Java 26
| Status | Feature Release |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2026-03-17 |
| EOL Date | 2026-09 |
| Latest Version | 26.0.1 |
| 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 |
| OpenJDK Updates | 2026-04-21 → 26.0.1 2026-03-17 → 26 |
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 or Java 28.
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.