An Arduino simulator that runs on a Mac
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Yes, you can simulate an Arduino on a Mac: Mokxi is a free Arduino and ESP32 simulator that runs in Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Edge on macOS, with nothing to install and no account needed. The circuit above is an Arduino Uno with an LED on pin 13, blinking on a simulated ATmega328P in this tab. It runs the same on an Apple silicon Mac as on an Intel one, because the only program involved is the browser.
People look for a Mac simulator because several of the tools a course names are Windows programs. This page says which ones those are, which desktop simulators do install on macOS, what runs in the browser instead, and how a sketch gets from the simulator to a real board on your desk.
Which simulators run on a Mac
Two of the simulators college courses and older tutorials name do not run on macOS. Proteus, Labcenter’s paid simulator with firmware-running VSM and PCB design, is a Windows program. Multisim’s desktop version runs on Windows, and its browser version, Multisim Live, closed on September 15, 2026. On a Mac those mean a Windows virtual machine or a lab PC.
Several do install on macOS. SimulIDE, free and open source, runs AVR, PIC and Arduino code on Windows, Linux and macOS, with its own editor and debugger. LTspice, Analog Devices’ free SPICE simulator, has a macOS version, though it simulates analog circuits rather than sketches. Falstad’s circuit simulator has standalone builds for macOS as well as its web page.
Then there are the ones that run in a browser tab, and so on any Mac: Tinkercad Circuits, Wokwi and Mokxi among them. Which suits you depends on the boards and the class tools you need; the comparison pages linked below go through them one at a time, with their sources.
What runs in the browser here
Everything in the editor. You drag parts onto a breadboard, wire them, write C++ and press Run. The sketch is compiled by a real clang compiler built for the browser and running on your Mac, not on a server, and the firmware runs on a model of the chip: an ATmega328P for the Uno, or the board’s real processor core for the others. Timers, interrupts, PWM, analogRead and the serial monitor behave the way the chip does.
The first build in a browser downloads the compiler once and the browser keeps it, so later builds take a second or two. That holds in Safari as well as in Chrome, and private windows start without the cache each time, so use a normal window.
The boards go past the Uno: the Nano, the Mega, the Leonardo, the Uno R4, the ESP32 family, the ESP8266, the Raspberry Pi Pico and three STM32 boards, all on the free plan. Open the ESP32 below to see the same editor with an Espressif board in it.
From the simulator to a real board
Running a sketch here is a simulation, not a flash of your board. To put it on a real one, use Chrome or Edge: they can reach a USB board from a web page, so Send to board in the editor uploads to an Uno, Nano, Mega or Leonardo, or an ESP32-C3, over its cable. Safari and Firefox cannot reach a USB board from a page at all. In them, download the compiled file and upload it with the Arduino IDE, which installs on macOS, or copy the sketch into the Arduino Cloud Editor.
The sketch is standard Arduino code, so the same file builds in the Arduino IDE. A few libraries differ: Mokxi carries its own versions of the common ones under their usual names, and each part’s help page says where one differs from the upstream library.
Your first sketch on a Mac
Open the circuit above in the editor. Press Run and the LED blinks once a second, on for half a second and off for half a second.
Change both delay(500) lines to delay(100) and press Run again. The LED now blinks five times as fast. Add Serial.begin(9600); to setup() and Serial.println("on"); after the first digitalWrite, run it, and open the Serial tab: that is the serial monitor, as in the Arduino IDE.
To keep the project, sign in with Google, GitHub or an email address. Signed out, your work stays in this browser until its storage is cleared, and Safari can clear a site’s storage after a week without a visit, so sign in before you put real time into something.
Questions
Is there an Arduino simulator for Mac?
Yes. Mokxi runs in Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Edge on macOS with nothing to install. SimulIDE is a desktop simulator with a macOS build, and Tinkercad Circuits and Wokwi also run in a browser. Proteus and Multisim’s desktop version do not run on macOS.
Is there an ESP32 simulator for Mac?
Yes. Mokxi simulates several ESP32 boards in the browser, including the classic DevKit, the C3, the C6 and the S3, so it runs on a Mac the same as anywhere else. Wokwi, another browser simulator, runs ESP32 boards too.
Does it work on Apple silicon Macs?
Yes. Mokxi is a web page, so there is no Intel or Apple silicon build to choose: the compiler and the simulation run inside the browser on whichever Mac you have.
Can I upload to a real Arduino from Safari?
No. Safari cannot reach a USB board from a web page. Use Chrome or Edge on the Mac for Send to board, or download the compiled file and upload it with the Arduino IDE.
Keep going
Where the facts on this page come from
- Labcenter: FAQ and system requirements (checked September 29, 2026)
- NI: Circuit Design Suite 14.3 readme, Windows versions (checked September 29, 2026)
- Digilent: Multisim Live end-of-life letter (checked September 29, 2026)
- SimulIDE: downloads (checked October 3, 2026)
- Analog Devices: LTspice (checked September 29, 2026)
- Falstad: standalone offline versions (checked September 29, 2026)
- Tinkercad: Circuits (checked September 29, 2026)
- Wokwi docs: ESP32 simulation (checked October 5, 2026)
Build this for real
Open the editor, change a value and watch the number move with it. Nothing to install, and no account needed.