iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 Golden Gate ship on the same day, Monday, September 14, and they are not the same update. Apple’s macOS page lists six things its iPadOS page does not, and the iPad page lists one thing the Mac page does not.
The iPad inherits the iOS 27 feature set almost whole, which makes the Mac the outlier of the pair. Everything below is what Apple lists on each page, and an absence from a page is not Apple saying a feature is missing.
| Item | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| Both releases | Monday, September 14, 2026, free |
| Mac features not on the iPad page | Six |
| iPad features not on the Mac page | One, plus what iPad inherits from iOS 27 |
| Siri AI in the EU | Mac yes, iPad no, when set to a supported language |
| Visual Intelligence | Both, through different entry points |
| Release time | Not published for either |
Six things Apple lists for the Mac and not the iPad
- Higher resolutions on ultrawide displays, which Apple describes as “such as 5K at 120Hz”.
- Video podcasts in Apple Podcasts on Mac, with Picture in Picture, transcripts and chapters.
- Swipe to refresh, which Apple lists in Safari, Mail, News, Podcasts and Calendar.
- A reworked interface: a more uniform toolbar across the top of apps, edge-to-edge sidebars and colored sidebar icons, plus updated window shapes and menu bar icons.
- Siri AI in the EU, because Apple’s exclusion names iOS, iPadOS and watchOS but not macOS.
- Visual Intelligence on a dedicated keyboard shortcut, where the iPad route is the screenshot experience.
The interface work is the part Apple framed as a return rather than an addition. Its own wording is that macOS 27 reincorporates cornerstone macOS elements for readability and consistency across apps.
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The one iPad line the Mac page does not have
Apple’s iPadOS page claims that browsing and transferring files to external drives is “up to 5x faster”, tested on an 11-inch iPad Pro with M4 and a USB4 SSD moving 10,000 JPEGs against a prerelease build. No equivalent external-drive claim appears on the macOS page.
The Mac page does claim faster AirDrop, faster network file browsing and faster Safari content loading, without the numbers Apple attached to the iPhone performance claims in iOS 27.
| Feature | iPadOS 27 | macOS 27 Golden Gate |
|---|---|---|
| Ultrawide display resolutions | Not listed | Listed, 5K at 120Hz cited |
| Video podcasts | Not listed | Listed, with transcripts and chapters |
| Swipe to refresh | Not listed | Listed in five apps |
| External drive transfers | Up to 5x faster | Not listed |
| Visual Intelligence | Screenshot experience | Keyboard shortcut |
| Siri AI at launch in the EU | No | Yes, supported language |
What the iPad inherits and the Mac page never names
Because iPadOS 27 carries the iOS 27 feature set, Apple’s iPad page covers ground the macOS page does not mention at all, and much of it is hardware bound rather than platform bound.
- Camera, where Siri mode starts a visual search from the viewfinder on iPhone.
- Health, including perimenopause and menopause support in Cycle Tracking, and GymKit.
- Wallet, where bill splitting with Apple Cash is listed for eligible iPads and is US only.
- Genmoji, AirPods Custom EQ, and the Home app’s activity summaries and clip search.
Three features that land on both, and one that spans three
Three items land on both pages and are easy to miss in the split: Photos gets Spatial Reframing, the Extend tool and enhanced Clean Up on each, Safari gets Tab Topics and Notify Me on each, and the child safety changes require the Screen Time update that Apple says applies to iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27.
Apple Reference Image is the sharpest case of a feature spanning all three. Capture belongs to the iPhone 18 Pro, and Apple’s EU footnote says users on iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 can develop and view reference images there even though capture is not available at launch.
What Apple has not said
Apple has published no Stage Manager, windowing or Apple Pencil changes for iPadOS 27, which is an absence rather than a denial. It has published no release time, no download size and no free-space figure for either release.
It has also not said whether any Mac feature on this list requires Apple silicon beyond the compatibility floor, and it has not enumerated which Siri AI dependent features go dark in the EU on iPadOS. Our event recap and live blog cover what Apple did put on the record on September 9.
Both updates are dated Monday, September 14, and both are free. The two product pages are the only feature lists Apple has published, and neither has changed since the event.
