Laravel Release Cycle: Versions, Support Policy, and Dates

Laravel ships one major version a year, in the first quarter, and tags minor and patch releases most weeks in between. Laravel 13 is the current major version, released on March 17th, 2026. Laravel 14 is expected in Q1 2027.

#Semantic Versioning

Laravel and its first-party packages follow Semantic Versioning. Each part of a version number such as 13.33.0 has a fixed meaning:

1. MAJOR (13) changes when a release contains breaking changes
2. MINOR (33) changes when a release adds features in a backward-compatible way
3. PATCH (0) changes when a release contains only backward-compatible bug fixes

Before Laravel 6, the framework used the second number for major releases, so 5.4 to 5.5 could break your application. Laravel switched to Semantic Versioning with Laravel 6 in September 2019. From that point, a jump such as 6.1 to 6.2 meant new features, but no breaking changes.

#Weekly Minor and Patch Releases

The Laravel team tags framework releases on most weeks, usually on a Tuesday. A release that adds a feature bumps the minor number, and a release that only fixes bugs bumps the patch number. Laravel 13.0 shipped in March 2026, and by September 22nd, 2026, the framework was at Laravel 13.33.

A minor number in the thirties does not mean you have fallen behind. The release notes state that minor and patch releases should never contain breaking changes, so moving from 13.1 to 13.33 is a composer update. Laravel News covers each weekly release, and over a year those releases carry most of the framework's new features.

#Annual Major Releases

Laravel released a new major version every six months until Laravel 8. In January 2021, Taylor Otwell announced a move to a yearly major release cycle. His reasons were to reduce the maintenance work for the community, and to ship new features during the year without breaking backward compatibility.

Laravel 9 was then scheduled for September 2021, but the team delayed it to February 2022 so it could ship with Symfony 6.0 components. Since then, major versions have landed early in each year:

• Laravel 9: February 8th, 2022
• Laravel 10: February 14th, 2023
• Laravel 11: March 12th, 2024
• Laravel 12: February 24th, 2025
• Laravel 13: March 17th, 2026

The current release notes describe the schedule as "every year (~Q1)", so a major version can land in February or March.

Because most features ship in minor releases, a major version now holds back only the changes that break something, and the upgrade is often small. From the Laravel 13 release notes:

Much of our focus during this release cycle has been minimizing breaking changes. Instead, we have dedicated ourselves to shipping continuous quality-of-life improvements throughout the year that do not break existing applications.

Raising the minimum PHP version is one of those breaking changes. Laravel 13 requires PHP 8.3, and Laravel 14 will require PHP 8.4.

#Support Policy

Every major Laravel release receives bug fixes for 18 months and security fixes for two years. There are no Long-Term Support (LTS) releases anymore. Laravel 6 was the last LTS version, and every major version since has the same support window.

For other first-party libraries, only the latest major version receives bug fixes.

As of this writing, Laravel 10 and 11 are end of life. Laravel 12 receives security fixes only until February 24th, 2027. Laravel 13 is the only version that receives bug fixes.

A major release lands each year and bug fixes last 18 months, so the previous version keeps getting bug fixes for a few months after the new one ships. Laravel 13 came out on March 17th, 2026, and Laravel 12 bug fixes ended on August 13th, 2026. Plan major upgrades around that shorter window, not the two-year security window.

#Where Development Happens

The laravel/framework repository keeps a branch for each major version (11.x, 12.x, 13.x) and a master branch for the next major release. The contribution guide sets the rules for which branch a pull request targets:

• Bug fixes go to the latest version that receives bug fixes, currently 13.x
• Backward-compatible features also go to 13.x, and ship in the next weekly release
• Breaking changes and major new features go to master, which becomes Laravel 14

The Laravel 14 feature list is short next to a year of 13.x releases for this reason. A change waits for master only if it adds a method to a contract, changes a method signature, or changes existing behavior. Our Laravel 14 article tracks what has been merged to master so far.

#Composer Version Constraints

Use a caret constraint for the framework in your composer.json:

"require": {
    "laravel/framework": "^13.0"
}

The ^13.0 constraint accepts every 13.x release and stops at 14.0. Weekly minor releases arrive through composer update, and the major upgrade waits until you change the constraint.

Named arguments are not covered by Laravel's backward compatibility guidelines. The team may rename a method's parameters in a minor release, so a call such as Cache::put(key: 'foo', value: 'bar') can break without a major version change.

#Upgrading to a New Major Version

The release notes state that the team aims for an upgrade to a new major version to take one day or less. Each major version has an upgrade guide that lists the breaking changes and rates how likely each one is to affect your application.

Laravel Shift automates major upgrades and opens a pull request with a commit for each change. It also uses AI to automate more of the upgrade.

#History of Laravel Releases

Current support dates are listed in the Laravel release notes. Dates for upcoming major releases are estimates until each release ships.