Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program: What You Need to Know

Apple promised customers that purchased a new Mac starting on June 11 that they would be eligible for a free upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion. Now that Mountain Lion is available, they can point their favorite browser to the Apple website and request a redemption code.

Bought a Mac after July 11? Get Mountain Lion for freeBought a Mac after July 11? Get Mountain Lion for free

Purchase Window
Macs that qualify for the free OS upgrade must be purchased between June 11, 2012 and July 25, 2012.

Not all Macs hitting store shelves after that window, however, will have Mountain Lion pre-installed. Apple is offering a free upgrade for those purchases, too.

Eligible Macs
Apple has done a good job of detailing exactly which Macs are eligible for a free Mountain Lion upgrade, complete with model numbers. Here’s your quick reference list:

  • iMac - Dual Core and Quad Core
  • Mac mini - Core 2 Duo
  • Mac Pro - Quad-Core Intel Xeon and Six-Core Intel Xeon
  • MacBook - Core 2 Duo
  • MacBook Pro - 13.3-inch, 15.4-inch, 17-inch models
  • MacBook Air - Dual-Core Intel Core i5

Some of those Macs are refurbished models, too.

OS X Server
Apple’s Up-to-Date program also applies to OS X Server. Mac Server models purchased between July 11 and July 25 qualify for a free Mountain Lion Server upgrade, and systems purchased on or after July 26 that didn’t include Mountain Lion server qualify, too.

After requesting your free copy of Mountain Lion, Apple will email a redemption code you can use at the Mac App Store. It may take a couple days for the code to show up, so don’t be surprised if you can’t satisfy your need for instant gratification.

For everyone else, OS X Mountain Lion costs US$19.99 and is downloadable through the Mac App Store. OS X Server for Mountain Lion is an additional $19.99.