Each WordPress release celebrates an artist who has made an indelible mark on the world of music. WordPress 6.9, code-named “Gene,” honors the American Jazz pianist Gene Harris. 

A piano veteran, self taught at the age of six, Harris infused mainstream jazz with elements of soul, blues, and gospel, creating a warm, signature sound that is both elegant and iconic. Harris’ bluesy jazz lived at the intersection of worlds, weaving a rich landscape of texture and mood, with a thread of soulfulness that ignited listeners.

Welcome to WordPress 6.9

WordPress 6.9 brings major upgrades to how teams collaborate and create. The new Notes feature introduces block-level commenting when writing posts and pages that streamlines reviews, while the expanded Command Palette makes it faster for power users to navigate and operate across the entire dashboard. The new Abilities API provides a standardized, machine-readable permissions system that opens the door for next generation AI-powered and automated workflows. This release also delivers notable performance improvements for faster page loads and adds several practical new blocks alongside a more visual drag and drop to help creators build richer, more dynamic content.

Download WordPress 6.9 “Gene”

Introducing Notes: Seamless, Block-Level Collaboration

Collaborate Smarter : Leave Feedback Right Where You’re Working

With notes attached directly to blocks in the post editor, your team can stay aligned, track changes, and turn feedback into action all in one place. Whether you’re working on copy or refining design in your posts or pages, collaboration happens seamlessly on the canvas itself.

Command Palette Throughout the Dashboard

Your tools are always at hand.

Access the Command Palette from any part of the dashboard, whether you’re writing your latest post, deep in design in the Site Editor, or browsing your plugins. Everything you need, just a few keystrokes away.

Fit text to container

Content that adapts.

There’s a new typography option for text-based blocks that’s been added to the Paragraph and Heading blocks. This new option automatically adjusts font size to fill its container perfectly, making it ideal for banners, callouts, and standout moments in your design.

The Abilities API

Unlocking the next generation of site interactions.

WordPress 6.9 lays the groundwork for the future of automation with the unified Abilities API. By creating a standardized registry for site functionality, developers can now register, validate, and execute actions consistently across any context—from PHP and REST endpoints to AI agents—paving the way for smarter, more connected WordPress experiences.

Accessibility Improvements

More than 30 accessibility fixes sharpen the core WordPress experience. These updates improve screen reader announcements, hide unnecessary CSS-generated content from assistive tech, fix cursor placement issues, and make sure typing focus stays put even when users click an autocomplete suggestion.

Performance enhancements

WordPress 6.9 delivers significant frontend performance enhancements, optimizing the site loading experience for visitors. 6.9 boasts an improved LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) through on-demand block styles for classic themes, minifying block theme styles, and increasing the limit for inline styles – removing blockages to page rendering and clearing the rendering path by deprioritizing non-critical scripts. This release comes with many more performance boosts, including optimized database queries, refined caching, improved spawning of WP Cron, and a new template enhancement output buffer that opens the door for more future optimizations.

And much more

For a comprehensive overview of all the new features and enhancements in WordPress 6.9, please visit the feature-showcase website.

Check out What’s New

Learn more about WordPress 6.9

Learn WordPress is a free resource for new and experienced WordPress users. Learn is stocked with how-to videos on using various features in WordPress, interactive workshops for exploring topics in-depth, and lesson plans for diving deep into specific areas of WordPress.

Read the WordPress 6.9 Release Notes for information on installation, enhancements, fixed issues, release contributors, learning resources, and the list of file changes.

Explore the WordPress 6.9 Field Guide. Learn about the changes in this release with detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress.

The 6.9 release squad

Every release comes to you from a dedicated team of enthusiastic contributors who help keep things on track and moving smoothly. The team that has led 6.9 is a cross-functional group of contributors who are always ready to champion ideas, remove blockers, and resolve issues.

• Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg
• Release Coordination: Akshaya Rane, Amy Kamala
• Tech Leads: David Baumwald, Ella van Durpe, Héctor Prieto
• Design Lead: Francisco Vera
• Triage Leads: Aki Hamano, Ryan Welcher
• Test Leads: Jonathan Bossenger, Krupa Nanda

Thank you, contributors

The mission of WordPress is to democratize publishing and embody the freedoms that come with open source. A global and diverse community of people collaborating to strengthen the software supports this effort.

