Wordpress Release Notes

WordPress 6.8.2 is now available!

This minor release includes fixes for 20 Core tickets and 15 Block Editor issues. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement.
WordPress 6.8.2 is a short-cycle maintenance release. More maintenance releases may be made available throughout 2025.
If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.
You can download WordPress 6.8.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click "Updates", and then click "Update Now". For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub version page.

Dropping security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6

This is not directly related to the 6.8.2 maintenance release, but branches 4.1 to 4.6 had their final release today. These branches won’t receive any security update anymore.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

WordPress 6.8.2 was led by Jb Audras, Estela Rueda, and Zunaid Amin.
Special thanks to @davidbaumwald, @sergeybiryukov, @mamaduka, @wildworks and @jorbin for their help on specific release tasks.
WordPress 6.8.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following 96 people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation on Slack, in the #core and #6-8-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.
Thanks to @estelaris and @zunaid321 for proofreading.

WordPress 6.8.1 is now available! This minor release includes fixes for 15 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, multisite, and REST API. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement.

WordPress 6.8.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. More maintenance releases will be made available throughout 2025.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

You can download WordPress 6.8.1 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click "Updates", and then click "Update Now". For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors This release was led by Aaron Jorbin.

WordPress 6.8.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

Aaron Jorbin, Adam Silverstein, Aki Hamano, Ankit Panchal, bernhard-reiter, Carolina Nymark, Code Amp, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, David Levine, Dilip Bheda, Dion Hulse, dsawyers, eduwass, Erick Hitter, Estela Rueda, Fabian Kägy, George Mamadashvili, Greg Ziółkowski, H. Kabir, hideishi, Himanshu Pathak, jarekmorawski, Jb Audras, Jeffrey Paul, Jeffro, Jeremy Felt, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, Joen A., John James Jacoby, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Joshua Goode, Karthikeya Bethu, Kingsley Felix, Konstantin Obenland, Lena Morita, LilGames, megane9988, Michelle Schulp Hunt, Mitchell Austin, Mukesh Panchal, nickwilmot, Nikunj Hatkar, Pascal Birchler, Paul Biron, Peter Wilson, Pratik Londhe, Presskopp, Sainath Poojary, Scott Kingsley Clark, Scott Reilly, Sergey Biryukov, SirLouen, Sören Wünsch, Sourav Pahwa, Stephen Bernhardt, takuword, Tushar Patel, Weston Ruter, Yogesh Bhutkar

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-8-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.

Props to @estelaris and @joedolson for proofreading.

Welcome to WordPress 6.8!

WordPress 6.8 polishes and refines the tools that you use every day, making your site faster, more secure, and easier to manage. The Style Book now has a structured layout and works with Classic themes, giving you more control over global styles. Speculative loading speeds up navigation by preloading links before users navigate to them, bcrypt hashing strengthens password security automatically, and database optimizations improve performance.

Download WordPress 6.8 “Cecil”

A release polished to a high sheen.

The Style Book gets a cleaner look—and a few new tricks.

The Style Book has a new, structured layout and clearer labels, to make it even easier to edit colors, typography—almost all your site styles—in one place. Plus, now you can see it in Classic themes that have editor-styles or a theme.json file. Find the Style Book under Appearance > Design and use it to preview your theme’s evolution, as you edit CSS or make changes in the Customizer.

Editor improvements

Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can exclude sticky posts from the Query Loop. Plus, you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor that smooth your way through everything you build.

Near-instant page loads, thanks to Speculative Loading

In WordPress 6.8, pages load faster than ever. When you or your user hovers over or clicks a link, WordPress may preload the next page, for a smoother, near-instant experience. The system balances speed and efficiency, and you can control how it works, with a plugin or your own code. This feature only works in modern browsers—older ones will simply ignore it without any impact.

Stronger password security with bcrypt

Now passwords are harder to crack with bcrypt hashing, which takes a lot more computing power to break. This strengthens overall security, as do other encryption improvements across WordPress. You don’t need to do anything—everything updates automatically.

Accessibility improvements

100+ accessibility fixes and enhancements touch a broad spectrum of the WordPress experience. This release includes fixes to every bundled theme, improvements to the navigation menu management, the customizer, and simplified labeling. The Block Editor has over 70 improvements to blocks, DataViews, and to its overall user experience.

