This page offers gretl for macOS 10.9 ("Mavericks", released 2013) or higher. If you're running OS X 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8 ("Snow Leopard", "Lion" or "Mountain Lion") we suggest trying the 2021a release of gretl. If you're running OS X 10.5 or earlier please see our gretl for legacy Macs page.
Alternative download: if you use MacPorts (or want to try it), builds of gretl are available for all Mac architectures at macports.org. These builds are not made by the gretl team and don't include some "extras" supplied with our own builds, but they're done very professionally.
Here you have a choice of the latest official release or the current "snapshot". The snapshot is more up to date: often it will contain bug-fixes but sometimes it will contain newly introduced bugs. To see what's new in the snapshot, take a look at the gretl Change log (the "in progress" entry).
Tip 1: If you're updating your gretl installation it may be advisable to delete the old version of gretl before installing the new one.
Tip 2: If gretl “won't start” all of a sudden (not very likely), please see Troubleshooting below.
latest release (Dec 12, 2024) |
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OR current snapshot |
latest release (Dec 12, 2024) |
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OR current snapshot |
You may also be interested in the optional extras below.
Click to download either the latest release or the snapshot (above). The selected gretl package file should appear in your Downloads after a short while, or it may be opened by the Installer program right away. If the package is not opened automatically, minimize your browser window so you can see what's happening on your desktop, then double-click on the gretl file in Downloads to open the installer. Either way, you should then be walked through the installation process. If Apple's security system stops you from opening a gretl package, please look here for guidance on what to do.
After installing gretl, navigate to Applications in the Finder and you should see a gretl icon there. Double-clicking should start gretl. Assuming gretl starts OK, you can drag its icon from Applications onto the dock to get a quick-launcher.
Clean up: the installer (pkg) file can be moved to the Trash once installation is completed.
Access to files: on recent macOS you might see messages about gretl not having permission to access files in your home folder. If so, the fix is explained at Apple's access control page.
In 2022 and 2023 there have been (rare) reports that gretl on MacOS was failing to start, after an update of some kind. If you experience this issue, please open a Terminal window and execute the following command (which renames your prior gretl configuration file so that gretl will not read it on start-up):
mv ~/.gretl2rc ~/old_gretl2rc.txt
The gretl team is still investigating what exactly is causing the
problem (and which part of the configuration file plays a role
in it). We would appreciate if you could report whether this interim
solution works for you, and we'd be very interested to see the renamed
file, old_gretl2rc.txt. Please add a comment to the
corresponding bug
ticket (even if it is closed), or send a message to the
mailing
list.
You may wish to install X-13-ARIMA-SEATS and/or TRAMO/SEATS. These are specialized programs for analysis of seasonal time series data, in 64-bit macOS versions compatible with gretl. They can be installed by typing the appropriate command in the "gretl console" in the GUI program, as follows.
# X-13-ARIMA-SEATS (Intel Mac) pkg install x13as-mac-intel.tar.gz # X-13-ARIMA-SEATS (Apple Silicon Mac) pkg install x13as-mac-arm64.tar.gz
# TRAMO/SEATS (Intel Mac) pkg install tramo-seats-mac-intel.tar.gz # TRAMO/SEATS (Apple Silicon Mac) pkg install tramo-seats-mac-arm64.tar.gz