WordPress 6.9 reflects the tireless efforts and passion of more than 900+ contributors in countries all over the world. This release also welcomed over 279 first-time contributors!

Their collaboration delivered more than 340 enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all – a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress open source community.

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More than 71 locales have fully translated WordPress 6.9 into their language. Community translators are working hard to ensure more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps make WordPress available in 200+ languages.

Last but not least, thanks to the volunteers who contribute to the support forums by answering questions from WordPress users worldwide.

Get involved

Participation in WordPress goes far beyond coding. And learning more and getting involved is easy.  Discover the teams that come together to Make WordPress and use this interactive tool to help you decide which is right for you.

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC3 on a test server and site.

Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.9 is the highest quality possible.

You can test WordPress 6.9 RC3 in four ways:

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.9 is December 2, 2025. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible.

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.9-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 6.9 RC3?

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? Take a look at the WordPress 6.9 Field Guide. For technical information related to issues addressed since RC2, you can browse the following links:

• Gutenberg commits for 6.9 since November 18
• Closed WordPress Core Trac tickets since November 18

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can get involved with the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. 

Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 RC3 prerelease is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.9. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta/RC area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack..

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.9 prereleases. If you haven’t yet, please conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your theme and plugin readme files to 6.9.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information in the support forum.

Test on your hosting platforms

Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.

Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here. 

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages.

An RC3 haiku

Some folks make money,

some folks make time to travel,

and we Make WordPress.

Props to @akshayar, @davidbaumwald, @westonruter, @ellatrix, @mobarak and @tacoverdo for proofreading and review.

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.

Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.9 is the best it can be.

You can test WordPress 6.9 RC2 in four ways:

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.9 is December 2, 2025. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible.

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.9-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 6.9 RC2?

Get a recap of WordPress 6.9’s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:

• GitHub commits for 6.9 since November 11
• Closed Trac tickets since November 11

Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:

• Notes Feature in 6.9
• Abilities API in WordPress 6.9
• WordPress 6.9 Frontend Performance Field Guide
• Interactivity API’s client navigation improvements in WordPress 6.9
• Block Bindings improvements in WordPress 6.9
• Changes to the Interactivity API in WordPress 6.9
• Consistent Cache Keys for Query Groups in WordPress 6.9
• DataViews, DataForm, et al. in WordPress 6.9
• Preparing the Post Editor for Full iframe Integration
• Theme.json Border Radius Presets Support in WordPress 6.9
• Heading Block CSS Specificity Fix in WordPress 6.9
• Miscellaneous Developer-focused Changes in 6.9
• Modernizing UTF-8 support in WordPress 6.9

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. 

Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 RC2 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.9. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report.  You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. 

Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the#core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.9 beta releases. If you haven’t yet, make sure to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.9.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Test on your hosting platforms

Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.

Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the hard string freeze point of the 6.9 release cycle.

An RC2 haiku

A calm hillside sighs,
Work of many now complete —
RC2 stays true.

Props to @amykamala, @annezazu, @davidbaumwald, @westonruter and @joedolson for proofreading and review.

This version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to evaluate RC1 on a test server and site.

WordPress 6.9 RC1 can be tested using any of the following methods:

The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.9 is December 2, 2025. The full release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible.

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.9-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

What’s in WordPress 6.9 RC1?

Check out the Beta 1 announcement for details on WordPress 6.9.

You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 4 using these links:

• Gutenberg commits for 6.9 since November 7, 2025
• Core commits for 6.9 since November 7, 2025
• Closed Trac tickets since November 7, 2025

Want to know more about this release? Here are some highlights:

• Site Editor improvements and Refined content creation
  • Ability to hide blocks
  • New blocks
  • Notes on blocks
  • Universal command palette in wp-admin
• Developer updates
  • Updates to dataviews and dataforms components
  • New abilities API
  • Updates to interactivity API
  • Updates to block binding API
• Performance Improvements
  • Improved script and style handling
  • Optimized queries and caching
  • Added ability to handle “fetchpriority” in ES Modules and Import Maps
  • Standardizing output buffering

The final release is on track for December 2nd. As always, a successful release depends on your confirmation during testing. So please download and test!

