PHP 8.6.0 Alpha 1 available for testing

2026-07-02

The PHP team is pleased to announce the first testing release of PHP 8.6.0, Alpha 1. This starts the PHP 8.6 release cycle, the rough outline of which is specified in the PHP Wiki.For source downloads of PHP 8.6.0 Alpha 1 please visit the download page.Please carefully test this version and report any issues found in the GitHub Issues.Please DO NOT use this version in production, it is an early test version.For more information on the new features and other changes, you can read the NEWS file, or the UPGRADING file for a complete list of upgrading notes. These files can also be found in the release archive.The next release will be Alpha 2, planned for 16 July 2026.The signatures for the release can be found in the manifest or on the pre-release builds page.Thank you for helping us make PHP better.