More than 40% of all websites around the internet are based on WordPress. This latest version of WordPress puts more power into the details. It offers new and improved ways to fine-tune and enhance your site-building experience, letting you take control in ways that make it your own. You'll find new ways to manage your site's typography, more comprehensive revisions available in more places, and a collection of Site Editor updates paired with impressive performance gains to help you get things done smoother and faster.

We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you're ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine.

To run WordPress we recommend your host supports:

  • PHP version 7.4 or greater.
  • MySQL version 5.7 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.3 or greater.
  • HTTPS support

That's it. We recommend Apache or Nginx as the most robust server for running WordPress, but any server that supports PHP and MySQL will do.

Features

Building with Blocks

The new block-based editor won't change the way any of your content looks to your visitors. What it will do is let you insert any type of multimedia in a snap and rearrange to your heart's content. Each piece of content will be in its own block; a distinct wrapper for easy maneuvering. If you're more of an HTML and CSS sort of person, then the blocks won't stand in your way. WordPress is here to simplify the process, not the outcome.

Freedom to Build, Freedom to Write

This new editing experience provides a more consistent treatment of design as well as content. If you're building client sites, you can create reusable blocks. This lets your clients add new content anytime, while still maintaining a consistent look and feel.

Designed for the block editor

Twenty Nineteen features custom styles for the blocks available by default. It makes extensive use of editor styles throughout the theme. That way, what you create in your content editor is what you see on the front of your site.

Simple, type-driven layout

Featuring ample whitespace, and modern sans-serif headlines paired with classic serif body text, Twenty Nineteen is built to be beautiful on the go. It uses system fonts to increase loading speed. No more long waits on slow networks!

Versatile design for all sites

Twenty Nineteen is designed to work for a wide variety of use cases. Whether you're running a photo blog, launching a new business, or supporting a non-profit, Twenty Nineteen is flexible enough to fit your needs.

Protect

Blocks provide a comfortable way for users to change content directly, while also ensuring the content structure cannot be easily disturbed by accidental code edits. This allows the developer to control the output, building polished and semantic markup that is preserved through edits and not easily broken.

Compose

Take advantage of a wide collection of APIs and interface components to easily create blocks with intuitive controls for your clients. Utilizing these components not only speeds up development work but also provide a more consistent, usable, and accessible interface to all users.

Create

The new block paradigm opens up a path of exploration and imagination when it comes to solving user needs. With the unified block insertion flow, it's easier for your clients and customers to find and use blocks for all types of content. Developers can focus on executing their vision and providing rich editing experiences, rather than fussing with difficult APIs.

What's New

Welcome to WordPress 7.1!

WordPress 7.1 is built around how you work: navigating the admin, controlling your designs, collaborating with others, and building what you want. The admin bar now follows you across the entire admin experience, putting the tools you need within reach, whether you're writing a post or editing your site's design. Built-in responsive styling, added to the current show/hide options for blocks, means you can ensure your site looks exactly how you want across screen sizes, without custom CSS.

A new media editor keeps the familiar Crop button entry point, and brings freeform and aspect-ratio cropping, horizontal and vertical flipping, fine-grained and snap rotation, and metadata editing into one dedicated workflow. Leave Notes anywhere in your content – no longer limited to the block level. Rich text support and @mentions make it easier to collaborate with others as you write. Two new blocks, Playlist and Tabs, as well as a new API to register your own set of icons for the Icon block, give you even more flexibility to build what you want without additional plugins. These are just the highlights! Read on to see everything WordPress 7.1 has to offer.

What's inside

There's a lot packed into WordPress 7.1 across new styling tools, updated media flows, added Notes functionality, and more. Some changes add new capabilities, while others refine existing tools and workflows.

Apply responsive styles. Style your content your way, on every screen.

WordPress 7.1 brings more responsive controls directly into the Site Editor. Style how a block looks at different screen sizes from Global Styles or in individual block settings, without custom CSS. You can also preview your changes at different viewport sizes as you work, making it straightforward to build layouts that adapt to the way people browse the web.

Admin bar, now in every editor. Consistent navigation, from dashboard to editor.