How you can contribute

WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. 

Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.9.

Calls for testing

Thank you to everyone who helps test the following enhancements and bug fixes:

• Accordion Block
• Ability to Hide Blocks
• Classic themes loading block styles on demand
• Modified notes notifications
• Abilities API

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums, or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.9 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.9.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Test on your hosting platforms

Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.

Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here. Thank you to all web hosts who help test WordPress!

Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

An RC1 haiku

As the sun rises,

RC1 breaks its cocoon

and emerges strong.

Props to @akshayar, @davidbaumwald, @jeffpaul, @desrosj, @westonruter, @ellatrix, @priethor, @krupajnanda and @cbravobernal for proofreading and review.

This beta version of the WordPress software is still under development. Please don’t install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you can evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site.

WordPress 6.9 Beta 3 can be tested using any of the following methods:

The final release of WordPress 6.9 is scheduled for December 2, 2025, and the release schedule can be found here. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!

Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.9-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

Find out what’s new in WordPress 6.9: Read the Beta 1 announcement for details and highlights.

How to test this release

Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 Beta 3 version is key to ensuring that everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally as important. This detailed guide provides a walk through on testing features in WordPress 6.9.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums, or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Beta 3 updates and highlights

WordPress 6.9 Beta 3 contains more than 80 updates and fixes since the Beta 2 release.

Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes, and more are on the way with your testing! You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 2 using these links:

• Gutenberg commits for 6.9 since October 28, 2025
• Closed Core Trac tickets for 6.9 since October 28, 2025
• Comparing commit changes in Core for 6.9 since October 28, 2025

A Beta 3 haiku

Code is poetry,

and poetry is magic.

So code is magic.

Props to @akshayar , @jeffpaul, @krupajnanda, @mosescursor, and @westonruter for proofreading and review.

The WordPress event began with a dedicated Contributor Day and continued with a Showcase Day and two days of sessions filled with talks, panels, workshops, and community celebrations. WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg joined a diverse lineup of speakers, panelists, and workshop leaders who brought fresh perspectives to the open web from across the globe.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of Portland — with its iconic bridges, coffee culture, and creative energy — the Sponsor Hall buzzed as companies across the WordPress ecosystem demoed new products, shared insights, and connected with attendees. Each day offered opportunities to refuel with local flavors and international favorites, turning mealtimes into lively hubs of networking and idea-sharing.

A Global Gathering in Portland

WordCamp US is the annual gathering point for the WordPress community — where collaboration, creativity, and innovation intersect. This year in Portland, the event delivered an expansive program that reached every corner of the ecosystem.

Here’s what attendees experienced:

• Engaging Sessions Across Tracks – Keynotes, presentations, and discussions explored the evolving web and the role of open source in shaping it.
• A Global Speaker Lineup – Voices from across continents brought local stories and global visions to the stage.
• Wide-Ranging Topics – From AI in WordPress development to accessibility, design systems, content strategy, education, and case studies of WordPress at scale.
• Hands-On Learning Opportunities – Workshops provided practical takeaways, empowering attendees to apply new skills immediately.
• A Community Built on Collaboration – Whether contributing code, exploring business strategies, or sharing creative projects, attendees found space to learn, grow, and celebrate open source together.

New contributors took their first steps into open source, seasoned developers explored cutting-edge AI integrations, and agencies and product teams shared strategies for scaling WordPress to meet modern needs. Beyond the technical, conversations around inclusivity, sustainability, and education underscored WordPress’s role as a tool for empowerment and positive change.

In hallways, coffee lines, and evening meetups, attendees found the “hallway track” alive and well, spontaneous moments of connection that often became the most memorable part of the experience. Whether reconnecting with longtime collaborators or meeting someone new, these small interactions reinforced the heart of WordCamp US: a community that thrives on openness, generosity, and shared purpose.

