PHP 8.5 was released on November 20th. Contributors to WordPress have been busy in recent months preparing for this version and we’re happy to report that all issues reported against PHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher 8.5 have been addressed in WordPress 6.9 RC2. Compared to previous PHP releases relatively few changes were required, mostly to address new deprecations and warnings. Take a look at the PHP 8.5 support tracking ticket if you’re interested.
Due to the acknowledgement that WordPress is rarely used in isolation (without any theme or plugins), support is labelled as “beta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. support” until at least 10% of all WordPress sites are running that version or later, as this indicates good compatibility across the wider ecosystem of plugins and themes.
PHP Compatibility and WordPress Versions page in the WordPress Core Handbook
Following the established guidelines, support for any given version of PHP is labelled as “beta support” until at least 10% of all WordPress sites are running that version or later. When WordPress 6.9 ships on December 2nd, support for PHP 8.5 and 8.4 will be labelled as “beta support”. PHP versions 8.3 back to 7.2 are fully supported.
If you discover a bug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. or compatibility issue while running WordPress with PHP 8.5, please create a ticket on Trac.
Summary
As always, reading through the complete upgrade document is recommended.
Even as WordPress Core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. continues to expand its support for new versions of PHP, support for older versions will remain as-is in WordPress 6.9, staying at PHP 7.2.24 and higher. This will continue to be evaluated and no change will be made until usage numbers show that the impact on users will be minimal.
WordPress continues to encourage all users to run the latest and greatest versions of PHP, including PHP 8.5.
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