diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 56a131c..8d5623f 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -141,6 +141,7 @@
         "!**/node_modules/@img/*win32*/**",
         "!**/node_modules/@img/*linux*/**"
       ],
+      "artifactName": "${productName}-${version}-${arch}.${ext}",
       "category": "public.app-category.productivity",
       "minimumSystemVersion": "14.4.0",
       "identity": "-",
diff --git a/src/main/consts.ts b/src/main/consts.ts
index 0855776..de84c7c 100644
--- a/src/main/consts.ts
+++ b/src/main/consts.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ export const BACKEND_BASE_URL = EnvUtil.isDev()
   ? 'http://localhost:8080'
   : 'https://api.powerinterviewai.com';
 
+// GitHub repo the release/publish workflow ships to. macOS reads releases from here directly
+// (see mac-update.util.ts) since Squirrel.Mac's silent update needs real Developer ID signing,
+// which this app does not have yet.
+export const GITHUB_RELEASES_OWNER = 'PowerInterviewAI';
+export const GITHUB_RELEASES_REPO = 'client-app';
+
 // Minimum allowed dimensions for window bounds. The renderer degrades gracefully below its
 // preferred layout - computeAvailable() in pages/main/index.tsx shrinks the transcript dock and
 // suggestion panels down to their own floors (TRANSCRIPT_DOCK_MIN_HEIGHT / SUGGESTION_MIN_HEIGHT,
diff --git a/src/main/ipc/auto-updater.ts b/src/main/ipc/auto-updater.ts
index 1209b38..523c469 100644
--- a/src/main/ipc/auto-updater.ts
+++ b/src/main/ipc/auto-updater.ts
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ export function registerAutoUpdaterHandlers(): void {
     }
   });
 
-  ipcMain.handle('auto-updater:quit-and-install', () => {
+  ipcMain.handle('auto-updater:quit-and-install', async () => {
     try {
-      autoUpdaterService.quitAndInstall();
+      await autoUpdaterService.quitAndInstall();
       return { success: true };
     } catch (error) {
       console.error('[IPC] Failed to quit and install:', error);
diff --git a/src/main/preload.cts b/src/main/preload.cts
index 55e8a68..7859e24 100644
--- a/src/main/preload.cts
+++ b/src/main/preload.cts
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ interface PushNotification {
 }
 
 const electronApi = {
+  platform: process.platform,
+
   onHotkeyScroll: (callback: (section: string, direction: string) => void) => {
     const handler = (_event: Electron.IpcRendererEvent, section: string, direction: string) =>
       callback(section, direction);
diff --git a/src/main/services/auto-updater.service.ts b/src/main/services/auto-updater.service.ts
index 95fad47..1edf15a 100644
--- a/src/main/services/auto-updater.service.ts
+++ b/src/main/services/auto-updater.service.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,30 @@
+import { createHash } from 'node:crypto';
+import { createWriteStream } from 'node:fs';
+import { mkdir, readdir, rm } from 'node:fs/promises';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { Readable } from 'node:stream';
+import { pipeline } from 'node:stream/promises';
+import type { ReadableStream as NodeReadableStream } from 'node:stream/web';
+
 import pkg from 'electron-updater';
 const { autoUpdater } = pkg;
 
-import { BrowserWindow } from 'electron';
+import { app, BrowserWindow, shell } from 'electron';
 
+import { GITHUB_RELEASES_OWNER, GITHUB_RELEASES_REPO } from '../consts.js';
 import { EnvUtil } from '../utils/env.js';
+import { isNewerVersion, pickMacAsset } from '../utils/mac-update.util.js';
+
+interface GitHubRelease {
+  tag_name: string;
+  published_at: string;
+  body: string | null;
+  assets: { name: string; browser_download_url: string; digest?: string | null }[];
+}
+
+const MAC_UPDATE_DOWNLOAD_DIR_NAME = 'power-interview-ai-updates';
+
+const MAC_UPDATE_PROGRESS_THROTTLE_MS = 200;
 
 export interface UpdateInfo {
   version: string;
@@ -31,6 +52,7 @@ class AutoUpdaterService {
   private mainWindow: BrowserWindow | null = null;
   private updateCheckInProgress = false;
   private updateDownloaded = false;
+  private macDownloadedFilePath: string | null = null;
 
   constructor() {
     this.setupAutoUpdater();
@@ -110,6 +132,10 @@ class AutoUpdaterService {
       return;
     }
 
