Tails works on most computers less than 10 years old.
Tails might not work on:
- Some older computers, for example, if they don't have enough RAM.
- Some newer computers, for example, if their graphics card is not compatible with Linux.
See the known hardware compatibility issues.
Hardware requirements:
A USB stick of 8 GB minimum or a recordable DVD.
All the data on this USB stick or DVD will be lost when installing Tails.
The ability to start from a USB stick or a DVD reader.
A 64-bit x86-64 compatible processor:
- IBM PC compatible but not PowerPC nor ARM.
- Most Mac computers are IBM PC compatible since 2006.
- Tails does not work with Mac models that use the Apple M1 or M2 chips.
- Tails does not work on 32-bit computers since Tails 3.0 (June 2017).
- Tails does not work on most tablets and phones.
2 GB of RAM to work smoothly.
Tails can work with less than 2 GB RAM but might behave strangely or crash.