Contributor Day: Collaboration at the Core

The conference opened on Tuesday, August 26, with a vibrant Contributor Day. Nearly 300 contributors filled the space, including more than 120 first-time participants who were onboarded across 19 teams. Developers, designers, translators, marketers, and community organizers worked side by side, representing WordPress expertise.

Throughout the day, contributors tackled everything from improving accessibility and performance to refining documentation to enhancing translation tools. Beyond technical contributions, teams like Marketing and Community focused on outreach, mentoring, and shaping future-facing initiatives. Remote participants joined via dedicated channels, reinforcing the inclusive nature of WordPress’s global community. By day’s end, the collective energy was clear: WordPress continues to be built by and for everyone.

The mix of experience in the room made this year especially notable. First-time contributors were paired with seasoned table leads who guided them through their first steps into open source contribution. Longtime contributors reconnected with their teams and advanced ongoing initiatives, while new voices added fresh perspectives and momentum. The spirit of mentorship was woven throughout, ensuring that Contributor Day was productive and welcoming.

The results spoke for themselves:

• Polyglots translated more than 12,000 strings, expanding WordPress’s accessibility worldwide.
• The Community team celebrated the approval of two brand-new local meetups.
• The Training team achieved its objective of updating outdated course thumbnails.
• The Core team worked through a live bug scrub, with 9 committers and 16 contributors collaborating on improvements.
• The Documentation team completed numerous content updates to keep resources fresh and reliable.

Momentum carried through every table, with participants reporting measurable progress and a renewed sense of shared purpose. Contributor Day once again highlighted the unique power of collaboration in shaping the open web, proving that every contribution matters through code, translations, training, or community building.

Showcase Day: WordPress in Action

Wednesday, August 27, was the popular Showcase Day, spotlighting real-world innovation in WordPress. Initially expected to draw about 250 participants, Showcase Day welcomed more than 800 attendees — a powerful sign of how much energy and curiosity the community brought to Portland. The sessions demonstrated how WordPress powers meaningful work across industries from nonprofits to newsrooms, agencies to global enterprises, while staying true to open source values.

The day opened with a keynote by Amy Sample Ward: The Tech That Comes Next. Drawing from their co-authored book with Afua Bruce, Amy highlighted the inequities embedded in today’s technologies — from dataset bias to accessibility gaps — and challenged attendees to rethink how tools are funded, built, and deployed. Their talk invited technologists, funders, and community leaders to imagine a more equitable digital future, rooted in collaboration and shared responsibility.

From there, Joeleen Kennedy of Human Made shared how Full Site Editing (FSE) shapes the refresh of Wikimedia’s ongoing user experience. Her session Modernizing at Scale detailed how FSE is simplifying workflows, improving accessibility, and making the multilingual platform more sustainable for the long term. Attendees gained a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s largest open knowledge platforms is leveraging WordPress innovation.

Josh Bryant took the stage to explore what happens when Gutenberg leaves the WP-Admin dashboard. His talk, Reimagining WordPress Editing, walked through embedding the block editor into a standalone React application to support Dow Jones’s newsroom workflows. From decoupling Gutenberg to managing custom data stores, the session showcased advanced techniques for scaling editorial tools while maintaining the flexibility of the WordPress ecosystem.

Hands-on learning was a hallmark of Showcase Day, with Jamie Marsland’s workshop leading participants through building and launching their own professional portfolio sites — no coding required. Attendees left with a fully functioning site, demonstrating WordPress’s continued ability to empower anyone, anywhere, to publish online.

In the afternoon, Jeffrey Paul’s session Scalable, Ethical AI addressed one of the most pressing topics in today’s digital world: how to integrate AI without sacrificing ownership, privacy, or open standards. Walking participants through practical use cases with ClassifAI and local LLMs, Paul emphasized how WordPress can help content creators harness AI while maintaining autonomy over their data.

