The easiest way to install gnuplot on macOS is Homebrew: run brew install gnuplot, then verify with gnuplot --version. There is no official macOS binary package from the gnuplot project, so a package manager (or building the source tarball) is the normal route.
Option 1: Homebrew (Recommended)
- Install Homebrew if you do not have it. Paste the install command from the official Homebrew site (brew.sh) into Terminal and follow its prompts.
- Install gnuplot:
brew install gnuplotHomebrew downloads gnuplot and its dependencies (such as the Qt terminal libraries) and places the binary in
/opt/homebrew/binon Apple Silicon Macs or/usr/local/binon Intel Macs — both are on your PATH automatically. - Verify:
gnuplot --versionYou should see a line such as
gnuplot 6.0 patchlevel 5if Homebrew is serving the current release, or a slightly older patchlevel if the formula has not caught up yet. - First plot:
gnuplot plot sin(x)A Qt window with a sine curve confirms the graphical terminal works.
Option 2: MacPorts
If you already use MacPorts, the equivalent is:
sudo port install gnuplotThen run the same gnuplot --version check.
About Versions
Homebrew and MacPorts usually track gnuplot releases closely, but they can lag the newest SourceForge release by a few weeks. If you need exactly 6.0.5 today, download the source tarball (gnuplot-6.0.5.tar.gz) from the download page and build it, or simply use the package-manager build — for almost all plotting work the difference is negligible.
Common Pitfalls
- “command not found: gnuplot” right after a Homebrew install: open a new Terminal window, or run the shell setup line Homebrew printed at the end of its own installation (
brew shellenv). - Expecting a .dmg installer: the gnuplot project does not publish one. Any site offering a “gnuplot for Mac installer” is a third-party bundle — the package-manager route above is the safe standard.
For the full pre-flight checklist, see how to verify your gnuplot installation.
Back up your plot scripts and data
Your .gp scripts and data files are small but hard to recreate. Keeping a synced backup means a reinstall never costs you your work. pCloud offers cloud storage with a one-time lifetime option and syncs a scripts folder across machines automatically. Affiliate link — see our Affiliate Disclosure.