Java 26
| Status | Feature Release |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2026-03-17 |
| EOL Date | 2026-09 |
| Latest Version | 26 |
| Umbrella JSR | JSR 401 |
| Class File Version | 70.0 |
| Unicode Version | 17.0.0 |
| API Changes | Compare to 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16 - 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 1.4 - 1.3 - 1.2 - 1.1 - 1.0 |
| Documentation | JavaDoc, Language Spec, VM Spec, Tools, Release Notes |
| SCM | git |
New Features
Here are all new features in Java 26 by category. There is also of list of all features of all Java releases.
JVM
- Ahead-of-Time Object Caching with Any GC (JEP 516)
- G1 GC: Improve Throughput by Reducing Synchronization (JEP 522)
Language
- Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch 4. Preview (JEP 530)
API
- Prepare to Make Final Mean Final (JEP 500)
- Remove the Applet API (JEP 504)
- HTTP/3 for the HTTP Client API (JEP 517)
- PEM Encodings of Cryptographic Objects 2. Preview (JEP 524)
- Structured Concurrency 6. Preview (JEP 525)
- Lazy Constants 2. Preview (JEP 526)
- Vector API 10. Incubator (JEP 529)
Should I Upgrade?
Congratulations, with Java 26 you're running the latest Java release. This is not a long term support (LTS) release and only supported until 2026-09. Please prepare to upgrade to the next release afterwards.
If you want to experiment with the latest features which are currently under active development you may try Java 27.
Downloads
| Vendor | Product | License | Platform Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adoptium | Eclipse Temurin | GPLv2+CE |
|
| Amazon | Corretto 26 | GPLv2+CE | |
| Azul Systems | Zulu Builds of OpenJDK 26 | GPLv2+CE | |
| BellSoft | Liberica | GPLv2+CE | |
| IBM | Semeru Runtime Open Edition, Version 26 | GPLv2+CE | |
| Oracle | Oracle JDK 26 | Oracle No-Fee | |
| Oracle | Oracle OpenJDK 26 | GPLv2+CE |
|
| SAP | SapMachine 26 | GPLv2+CE |
Sandbox
Instantly compile and run Java 26 snippets without a local Java installation.