want to pay upfront for the price increase.

This is the second time that Apple has changed the internal processor of its Macs. In the early 2000s, it abandoned PowerPC chips in favor of Intel processors. While at the time the transition was made much more quickly, Apple decided to take its time to transition its architecture from Intel chips to Apple silicon. This latest transition began in late 2020 when the company announced the M1 chip, which used a new architecture with more components combined, such as the CPU, GPU, and RAM. While this means that most Macs (except the now-discontinued Mac Pro) are no longer customizable after your purchase, it also makes them more energy efficient and faster in general.

One of the reasons Apple abandoned Intel was the ability of Apple silicon to deeply integrate its hardware and software. This gives Apple more control over production and allows it to address several issues with the latest Intel Macs. With this, after a few years, Apple officially completed its hardware transition by announcing the M2 Ultra Mac Pro and ditching the latest Intel counterpart. On the software front, the company announced in 2026 that macOS Tahoe was the last software update for Intel Macs. Apple also said that developers must properly port their apps to support M-series chips because macOS 28 will drop support for existing software. Apple Silicon Macs after macOS 28 will no longer be able to use Intel applications, and Intel Macs and MacBooks will have until 2029 (provided Apple follows its trend) security updates until the company moves away from these devices completely, marking the true end of the Intel era.