+    if (process.platform === 'darwin') {
+      return this.checkForUpdatesMac();
+    }
+
     if (EnvUtil.isDev()) {
       autoUpdater.forceDevUpdateConfig = true;
     }
@@ -124,7 +150,143 @@ class AutoUpdaterService {
     }
   }
 
-  quitAndInstall(): void {
+  // Squirrel.Mac (electron-updater's mac install mechanism) requires the app to be signed with
+  // a real Developer ID certificate. This build only ad-hoc signs (see package.json mac.identity),
+  // so silent apply is not viable on macOS - this checks GitHub releases directly instead and
+  // leaves installing to the user via a downloaded .dmg (see quitAndInstall).
+  private async checkForUpdatesMac(): Promise<void> {
+    this.updateCheckInProgress = true;
+    this.notifyRenderer(UpdateStatus.Checking, null);
+
+    try {
+      const response = await fetch(
+        `https://api.github.com/repos/${GITHUB_RELEASES_OWNER}/${GITHUB_RELEASES_REPO}/releases/latest`,
+        { headers: { Accept: 'application/vnd.github+json' } }
+      );
+
+      if (!response.ok) {
+        throw new Error(`GitHub releases request failed: ${response.status}`);
+      }
+
+      const release = (await response.json()) as GitHubRelease;
+      const latestVersion = release.tag_name.replace(/^v/, '');
+
+      if (!isNewerVersion(latestVersion, app.getVersion())) {
+        this.updateCheckInProgress = false;
+        this.notifyRenderer(UpdateStatus.NotAvailable, null);
+        return;
+      }
+
+      const info: UpdateInfo = {
+        version: latestVersion,
+        releaseDate: release.published_at,
+        releaseNotes: release.body ?? undefined,
+      };
+      this.notifyRenderer(UpdateStatus.Available, info);
+
+      const asset = pickMacAsset(release.assets, process.arch);
+      if (!asset) {
+        throw new Error("No macOS installer found for this Mac's architecture");
+      }
+
+      await this.downloadMacAsset(asset, info);
+    } catch (error) {
+      console.error('[AutoUpdater] Failed to check for updates (mac):', error);
+      this.updateCheckInProgress = false;
+      this.notifyRenderer(
+        UpdateStatus.Error,
+        null,
+        null,
+        error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error'
+      );
+    }
+  }
+
+  private async downloadMacAsset(
+    asset: { name: string; url: string; digest: string | null },
+    info: UpdateInfo
+  ): Promise<void> {
+    const destDir = path.join(app.getPath('temp'), MAC_UPDATE_DOWNLOAD_DIR_NAME);
+    const destPath = path.join(destDir, asset.name);
+
+    await mkdir(destDir, { recursive: true });
+    await this.clearMacUpdateDownloadDir(destDir);
+
+    const response = await fetch(asset.url);
+    if (!response.ok || !response.body) {
+      throw new Error(`Failed to download update: ${response.status}`);
+    }
+
+    const total = Number(response.headers.get('content-length')) || 0;
+    let transferred = 0;
+    let lastEmit = 0;
+    const startTime = Date.now();
+    const hash = createHash('sha256');
+
+    try {
+      const source = Readable.fromWeb(response.body as unknown as NodeReadableStream<Uint8Array>);
+      source.on('data', (chunk: Buffer) => {
+        hash.update(chunk);
+        transferred += chunk.length;
+        const now = Date.now();
+        if (now - lastEmit < MAC_UPDATE_PROGRESS_THROTTLE_MS && transferred !== total) {
+          return;
+        }
+        lastEmit = now;
+        const elapsedSeconds = (now - startTime) / 1000;
+        this.notifyRenderer(UpdateStatus.Downloading, null, {
+          bytesPerSecond: elapsedSeconds > 0 ? transferred / elapsedSeconds : 0,
+          percent: total > 0 ? (transferred / total) * 100 : 0,
+          transferred,
+          total,
+        });
+      });
+
+      await pipeline(source, createWriteStream(destPath));
+
+      const expectedDigest = asset.digest?.replace(/^sha256:/, '') ?? null;
+      if (expectedDigest) {
+        const actualDigest = hash.digest('hex');
+        if (actualDigest !== expectedDigest) {
+          throw new Error('Downloaded update failed integrity verification');
+        }
+      } else {
+        console.warn(
+          '[AutoUpdater] No digest provided by GitHub for this asset; skipping integrity verification'
+        );
+      }
+    } catch (error) {
