"I'm very happy to see you all again," she told the crowd gathered near her home in Yangon.
Witnesses and police said she had been released.
Her lawyer Nyan Win went into her house, witnesses said.
At party headquarters in the same city, hundreds waited near her National League for Democracy.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest because of her fight for democracy in the nation formerly known as Burma.
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Recently, she had little outside human contact except for two maids and visits from her doctor. Sometimes, she spoke to supporters over the wall of her compound.
Security has been stepped up in Myanmar, but it was unclear whether that was because of the country's first elections in two decades Sunday.
It makes "perfect sense" for the regime to free her since she's "no longer an electoral threat to them, said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar specialist.
She was unable to participate in the elections because of a recent court conviction.
There have been calls around the world for Suu Kyi's release, including one from U.S. President Barack Obama during his current trip to Asia.
The ruling military junta has been slowly releasing official election results, but critics say a victory for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party is all but certain.
The Burma Campaign UK, which promotes human rights in Myanmar, accused the ruling junta of rigging the November 7 election.
"Conversely, they could be calculating that by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi they will receive so much positive publicity it will counter the negative attention on the election," the group said.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.
In 1990, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won parliamentary elections by a landslide, but the military junta rejected the results. The regime recently passed a law that made her ineligible for Sunday's elections because of her court conviction last year.
She was found guilty of breaching the terms of her house arrest after American man John Yettaw swam uninvited to her lakeside house in Yangon and briefly stayed there.
Suu Kyi's supporters have said the conviction was simply a way to remove her from the election campaign.
Over the years, Suu Kyi has repeatedly challenged the junta and discouraged foreign investment in Myanmar.
In one incident in 1998, soldiers prevented her from leaving Yangon. But Suu Kyi refused to turn back and was detained in her minivan for almost two weeks.
"She is the symbol of the hope for the people of Burma. If she is out today the whole country will rise up, will follow her," said Khin Omar of the Network for Democracy and Development.
CNN's Moni Basu contributed to this report. Rest of your post
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