WordPress (wp) End of Life

WordPress publishes no end-of-life dates for individual versions. This is not missing information — the project simply does not define them. The official download page states that only the most recent release in the current series is safe to use and actively maintained, and exactly one version is officially supported at any time.

Receiving updates is not the same as being supported

The Security Team backports security fixes to older, officially unsupported branches as a courtesy, and ships them through automatic background updates. That is why, in August 2026, every branch back to 4.7 (released in 2016) still receives fixes on the same dates. The blank date columns for 4.7 and newer on this page reflect that absence of a published deadline — not a distant one.

What gets backported is critical security fixes only. Bug fixes, feature work, and compatibility with newer PHP releases are not. "Still getting updates" should not be read as "still supported".

About the grouping used here

Every branch from 4.7 onward receives the same fix on the same day, so listing them individually would fill thirty-odd rows with identical content. This page therefore groups branches by shared support status (major series). The boundaries follow WordPress's own retirement announcements (4.1-4.6 and 3.7-4.0) rather than any choice of ours, and each row names the branches it covers. See the official Release Archive for the full branch list.

Branches are retired by announcement, not by calendar

Retirement happens through a one-off announcement rather than a scheduled date. It has happened twice.

Branches	Announced	Effective
3.7-4.0	7 September 2022	1 December 2022
4.1-4.6	19 June 2025	July 2025

Both times the notice period was one to three months. If you are running an old branch, assume you will get only a few months of warning. The stated criteria are that the versions are eight or more years old and account for less than 1% of installations.

The real risk is plugins and themes, not core

• Plugins and themes account for the majority of WordPress vulnerabilities. Extensions pinned to an old core stop being updated along with it.
• PHP compatibility: old WordPress releases may not run on current PHP. The upstream PHP EOL and the WordPress version can deadlock each other.
• Automatic updates cover minor (security and maintenance) releases by default. Major upgrades are manual, which is why neglected sites stay on old branches.

3.6 and earlier

Branches up to 3.6 have received no releases since 2013. Courtesy backports only ever covered 3.7 and newer.

Practical guidance

Because no deadline is published, remaining lifetime cannot be determined in advance. Stay on the current major version, or at most one behind. Continued updates on an old branch are not a reason to defer an upgrade.