The WordPress admin bar now stays with you as you move across all editors, so you always know where you are and have easy access to familiar tools. The admin bar also features some small visual updates to more fully polish the experience.

A new way to crop. One dedicated workflow for editing your images.

A new media editor modal replaces the previous inline cropping tool, bringing together freeform and aspect-ratio cropping, horizontal and vertical flipping, precise rotation control, and metadata editing together in one place. The familiar Crop button still gets you there.

Inline notes with mentions and rich text. More ways to leave feedback.

Notes now support rich text and mentions, making it easier to leave clear feedback and loop in the right people. Format your Notes with bold, italic, and code, add links, or type @ to mention a collaborator and notify them.

You can also leave a note on a specific piece of text instead of just an entire block, keep multiple conversations going on the same block, and collapse longer notes to keep the margin tidy. It's built for the back-and-forth that happens when people review content together.

Improved media handling. Faster, more flexible image processing.

Image compression, resizing, and thumbnail generation now happen in the browser, reducing server load and producing smaller files – without hitting PHP memory limits or upload timeouts.

Media handling in 7.1 also includes native support for AVIF, HEIC, and HDR gain maps, adding native support for the image formats modern cameras and phones already produce.

Enhanced details and new blocks

WordPress 7.1 also adds two new blocks, along with more ways to customize how content looks and behaves.

Create playlists

Bring multiple audio tracks together in one playlist, with an optional waveform that gives listeners a visual sense of each track as it plays.

Previous Release Notes:

WordPress 7.0.3 is now available

WordPress 7.0.3 is now available which features several security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.

You can update to WordPress 7.0.3 by downloading it from WordPress.org, or visiting your site's Dashboard → Updates and clicking Update Now. Sites that support automatic background updates will begin updating shortly.

Security updates included in this release

The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities and allowing them to be fixed in this release:

  • Pre-auth reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) on the login screen with potential to lead to PHP code execution reported by the team at pwn.ai.
  • Contributor+ stored cross-site scripting (XSS) in posts via the emoji settings element reported by Asaf Mozes (amosec)
  • Contributor+ stored cross-site scripting (XSS) in the Post Content block reported by N05ec@LZU
  • Contributor+ stored cross-site scripting (XSS) in Quick Edit on sites with a large number of users reported by Naveen S and Ajmal Moochingal
  • Contributor+ stored cross-site scripting (XSS) in the Post Date block reported by Alex Concha of the WordPress Security Team
  • A privilege escalation issue on multisite networks with user registration enabled, allowing a user to create a new site reported by Aikido Security
  • An information disclosure issue in the Latest Comments block exposing comments on password-protected posts reported by Ehtisham Siddiqui of the WordPress Security Team
  • Enumeration of post slugs reported by HDWSec
  • Disclosure of notes in comment feeds reported by Elio Gubser
  • Author+ CSS injection via a bypass of the safe CSS attribute filter reported by Anthropic
  • Bypass of the email address confirmation flow reported by Omar Hasan
  • A server-side request forgery (SSRF) issue in URL validation allowing requests to link-local ranges reported by Andrew Mohawk and multiple independent reporters

Backports

  • As a courtesy, these fixes are being backported, where necessary, to all branches eligible to receive security fixes (currently through 4.7). As a reminder, only the most recent version of WordPress is actively supported. The backports are in progress and will ship as they become ready.
  • WordPress 7.1 RC2 has also been released, containing all applicable fixes.

Previous Release Notes:

WordPress 7.0.1 is now available!

This minor release includes fixes for 31 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor, addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, admin ui, and media. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement.

WordPress 7.0.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major version of WordPress will be 7.1; it is scheduled for release on 19 August 2026 at WordCamp US.

Previous Release Notes:

WordPress 7.0 "Armstrong"

Every WordPress release celebrates an artist who has made an indelible mark on the world of music. Say Hello to WordPress 7.0 "Armstrong", named in honor of "Satchmo" himself, jazz musician Louis Armstrong.

