Support for PHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher 7.2 and 7.3 will be dropped in WordPress 7.0, currently scheduled for release in April 2026. The minimum recommended version of PHP will remain at 8.3, but the new minimum supported version of PHP will be 7.4.0.
The minimum supported version of PHP was last raised in July 2024 to 7.2.24. Since then usage of PHP 7.2 and 7.3 has dropped below 4% of monitored WordPress installations.
Historically, the project has used 5% as the baseline usage percentage that a PHP version must fall below before it can be considered for a well-earned retirement. Now that usage of PHP 7.2 and 7.3 combined has fallen well below that, the process to increase the minimum supported PHP version can proceed.
The goal of increasing the minimum supported version of PHP is to ensure the long-term maintainability of WordPress. The benefits to increasing the minimum supported PHP version manifest over time across multiple areas, including the plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme ecosystem, tooling and libraries for AI, the long-term perception of the WordPress project, developer relations, and eventually within the WordPress codebase itself, including its developer tooling and automated testing infrastructure.
Discussion around this minimum version bump can be found here on the Trac ticket.
What about PHP 8 and higher?
WordPress core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. is fully compatible with PHP 8.0 to 8.3 and is beta compatible with PHP 8.4 and 8.5.
A full breakdown of which PHP versions are compatible with each version of WordPress can be found in the WordPress Core Handbook..
What about security support?
Sites that are running PHP 7.2 or 7.3 will remain on the 6.9 branch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". of WordPress once 7.0 is released. While only one branch officially receives security updates, fixes are backported down to WordPress 4.7 as a courtesy when possible.
What about the Gutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ plugin?
The minimum supported version of PHP will also be increased to 7.4 in the Gutenberg plugin.
Going forward
There are no plans to bump the minimum supported PHP version on a set schedule. The Core team will continue to monitor PHP version usage and work with the Hosting team to encourage users and hosting companies to upgrade their versions of PHP as swiftly as possible. The 5% usage threshold will continue to be used as the standard for the foreseeable future.
At the time of publishing, the PHP version usage is as follows:
- 8.5: 0.23%
- 8.4: 4.90%
- 8.3: 16.74%
- 8.2: 27.29%
- 8.1: 15.39%
- 8.0: 5.69%
- 7.4: 22.20%
- 7.3: 2.04%
- 7.2: 1.81%
Update PHP today
If you need more information about PHP or how to update it, check out this support article that explains more, guides you through the process, and provides instructions for contacting your web hosting provider for assistance.
Props to all those that have contributed to this discussion recently. Thanks to @desrosj, @westonruter, and @jorbin for feedback and proof-reading this post.
#7-0, #dev-notes, #php