The day closed with a forward-looking community highlight: WordPress Campus Connect. Panelists Destiny Kanno, Andrés Parra, Javier Montes de Blas, Mauricio Barrantes, and Elineth Morera Campos shared how this initiative brings WordPress into classrooms and universities worldwide. Student Andrés Parra received a scholarship to attend WordCamp. During the panel, Elineth also announced that Fidélitas University will begin offering its students a WordPress Credits program starting in October 2025, making it a mandatory addition sometime in 2026, enabling them to contribute directly to WordPress as part of their studies.

By connecting students and educators with the open web, Campus Connect is building the next generation of contributors and innovators, ensuring that WordPress remains both a learning tool and a pathway to opportunity.

Taken together, Showcase Day affirmed that WordPress is more than just a CMS — it is a platform for equitable technology, global collaboration, cutting-edge enterprise solutions, and the future of digital education. WordPress has the power to be both a platform and a community tool for education, equity, and innovation.

Presentation Days: Learning, Inspiration, and Connection

The first full day of sessions at WordCamp US 2025 opened with warm remarks from the organizing team, who reminded attendees: “The most important thanks goes to all of you. The mix of new energy and veteran experience is what makes WordCamp so special, so thank you for being here.” That spirit of gratitude and community carried throughout the event.

The Sponsor Hall became a hub of activity, complete with raffles, the return of Career Corner, and even a Voodoo Donut Truck parked outside. Attendees lined up to test their luck at a claw machine stuffed with plush Wapuus, while others sought guidance at the Happiness Bar — a hands-on help desk for WordPress questions big and small. Between these activities, the steady buzz of conversations made it clear: the “hallway track” remained one of WordCamp’s most valuable experiences.

The program itself set a high bar. Danny Sullivan’s keynote shed light on how search has evolved to meet the needs of new generations, from 24/7 demand and mobile expectations to short-form video and AI. His session gave attendees a deeper understanding of how search intersects with publishing today and sparked conversations about how WordPress can continue adapting in an era where AI shapes discovery and content.

From there, the schedule unfolded across multiple tracks. The Core AI panel — featuring James LePage, Felix Arntz, and Jeffrey Paul — offered a look into how AI tools are woven into WordPress core. Emphasizing ethics, transparency, and user empowerment, the panel painted a roadmap for how WordPress can adopt new technologies without compromising its open-source values.

Hands-on learning played a significant role throughout the conference. Ryan Welcher’s interactive Block Developer Cookbook drew a packed room as participants worked through community-selected code recipes built on the latest WordPress APIs. By the end, attendees left with working examples and practical strategies they could bring back to their projects.

The program also highlighted diverse technical perspectives. Jemima Abu’s session, A PHP Developer’s Guide to ReactJS, bridged the gap between classic and modern web development. At the same time, Adam Gazzaley’s keynote, A New Era of Experiential Medicine – AI and the Brain, invited attendees to consider the human side of technology, exploring how digital tools can advance health and well-being.

The second day of presentations, Friday, August 29, opened with creativity and imagination. John Maeda’s keynote, Cozy AI Cooking: WordCamp Edition, used the metaphor of a kitchen to demystify AI, blending storytelling with technical insight to show how curiosity and care can guide builders in integrating AI into their work.

Later in the day, Tammie Lister’s The System is the Strategy illustrated how design systems provide structure and scalability for growing WordPress projects. At the same time, Adam Silverstein’s Unlock Developer Superpowers with AI showcased new ways developers can use emerging tools to speed up workflows and problem-solving.

Community stories also took center stage. In Creators around a Campfire, Anne McCarthy, Jamie Marsland, Christian Taylor, Mark Szymanski, and Michael Cunningham reflected on how YouTubers and content creators shape the WordPress ecosystem. Their session highlighted the role of storytelling and education in expanding WordPress’s reach to new audiences worldwide.

The Sponsor Hall remained lively between sessions — with attendees meeting companies, testing demos, and swapping ideas that extended far beyond the conference halls. They also shared moments together at the arcade built for the event and added smiles, hugs, and laughter, which underscored the atmosphere: WordCamp US was as much about connection as code.

