Future release schedule

[Blog on OpenSSL Library]

At ICMC26, Tim Hudson [announced a change](https://openssl-
corporation.org/post/2026-04-21-icmc26-day-1/) to the OpenSSL Library release
schedule for future releases. Last year we [committed](https://openssl-
library.org/post/2025-02-20-openssl-3.5-lts/) to making long term stable (LTS)
releases every two years. Following the [release of 4.0](https://openssl-
library.org/post/2026-04-14-openssl-40-final-release/), the first major
release since 2018, we now commit to a major release every two years.

![OpenSSL release plan for 2026.](https://openssl-
library.org/images/release_plan_2026.svg)

So the next LTS will be 4.2 in April 2027 and then we'll have a major release,
5.0, in October 2027. That means the final 4.x release will be supported for
the entire 5.x release cycle. This gives significant flexibility for projects
that depend on OpenSSL to decide the appropriate moment to move to a more
recent version of the library.



URL: https://openssl-library.org/post/2026-05-07-future-release/