Performance updates

WordPress 6.8 packs a wide range of performance fixes and enhancements to speed up everything from editing to browsing. Beyond speculative loading, WordPress 6.8 pays special attention to the block editor, block type registration, and query caching. Plus, imagine never waiting longer than 50 milliseconds—for any interaction. In WordPress 6.8, the Interactivity API takes a first step toward that goal.

And much more

For a comprehensive overview of all the new features and enhancements in WordPress 6.8, please visit the feature-showcase website.

Check out what’s new

Learn more about WordPress 6.8

Learn WordPress is a free resource for new and experienced WordPress users. Learn is stocked with how-to videos on using various features in WordPress, interactive workshops for exploring topics in-depth, and lesson plans for diving deep into specific areas of WordPress. Read the WordPress 6.8 Release Notes for information on installation, enhancements, fixed issues, release contributors, learning resources, and the list of file changes. Explore the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide. Learn about the changes in this release with detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress.

The 6.8 release squad

Every release comes to you from a dedicated team of enthusiastic contributors who help keep things on track and moving smoothly. The team that has led 6.8 is a cross-functional group of contributors who are always ready to champion ideas, remove blockers, and resolve issues.

Thank you, contributors

Thank you, contributors The mission of WordPress is to democratize publishing and embody the freedoms that come with open source. A global and diverse community of people collaborating to strengthen the software supports this effort. WordPress 6.8 reflects the tireless efforts and passion of more than 900 contributors in more than 60 countries all over the world. This release also welcomed over 250 first-time contributors! Their collaboration delivered more than 320 enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all—a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress open source community.

More than 60 locales have fully translated WordPress 6.8 into their language making this one of the most translated releases ever on day one. Community translators are working hard to ensure more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps make WordPress available in 200 languages. Last but not least, thanks to the volunteers who contribute to the support forums by answering questions from WordPress users worldwide.

Get involved

Participation in WordPress goes far beyond coding. And learning more and getting involved is easy. Discover the teams that come together to Make WordPress and use this interactive tool to help you decide which is right for you.

Share this:

The third release candidate (“RC3”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC3 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 6.8 RC3 in four ways:

• Plugin Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

• Direct Download Download the RC3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.

• Command Line Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC3

• WordPress Playground Use the 6.8 RC3 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.

The current target for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts leading up to next week’s release for further details.

What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC3? Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC2, you can browse the following links:

• GitHub commits for 6.8 since April 1
• Changes committed since April 1

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community that collaborates and contributes to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Search for vulnerabilities

From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. For more details on developer-related changes in 6.8, please review the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC3, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? मराठी? বাংলা? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages.

An RC3 haiku

The launch draws closer, Six-eight sings through RC3, Almost time to shine.

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @audrasjb, @mamaduka, @krupajnanda, @benjamin_zekavica, @narenin, @joedolson, @courane01, @joemcgill, @marybaum, @kmgalanakis, @umeshsinghin, @wildworks, @mkrndmane.

The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 6.8 RC2 in four ways:

• Plugin Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

• Direct Download Download the RC2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.

• Command Line Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC2

• WordPress Playground Use the 6.8 RC2 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.

The current target for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for further details.

What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC2? Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:

• GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 25
• Closed Trac tickets since March 25

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:

• Speculative Loading in 6.8
• WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing
• Roster of design tools per block (WordPress 6.8 edition)
• More efficient block type registration in 6.8
• Updates to user-interface components in WordPress 6.8
• Interactivity API best practices in 6.8
• Internationalization improvements in 6.8

How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

• Search for vulnerabilities From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

• Update your theme or plugin For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC2, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

• Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी?Kannada? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 6.8 release cycle.

An RC2 haiku Testing, 1, 2, 3 It’s almost April fifteenth Squashing all the bugs

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @michelleames, @tacoverdo, @jopdop30, @vgnavada, @jeffpaul.

The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 6.8 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC1 on a test server and site. Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.8 is the best it can be. You can test WordPress 6.8 RC1 in four ways:

• Plugin Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

• Direct Download Download the RC1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.

• Command Line Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-RC1

• WordPress Playground Use the 6.8 RC1 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.

The current target for the WordPress 6.8 release is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for further details.