Together Into the Future

As the event drew to a close, WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg took the stage to share the current state of WordPress and a vision for its future. He highlighted the growth in social media for WordPress with 124,726 new followers since last WCUS — and the WordPress.org website growing over 10% in users along with almost 20% in new users.

Matt also spotlighted community initiatives shaping the future of open source education and diversity: WordPress Campus Connect, which has already reached 570 students across 11 events. Combined with the growth in overall events (77) which is a 32.76% increase over 2024. Each effort reinforced the message that WordPress is more than software; it is a global movement driven by people.

He concluded with a live Q&A, fielding questions from the audience on the direction of WordPress, its role in an AI-driven web, and the importance of keeping the project open, inclusive, and adaptable. The final notes of the keynote carried into a closing party in downtown Portland, where attendees capped off the week with music, conversation, and the unmistakable joy of a community coming together.

Closing

WordCamp US 2025 once again demonstrated what makes the WordPress ecosystem extraordinary: a community committed to building tools, resources, and opportunities that empower people everywhere.

This year also marked the debut of the Open Horizons Scholarship, which funded six recipients — two organizers, three volunteers, and one speaker — from five countries. A total of $14,670 supported their journeys to WCUS. The scholarship, which also supports participation at WordCamp Asia and WordCamp Europe, is designed to make flagship events more accessible to contributors worldwide.

A heartfelt thank you goes to the organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and speakers who brought the Portland edition to life — and to every attendee who joined us in person or followed along online. We hope you leave with fresh ideas, meaningful connections, and renewed energy to help shape the future of the open web.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the next global gatherings: WordCamp Asia 2026  in Mumbai, India, WordCamp Europe 2026  in Kraków, Poland, and WordCamp US 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. We can’t wait to see you at the next chapter of the WordPress story.

A new maintenance release for each branch from 4.7 to 6.7 is now available. If you have sites on these branches and they support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

The latest and only supported version of WordPress remains as 6.8.2. This is being done as a courtesy for sites still running older versions of WordPress. You can download WordPress 6.8.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

Special thanks to @desrosj, @ocean90, @davidbaumwald, @peterwilsoncc, @jorbin, @estelaris, and @johnbillion for backporting and releasing this update.

AI is already transforming how people create and manage content online. As this technology evolves, it’s essential that WordPress remains at the forefront, ensuring innovation happens in the open, guided by community values, and built to core standards.

Why This Matters

• Strategic focus: A unified team stewards AI development thoughtfully, avoids fragmentation, and ensures alignment with the long-term goals of WordPress.
• Shared innovation: Contributors and companies are actively exploring AI across the ecosystem. This team provides a central place to collaborate, share ideas, and build together.
• Rapid iteration: Like the Performance Team, we’ll take a plugin-first approach. Canonical Plugins will allow us to move quickly, gather feedback, and deliver real value without waiting on the Core release cycle.

What to Expect

The AI Team will:

• Coordinate cross-team efforts to explore AI-powered features responsibly and inclusively.
• Publish and maintain a public roadmap of AI initiatives and Canonical Plugins.
• Collaborate closely with Core, Design, Accessibility, and other teams to ensure strong integration and shared standards.

Meet the Team

The WordPress AI Team brings deep experience in open-source, performance, and product development and a strong commitment to building AI features the WordPress way. The team will launch with the following team contributors:

• James LePage – Automattic
• Felix Arntz – Google
• Pascal Birchler – Google
• Jeff Paul – 10up

To help get things started, James and Felix will serve as the initial Team Reps in supporting team organization, communication, and coordination with other Make WordPress teams.

This is an exciting and important step in WordPress’s evolution. I look forward to seeing what we’ll create together and in the open.

If you’re interested in contributing or following along, please join the conversations in #core-ai and watch for upcoming meeting announcements on https://make.wordpress.org/ai/.

Each WordPress release celebrates an artist who has left an indelible mark on music.  WordPress 6.8, code-named “Cecil,” honors the legendary pianist and jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor.

Classically trained yet relentlessly unconventional, Taylor reimagined the piano as a percussive instrument—layering tone clusters, polyphony, and rhythm into a sound both chaotic and precise. His music defied expectation, finding form in disorder and harmony in dissonance.

