Title: WordPress 6.9 Development Cycle Author: Jeffrey Paul Published: April 15, 2025 Last modified: December 2, 2025 --- # WordPress 6.9 Development Cycle [Dev Chat Agendas](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-chat+agenda+6-9/) | [Dev Chat Summaries](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-chat+summary+6-9/) | [Roadmap](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/07/28/roadmap-to-6-9/) | [Bug Scrubs Schedule](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/09/15/bug-scrub-schedule-for-wordpress-6-9/) | [Dev Notes](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-notes+6-9/) | [Field Guide](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/25/wordpress-6-9-field-guide/) | Help Test 6.9 | [All Posts Tagged 6.9](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/6-9/) | [6.9 Release Leads Channel](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C08MVR1MU2K) WordPress 6.9 will be the final [major release](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/releasing-major-versions/) of 2025. New features will be considered if deemed reasonably ready. ## Release Squad * Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release.: [Matt Mullenweg](https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/) * Release Coordination: [Akshaya Rane](https://profiles.wordpress.org/akshayar/), [Amy Kamala](https://profiles.wordpress.org/amykamala/) * Tech Leads: [David Baumwald](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/), [Ella van Durpe](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/), [Héctor Prieto](https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/) * Design Lead: [Francisco Vera](https://profiles.wordpress.org/fcoveram/) * Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Leads: [Aki Hamano](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wildworks/), [Ryan Welcher](https://profiles.wordpress.org/welcher/) * Test Leads: [Jonathan Bossenger](https://profiles.wordpress.org/psykro/), [Krupa Nanda](https://profiles.wordpress.org/krupajnanda/) All release decisions will ultimately be this release team’s to make and communicate while gathering input from the community. ## Release Schedule | 25 March 2025 | **Alpha Begins.** Trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. is open for business. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1742920208610519)). | | 21 October 2025 | **[Beta 1](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/21/wordpress-6-9-beta-1/)**. From this point on, core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. [https://core.trac.wordpress.org](https://core.trac.wordpress.org) will focus on testing and fixing bugs discovered during betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. testing. Begin writing Dev Notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1761066003449989), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-beta1.zip)). | | 28 October 2025 | **[Beta 2](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/10/wordpress-6-9-beta-2/)**. Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, and continue writing Dev Notes and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1761663668390419), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-beta2.zip)). | | 4 November 2025 | **[Beta 3](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-beta-3/)**. Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, and continue writing Dev Notes and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1762268448635829), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-beta3.zip)). | | 7 November 2025 | [**Beta 4**](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/07/wordpress-6-9-beta-4/). Test the beta release, fix bugs discovered during beta testing, and continue writing Dev Notes and the About page. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1762528018829739), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-beta4.zip)). | | 11 November 2025 | **[Release Candidate 1](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-1/)**. Publish the [Field Guide with Dev Notes](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/25/wordpress-6-9-field-guide/), commit the About page, begin drafting the release post, hard string freeze, and branchbranch 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". for the release. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1762873290525579), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-RC1.zip)). | | 18 November 2025 | **[Release Candidate 2](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-2/)**. Update the About page images and continue drafting the release post. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1763478117399009), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-RC2.zip)). | | 25 November 2025 | **[Release Candidate 3](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-3)**. Update the About page images and continue drafting the release post. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1764082872443199), [ZIP download](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-RC3.zip)). | | 1 December 2025 | [Release Candidate 4](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/01/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-4/). | | 1 December 2025 | **Dry run** for release of WordPress 6.9 and 24-hour code freeze. ([Slack archive](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1764610393173109)). | | 2 December 2025 | **[WordPress 6.9 is released](https://wordpress.org/news/2025/12/gene/)**! (SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform [https://slack.com/](https://slack.com/). The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/) archive, ZIP download). | ## How to contribute To get involved in WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development, head over to TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress., and [pick a 6.9 ticket](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/6). Need help? **Check out the [Core Contributor Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/)**. Get your patches done and submitted as soon as possible, then help find people to test the patches and leave feedback on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. Patches for enhancements will not be committed after the dates posted above so that we can all focus on squashing bugs and delivering the most bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.-free WordPress ever 😉. If you want to dive deeper into 6.9, join the weekly meetings in the [#core](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core) Slack channel, which occur every Wednesday at 15:00 UTC. # Post navigation