+      await rm(destPath, { force: true });
+      throw error;
+    }
+
+    this.macDownloadedFilePath = destPath;
+    this.updateDownloaded = true;
+    this.updateCheckInProgress = false;
+    this.notifyRenderer(UpdateStatus.Downloaded, info);
+  }
+
+  // Removes any previously downloaded installers from the update temp dir so they
+  // don't silently accumulate on disk across update checks.
+  private async clearMacUpdateDownloadDir(destDir: string): Promise<void> {
+    try {
+      const entries = await readdir(destDir);
+      await Promise.all(entries.map((entry) => rm(path.join(destDir, entry), { force: true })));
+    } catch (error) {
+      console.warn('[AutoUpdater] Failed to clear stale update downloads:', error);
+    }
+  }
+
+  async quitAndInstall(): Promise<void> {
+    if (process.platform === 'darwin') {
+      if (!this.macDownloadedFilePath) {
+        return;
+      }
+      await shell.openPath(this.macDownloadedFilePath);
+      app.quit();
+      return;
+    }
+
     autoUpdater.quitAndInstall(false, true);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/main/utils/mac-update.util.ts b/src/main/utils/mac-update.util.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e1af9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/utils/mac-update.util.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+// Pure helpers for the macOS manual-download update flow (see auto-updater.service.ts).
+// No Electron imports here on purpose - keeps this directly unit-testable.
+
+// Splits a version into its numeric core (e.g. "1.6.3") and an optional pre-release
+// suffix (e.g. "beta.1" from "1.6.3-beta.1"). A version with a pre-release suffix is
+// considered older than the same numeric core without one (per semver precedence rules).
+function parseVersion(version: string): { core: number[]; prerelease: string | null } {
+  const [core, ...rest] = version.split('-');
+  const prerelease = rest.length > 0 ? rest.join('-') : null;
+  const coreParts = core.split('.').map((part) => {
+    const num = Number(part);
+    return Number.isFinite(num) ? num : 0;
+  });
+
+  return { core: coreParts, prerelease };
+}
+
+export function isNewerVersion(remote: string, current: string): boolean {
+  const remoteVersion = parseVersion(remote);
+  const currentVersion = parseVersion(current);
+  const length = Math.max(remoteVersion.core.length, currentVersion.core.length);
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
+    const remotePart = remoteVersion.core[i] ?? 0;
+    const currentPart = currentVersion.core[i] ?? 0;
+    if (remotePart !== currentPart) {
+      return remotePart > currentPart;
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (remoteVersion.prerelease === currentVersion.prerelease) {
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  // Same numeric core: a release (no pre-release suffix) is newer than a pre-release,
+  // and pre-release identifiers are compared lexically as a fallback.
+  if (remoteVersion.prerelease === null) {
+    return true;
+  }
+  if (currentVersion.prerelease === null) {
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  return remoteVersion.prerelease > currentVersion.prerelease;
+}
+
+export interface GitHubReleaseAsset {
+  name: string;
+  browser_download_url: string;
+  digest?: string | null;
+}
+
+export interface MacUpdateAsset {
+  name: string;
+  url: string;
+  digest: string | null;
+}
+
+// electron-builder's mac artifactName is pinned to `${productName}-${version}-${arch}.${ext}`
+// (package.json), so every dmg unambiguously carries its arch - no defaultArch guessing.
+export function pickMacAsset(assets: GitHubReleaseAsset[], arch: string): MacUpdateAsset | null {
+  const match = assets.find(
+    (asset) => asset.name.endsWith('.dmg') && asset.name.includes(`-${arch}.`)
+  );
+
+  return match
+    ? { name: match.name, url: match.browser_download_url, digest: match.digest ?? null }
+    : null;
+}
diff --git a/src/renderer/components/custom/update-notification.tsx b/src/renderer/components/custom/update-notification.tsx
index d160def..b82a3dc 100644
--- a/src/renderer/components/custom/update-notification.tsx
+++ b/src/renderer/components/custom/update-notification.tsx
@@ -57,11 +57,14 @@ export function UpdateNotification() {
         }
 