What’s in WordPress 6.8 RC1? Get a recap of WordPress 6.8’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since Beta 3, you can browse the following links:

• GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 18
• Closed Trac tickets since March 18

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:

• Speculative Loading in 6.8
• WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing
• Roster of design tools per block (WordPress 6.8 edition)
• More efficient block type registration in 6.8
• Updates to user-interface components in WordPress 6.8
• Interactivity API best practices in 6.8
• Internationalization improvements in 6.8

How you can contribute WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Search for vulnerabilities

From now until the final release of WordPress 6.8 (scheduled for April 15, 2025), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users. Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.8 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.8. If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC1) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 6.8 release cycle.

An RC1 haiku March fades, nearly there, Six-eight hums—a steady beat, RC greets the world.

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @joemcgill @benjamin_zekavica @courane01 @mkrndmane @audrasjb @areziaal @ankit-k-gupta @krupajnanda @bph.

WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 is now ready for testing!

This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended you evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 in four ways:

• Plugin Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
• Direct Download Download the Beta 3 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
• Command Line Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-beta3
• WordPress Playground Use the 6.8 Beta 3 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.

The current target date for the final release of WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for more information. Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 6.8: Read the Beta 1 and Beta 2 announcements for details and highlights.

How to test this release

Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta/RC

Between Beta 1, released on March 4, 2025, and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 8, 2025, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Beta 3 updates and highlights

WordPress 6.8 Beta 3 contains more than 3 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 2 release, including 16 tickets for WordPress core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 3 using these links:

• GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 12, 2025
• Closed Trac tickets since March 12, 2025

A Beta 3 haiku

Beta three refines, WordPress shapes with steady hands, Code grows into form. Props to @benjamin_zekavica @krupajnanda @ankit-k-gupta @joemcgill for proofreading and review.

WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 is now ready for testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 in four ways:

• Plugin Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)
• Direct Download Download the Beta 2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
• Command Line Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-beta2
• WordPress Playground Use the 6.8 Beta 2 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup is required–just click and go!

The current target date for the final release of WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 6.8: Read the Beta 1 announcement for details and highlights.

How to test this release

Your help testing the WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.8. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta/RC

Between Beta 1, released on March 4, 2025, and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 8, 2025, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Beta 2 updates and highlights

WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 contains more than 14 Editor updates and fixes since the Beta 1 release, including 21 tickets for WordPress core. Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links:

• GitHub commits for 6.8 since March 4, 2025
• Closed Trac tickets since March 4, 2025

A Beta 2 haiku

• Second wave refines,
• Lines of code like rivers flow,
• WordPress finds its form.

Props to @ankitkumarshah @vgnavada @krupajnanda @michelleames @audrasjb @marybaum @ecgan for proofreading and review.

WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, set up a test environment or a local site to explore the new features.

How to Test WordPress 6.8 Beta 1

You can test this beta release in any of the following ways:

• WordPress Beta Tester Plugin

  • Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.

• Direct Download

  • Download the Beta 1 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.

• Command Line (WP-CLI)

  • Use this WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.8-beta1

• WordPress Playground

  • Use a 6.8 Beta 1 WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required–-just click and go!

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.8 is April 15, 2025. Your help testing Beta and RC versions over the next six weeks is vital to ensuring the final release is everything it should be: stable, powerful, and intuitive.

What’s New in WordPress 6.8 Beta 1

This is a polish release, with user enhancements throughout incorporated into the latest Gutenberg updates. WordPress 6.8 brings a luster and gloss that only a polish release can.

WordPress 6.8 Beta 1 contains over 370 enhancements and 520 bug fixes for the editor, including design improvements, polishing the query loop, and more than 230 tickets for WordPress 6.8 Core. Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming:

Editor improvements

• Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can opt to ignore sticky posts in the Query Loop. Plus you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor!

The Style Book comes to Classic themes

• The Style Book now features a structured layout so you can preview site colors, typography, and block styles more easily. You can use the Style Book in classic themes with editor-styles or a theme.json file and includes clearer labels, and you can find them under Appearance > Design.