Known as the "first great jazz soloist", Louis Armstrong created ensembles that highlighted his own profound trumpeting skills, and in the process, transformed jazz from an orchestral art form into a solo art form. The master trumpeter also impressed the world with his signature vocals, introducing improvisation into Jazz, influencing every artist he worked with, and permanently changing the landscape of music.

Louis Armstrong wove his personal touch into the world of Jazz. With WordPress 7.0 "Armstrong", you can build with yours.

Welcome to WordPress 7.0!

WordPress 7.0 marks the start of a new era, laying the foundation for AI across the WordPress experience. Greeting you with a modern, more intuitive dashboard, 7.0 introduces enhanced customization and development tools that inspire creativity and tap into endless potential.

Whether you're a creator, business owner or developer – WordPress 7.0 let's you create in a way that is uniquely your own.

What's inside

  • Explore AI abilities directly in your website, all managed from a central hub. Slide seamlessly through the sleek, new admin theme implemented across the dashboard. Ignite creative flow with new blocks and design tools, and tap into an expansive developer toolbox that gives you more control than ever, letting you create your way.

AI-Integrated WordPress

Possibilities right in your hands.

  • With AI integrated throughout WordPress the potential is endless. A new AI Client in Core lets WordPress communicate with generative AI models, while connections are easily managed from a single hub in the dashboard. The AI Client combined with the Abilities API makes a fiery duo that introduces new functionality, workflow automation, and creation tools to your website. Install the new AI plugin to expand your options even more: generate and edit images, create titles or excerpts, or even suggest alt text.
  • 7.0 also includes a new Client-Side Abilities package: a Javascript counterpart to the Abilities API, with a built in UI and command palette that delivers extensive new and hybrid AI abilities.
  • Manage all your external connections in a central hub on the Connector's screen. Easily dive in with 3 presets, or add your own connections. Authenticate and get started with AI abilities in just a few clicks.
  • An AI-integrated WordPress promises infinite potential, ready to be discovered.

Modernized Dashboard

Elevate your admin experience.

  • 7.0 introduces a fully revitalized dashboard with a chic, modern new color scheme, and clean finishes throughout.
  • Polished with smooth transitions that seamlessly shift as you move between screens, you'll feel like you're effortlessly gliding through the dashboard.
  • Just one click of the new Command Palette shortcut, a ⌘K or Ctrl+K icon in the upper admin bar, lets you access your favorite tools from anywhere in the dashboard.
  • Explore typography from one place, regardless of theme. Install, upload and manage your font collection from the new dedicated font management page, with support for block, hybrid and classic themes.
  • Visually scrub through revision versions to see what changed at a glance, with markers that make editorial choices more intuitive. Easily pick the revision you want and restore instantly.

Design, Create, Customize

A simpler way to build.

  • Let WordPress be your muse with new blocks, block supports, and design tools that add visual agility, granular control, and keep every element of your website on brand, with fresh new touches.
  • Showcase your ideas in a lightbox slideshow with the new gallery block, and finesse your markup with the new Heading block. Deliver clear site navigation with the new Breadcrumbs block, and add more detail to your designs with the new Icons block.
  • Enhanced responsiveness controls in 7.0 make your site more user friendly. Hide and reveal blocks based on device, without affecting other viewports. Adjust styles for different breakpoints, and customize what those breakpoints are.
  • Design and build your menu overlay with blocks and patterns, fully customizable with the styles you want visitors to see. Add columns, stylize typography, or embed your own close button in the overlay. Start with a template or create your own menu from scratch.
  • Fine tune page design and layout with Patterns that act as a single unit, detachable for more isolated control. Insert your pattern, swap elements and customize with ease.
  • Style every detail of content with custom CSS at the block level, right in your post or page.

Developer's toolbox

Advanced tools for building your way.

  • WordPress 7.0 lets you build faster, better, stronger, and easier with an extensive set of expanded APIs and enhanced functionality.
  • Create blocks and patterns on the server level using only PHP, auto-registered with the block API.
  • Explore a more extensible Site Editor, with routing, route validation, and a new wordpress/boot package that allows plugins to build custom site-editor pages.

And much more

  • For a comprehensive overview of all the new features and enhancements in WordPress 7.0, please visit the feature-showcase website.