The AirPort Time Capsule (originally named Time Capsule) is a wireless router which was sold by Apple Inc., featuring network-attached storage (NAS) and a residential gateway router, and is one of Apple's AirPort products. It is essentially a version of the AirPort Extreme with an internal hard drive. Apple describes it as a "Backup Appliance", designed to work in tandem with the Time Machine backup software utility introduced in Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.
Introduced on January 15, 2008 and released on February 29, 2008, the device has been upgraded several times, matching upgrades in the Extreme series routers. The earliest versions supported 802.11n wireless and came with a 500 GB hard drive in the base model, while the latest model, introduced in 2013, features 802.11ac and a 3 TB hard drive. All models include four Gigabit Ethernet ports (3 LAN ports, 1 WAN port) and a single USB port. The USB port can be used for external peripheral devices to be shared over the network, such as external hard drives or printers. The NAS functionality utilizes a built-in "server grade" hard drive.
In 2016, Apple disbanded its wireless router development team, and in 2018 the entire AirPort line of products was discontinued without replacement.
AirPort Time Capsule backups only function with Macs running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 through macOS Tahoe 26, and compatibility with Time Capsule backups was removed with macOS Golden Gate 27 in 2026. Third-party open-source software could restore modern SMB support for Apple Time Capsules, allowing the devices to continue functioning as network shares and Time Machine backup targets on newer versions of macOS.