Support for Speculation browser API

• WordPress 6.8 introduces native support for speculative loading, leveraging the Speculation Rules API to improve site performance with near-instant page loads. This feature prefetches or prerenders URLs based on user interactions, such as hovering over links, reducing load times for subsequent pages.
• By default, WordPress 6.8 applies a conservative prefetching strategy, balancing performance gains with resource efficiency. Developers can customize speculative loading behavior using new filters, since the API does not include UI-based controls. The existing Speculative Loading feature plugin will adapt to the core implementation, allowing deeper customization. Please test this feature in supported browsers (currently Chrome 108+ and Edge 108+, with more browsers evaluating) and provide feedback on #62503 to help refine its implementation.

Major security boost

• WordPress 6.8 will use bcrypt for password hashing, which significantly hardens WordPress. Other hashing is getting hardened, too, throughout the security apparatus. You won’t have to change anything in your daily workflow.

The features included in this first beta may change before the final release of WordPress 6.8, based on what testers like you find.

• Get an overview of the 6.8 release cycle and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.8-related posts in the next few weeks for further details.

Caveat on testing 6.8 Beta 1 in versions older than 5.1

Due to an update made to the upgrade routine during this release, (see r59803), any upgrade from versions older than 5.1 will fail. Folks are working to resolve this specific issue, so please hold off on reporting on this while testing the Beta 1 release.

Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta & Release Candidate

The WordPress community sponsors a monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities. This reward doubles during the period between Beta 1 on March 4, 2025 and the final Release Candidate (RC) scheduled for April 15, 2025. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies. You can find those on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku

March winds shift the tide. Hands unite in open source; WordPress moves ahead.

Props to @audrasjb @marybaum @mamaduka @michelleames @bph @jorbin @joemcgill @krupajnanda @desrosj @benjamin_zekavica @lysyjan87 for reviewing and collaborating on this post!

WordPress 6.7.2 is now available!

This minor release includes 35 bug fixes, addressing issues affecting multiple components including the block editor, HTML API, and Customize.

WordPress 6.7.2 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be version 6.8 planned for April 15, 2025.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

You can download WordPress 6.7.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click "Updates", and then click "Update Now". For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

This release was led by Aaron Jorbin.

WordPress 6.7.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

• Aaron Jorbin
• Alex Lende
• Alexandre Buffet
• Andreas Pedersen
• Andrew Ozz
• Ankit Kumar Shah
• apermo
• Benedikt Ledl
• bernhard-reiter
• Brian Alexander
• Carlos Bravo
• Carolina Nymark
• Cyrille
• Daniel Post
• darerodz
• David Calhoun
• David Smith
• Dennis Snell
• dhewercorus
• Dion Hulse
• Doug Wollison
• Ella
• Eshaan Dabasiya
• Fabian Kägy
• Fabian Todt
• Felix Arntz
• Felix Renicks
• Francis Cabusas
• Frank B.
• George Mamadashvili
• ghinamt
• Glynn Quelch
• Greg Ziółkowski
• James Koster
• Jarda Snajdr
• Jb Audras
• jdnd
• jeryj
• Joe Dolson
• Joe McGill
• Jon Surrell
• Jonathan Desrosiers
• juanwp22
• Juliette Reinders Folmer
• Karthick
• Kazuto Takeshita
• Kelly Choyce-Dwan
• Ketan Niruke
• Lena Morita
• levskipg
• Maciej Ma?kowiak
• Mario Santos
• Matthew Boynes
• Mayank Tripathi
• Michal Czaplinski
• Miguel Fonseca
• Mitchell Austin
• mreishus
• Mukesh Panchal
• Nadir Seghir a11n
• Narendra Sishodiya
• Naresh Bheda
• neotrope
• Nick Diego
• Olga Gleckler
• Parth vataliya
• Pascal Birchler
• paullb
• Peter Wilson
• Pitam Dey
• redkite
• Rishav Dutta
• robertstaddon
• rvoigt
• Sagar Tamang
• Sainath Poojary
• seanlanglands
• Sergey Biryukov
• Scott Reilly
• Shyam Kariya
• smerriman
• Stephen Bernhardt
• Sukhendu Sekhar Guria
• TobiasBg
• Tonya Mork
• Vishy Moghan
• Weston Ruter
• wongjn
• Yogesh Bhutkar
• zaoyao

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-8-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.

Props to @joedolson, @joemcgill, and @audrasjb for proofreading.