         if (info) {
+          const isMac = window.electronAPI?.platform === 'darwin';
           toast.success(`Update Downloaded: v${info.version}`, {
-            description: 'Click to restart and install the update.',
+            description: isMac
+              ? 'Click to open the installer, then drag it into Applications.'
+              : 'Click to restart and install the update.',
             duration: Infinity,
             action: {
-              label: 'Restart Now',
+              label: isMac ? 'Open Installer' : 'Restart Now',
               onClick: () => quitAndInstall(),
             },
           });
diff --git a/src/renderer/types/electron-api.d.ts b/src/renderer/types/electron-api.d.ts
index 5f0a4f3..41bf5d7 100644
--- a/src/renderer/types/electron-api.d.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/types/electron-api.d.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ export {};
 
 declare global {
   interface ElectronAPI {
+    // Host OS, exposed statically at preload time (no IPC round-trip)
+    platform: 'darwin' | 'win32' | 'linux';
+
     // Hotkey scroll events
     onHotkeyScroll: (
       callback: (section: string, direction: 'up' | 'down' | 'end') => void
diff --git a/test/mac-update-util.test.mjs b/test/mac-update-util.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fbcd88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/mac-update-util.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+/**
+ * Pure helpers behind the macOS manual-download update flow (auto-updater.service.ts).
+ * No Electron stub needed - mac-update.util.ts has no electron import.
+ */
+import { createChecker, loadMain } from './helpers.mjs';
+
+export async function run() {
+  const { check, failures } = createChecker('mac-update-util');
+
+  const { isNewerVersion, pickMacAsset } = await loadMain('utils/mac-update.util.js');
+
+  check('newer patch version is newer', isNewerVersion('1.6.3', '1.6.2') === true);
+  check('newer minor version is newer', isNewerVersion('1.7.0', '1.6.9') === true);
+  check('newer major version is newer', isNewerVersion('2.0.0', '1.9.9') === true);
+  check('older version is not newer', isNewerVersion('1.6.1', '1.6.2') === false);
+  check('equal version is not newer', isNewerVersion('1.6.2', '1.6.2') === false);
+  check(
+    'extra trailing segment counts as newer',
+    isNewerVersion('1.6.2.1', '1.6.2') === true
+  );
+
+  // A release (no suffix) outranks a pre-release of the same numeric core, per semver.
+  check(
+    'a release is newer than a pre-release of the same core',
+    isNewerVersion('1.7.0', '1.7.0-beta.1') === true
+  );
+  check(
+    'a pre-release is not newer than the release it precedes',
+    isNewerVersion('1.7.0-beta.1', '1.7.0') === false
+  );
+  check(
+    'a newer pre-release core still outranks an older release',
+    isNewerVersion('1.7.0-beta.1', '1.6.9') === true
+  );
+  check(
+    'later pre-release identifiers are newer than earlier ones',
+    isNewerVersion('1.7.0-beta.2', '1.7.0-beta.1') === true
+  );
+  check(
+    'identical pre-release tags are not newer',
+    isNewerVersion('1.7.0-beta.1', '1.7.0-beta.1') === false
+  );
+
+  const assets = [
+    {
+      name: 'Power Interview AI-1.6.3-arm64.dmg',
+      browser_download_url: 'https://example.com/arm64.dmg',
+      digest: 'sha256:arm64digest',
+    },
+    {
+      name: 'Power Interview AI-1.6.3-x64.dmg',
+      browser_download_url: 'https://example.com/x64.dmg',
+      digest: 'sha256:x64digest',
+    },
+    { name: 'Power Interview AI-1.6.3-arm64-mac.zip', browser_download_url: 'https://example.com/arm64.zip' },
+    { name: 'Power Interview AI-1.6.3-x64-mac.zip', browser_download_url: 'https://example.com/x64.zip' },
+  ];
+
+  const arm64Pick = pickMacAsset(assets, 'arm64');
+  check('picks the arm64 dmg, not the zip', arm64Pick?.url === 'https://example.com/arm64.dmg');
+  check('carries the digest through for verification', arm64Pick?.digest === 'sha256:arm64digest');
+
+  const x64Pick = pickMacAsset(assets, 'x64');
+  check('picks the x64 dmg, not the zip', x64Pick?.url === 'https://example.com/x64.dmg');
+
+  check('returns null when no asset matches the arch', pickMacAsset(assets, 'ia32') === null);
+  check('returns null for an empty asset list', pickMacAsset([], 'arm64') === null);
+
+  const noDigestPick = pickMacAsset(
+    [{ name: 'Power Interview AI-1.6.3-arm64.dmg', browser_download_url: 'https://example.com/arm64.dmg' }],
+    'arm64'
+  );
+  check('defaults digest to null when GitHub has not provided one', noDigestPick?.digest === null);
+
+  return failures;
+}
diff --git a/test/run.mjs b/test/run.mjs
index 39252f7..319a83a 100644
--- a/test/run.mjs
+++ b/test/run.mjs
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ for (const module of [
   './stealth-toggle.test.mjs',
   './stealth-dock.test.mjs',
   './tools-export.test.mjs',
+  './mac-update-util.test.mjs',
 ]) {
   const { run } = await import(module);
   failures.push(...(await run(userDataDir)));