QuireHow to read EPUB books on a Mac, with or without Apple Books
Short answer: your Mac can already read EPUB. Open the Books app, choose File › Import, and pick the .epub file, or drag it into your library.
If you’d rather not use Books, calibre and Thorium are free Mac apps, and a Chrome extension such as Quire EPUB Reader opens EPUB books in a browser tab.
Updated 15 October 2026. Apple Books steps follow Apple’s Books user guide; menu names can differ on older versions of macOS.
Open an EPUB in Apple Books
- Open the Books app
It comes with macOS. You’ll find it in Launchpad or the Applications folder.
- Import the EPUB
Choose File › Import, select the book and click Import. You can also drag .epub files into the library window. Older versions of Books call the menu item Add to Library.
- Open the book and adjust it
Open the book from your library. Move the pointer to the top of the page and click the Appearance button to change the text size, the theme, and a light or dark page.
Two limits from Apple’s guide: some files, “such as ACSM, AZW, and ODM files”, can only be opened in the app that goes with them, and Books works with “many” EPUB books that didn’t come from its store rather than all of them. If you have an .acsm file, see how to open an .acsm file. For any book, Apple’s guide also covers search (the Search button at the top of the page) and having the Mac read a page aloud with Edit › Speech › Start Speaking.
Read EPUB on a Mac without Apple Books
You might want something else because you also read on a Windows or Linux computer, because you want books to open straight from links in your browser, or simply because you prefer another layout. All of these are free.
In Chrome, with Quire EPUB Reader
Quire is our extension, and it was built and tested in Chrome on a Mac.
- Add Quire EPUB Reader from the Chrome Web Store. Chrome says it can “read and change all your data on all websites”; that is how it catches .epub links on any site. Each permission explained.
- Click a link to an .epub file and it opens in a reader tab. For a book in Finder, click the Quire toolbar icon and drop the file on the library page.
- Press ⌘+F to search the whole book, B to bookmark, D to switch between light, sepia and dark.
Books stay in your Chrome profile and don’t sync to your iPhone, which Apple Books does if you use iCloud. Quire has no highlights or notes yet, and can’t open DRM-protected books.
calibre
calibre is a free, open-source e-book manager. Add the book with Add books, then select it and click View. Its manual says you can pin the viewer to the Dock to use it on its own. It is the strongest option for a large collection or for converting formats.
Thorium Reader
Thorium is a free, open-source reader for macOS, Windows and Linux, with read aloud, full-text search, night mode and VoiceOver support. It also opens library books protected with Readium LCP.
Google Play Books
Upload the .epub in your Play Books library under Your books › Upload files and read it in Safari or Chrome, or on an Android phone. The file is stored in your Google account.