Class File Versions
Each JDK Release comes with its class file version. Class files are backward
compatible. But class files compiled for newer JDK releases cannot be executed
and will result in an UnsupportedClassVersionError.
A class file version consists of a major and a minor version:
<major>.<minor>
For recent JDK releases, the major version is incremented for every release and the minor version is 0. The only exception are class files which use preview features of that JDK release. In that case the minor version is 65535. A class file which uses preview features can only be loaded by the JDK release matching the major version. Loading such classes with a newer JDK release is not permitted.
The following table lists class file versions for each JDK release. Follow the linked JDK information to find download options for a suitable JDK.
| JDK Version | Class File Version |
|---|---|
| Java 1.0 | 45.0 |
| Java 1.1 | 45.3 |
| Java 1.2 | 46.0 |
| Java 1.3 | 47.0 |
| Java 1.4 | 48.0 |
| Java 5 | 49.0 |
| Java 6 | 50.0 |
| Java 7 | 51.0 |
| Java 8 | 52.0 |
| Java 9 | 53.0 |
| Java 10 | 54.0 |
| Java 11 | 55.0 |
| Java 12 | 56.0 |
| Java 13 | 57.0 |
| Java 14 | 58.0 |
| Java 15 | 59.0 |
| Java 16 | 60.0 |
| Java 17 | 61.0 |
| Java 18 | 62.0 |
| Java 19 | 63.0 |
| Java 20 | 64.0 |
| Java 21 | 65.0 |
| Java 22 | 66.0 |
| Java 23 | 67.0 |
| Java 24 | 68.0 |
| Java 25 | 69.0 |
| Java 26 | 70.0 |