That same spirit drives WordPress 6.8. Embrace its bold new features with the same curiosity and experimentation that defined Cecil’s sound.

Welcome to WordPress 6.8!

WordPress 6.8 polishes and refines the tools that you use every day, making your site faster, more secure, and easier to manage.  The Style Book now has a structured layout and works with Classic themes, giving you more control over global styles. Speculative loading speeds up navigation by preloading links before users navigate to them, bcrypt hashing strengthens password security automatically, and database optimizations improve performance.

Download WordPress 6.8 “Cecil”

A release polished to a high sheen.

The Style Book gets a cleaner look—and a few new tricks.

The Style Book has a new, structured layout and clearer labels, to make it even easier to edit colors, typography—almost all your site styles—in one place.

Plus, now you can see it in Classic themes that have editor-styles or a theme.json file.  Find the Style Book under Appearance > Design and use it to preview your theme’s evolution, as you edit CSS or make changes in the Customizer.

Editor improvements

Easier ways to see your options in Data Views, and you can exclude sticky posts from the Query Loop.  Plus, you’ll find lots of little improvements in the editor that smooth your way through everything you build.

Near-instant page loads, thanks to Speculative Loading

In WordPress 6.8, pages load faster than ever.  When you or your user hovers over or clicks a link, WordPress may preload the next page, for a smoother, near-instant experience. The system balances speed and efficiency, and you can control how it works, with a plugin or your own code.  This feature only works in modern browsers—older ones will simply ignore it without any impact.

Stronger password security with bcrypt

Now passwords are harder to crack with bcrypt hashing, which takes a lot more computing power to break.  This strengthens overall security, as do other encryption improvements across WordPress.  You don’t need to do anything—everything updates automatically.

Accessibility improvements

100+ accessibility fixes and enhancements touch a broad spectrum of the WordPress experience.  This release includes fixes to every bundled theme, improvements to the navigation menu management, the customizer, and simplified labeling.  The Block Editor has over 70 improvements to blocks, DataViews, and to its overall user experience.

Performance updates

WordPress 6.8 packs a wide range of performance fixes and enhancements to speed up everything from editing to browsing.  Beyond speculative loading, WordPress 6.8 pays special attention to the block editor, block type registration, and query caching.  Plus, imagine never waiting longer than 50 milliseconds—for any interaction.  In WordPress 6.8, the Interactivity API takes a first step toward that goal.

And much more

For a comprehensive overview of all the new features and enhancements in WordPress 6.8, please visit the feature-showcase website.

Check out what’s new

Learn more about WordPress 6.8

Learn WordPress is a free resource for new and experienced WordPress users.  Learn is stocked with how-to videos on using various features in WordPress, interactive workshops for exploring topics in-depth, and lesson plans for diving deep into specific areas of WordPress.

Read the WordPress 6.8 Release Notes for information on installation, enhancements, fixed issues, release contributors, learning resources, and the list of file changes.

Explore the WordPress 6.8 Field Guide.  Learn about the changes in this release with detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress.

The 6.8 release squad

Every release comes to you from a dedicated team of enthusiastic contributors who help keep things on track and moving smoothly.  The team that has led 6.8 is a cross-functional group of contributors who are always ready to champion ideas, remove blockers, and resolve issues.

• Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg
• Release Coordination: Jeffrey Paul and Michelle Frechette
• Tech Leads: Joe McGill, Jonathan Desrosiers, and George Mamadashvili
• Triage Lead: Jb Audras
• Design Lead: Tammie Lister
• Performance Lead: Felix Arntz
• Test Lead: Krupa Nanda

Thank you, contributors

The mission of WordPress is to democratize publishing and embody the freedoms that come with open source.  A global and diverse community of people collaborating to strengthen the software supports this effort.

WordPress 6.8 reflects the tireless efforts and passion of more than 900 contributors in more than 60 countries all over the world. This release also welcomed over 250 first-time contributors! 

Their collaboration delivered more than 320 enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all—a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress open source community.

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