Bump minimum PHP version to 7.4

Thanks @justlevine for your work on this ticket and pushing further to get WP more into modern php versions. It would be great to get an early approve for this as it gives hosters, developers & webmasters an early headsup on whats going to be needed / possible for core, themes & plugins on the next WP Release.

To give a deeper insight here you can find a timeline with the recent drop - the pause in between - and a possible drop in the upcoming version.

• see ​https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php

As the PHP 7.2 Usage seems way below the requested benchmark this could be the easiesr way to get an agreemeent on dropping this. The combined Usage of PHP 7.2/7.3 is still above the 5% threshold but could change until the release. I‘d still be in favor to drop both at the same time and inform everyone as early as possible. That way hosters maybe could already mass migrate a lot of their older WP-Sites. Happy to help here in the efforts to get this further.

An important comment in my view from @jrf about the big effort in maintaining WP running PHP cross-version see https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/58719

To help maintainers here to get a proper solution i‘d support a version increase of php 7.2 & 7.3.

My most recent opinion on this is that we'll be in a position to increase the minimum supported version of PHP to 7.4 in WordPress 6.9 in July 2025.

​I've published some very roughly projected stats here which support this, with usage of 7.2 and 7.3 combined looking to drop below 5% around March 2025 and be close to 4% by July. Matt and Josepha have in the past been rightly concerned that bumping the minimum supported version too frequently means that in theory we could drop 15% of users across the three releases within a year, which is too much. One bump per year of 5% or less has worked well in recent years.

Thanks @justlevine for the new ticket.

Updated for early Dec based on ​stats.

As we stand now, 5.2% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.13% in the past month, vs 0.18% in the previous month.

7.2 + 7.3 are still dropping, but the rate slowed down this month from 0.26% last month to 0.21% this month. If this slowdown continues, @johnbillion's projection that would enable this ticket to proceed may not happen in time for v6.9.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much (going down about 0.20% a month) and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP.

Updated for early Jan 2025 based on ​stats.

As we stand now, 5.06% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.14% in the past month, vs 0.18% in the previous month.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be dropped are still decreasing, but at a slower pace. This month from it was down 0.20%, vs 0.21 last month and 0.26% the previous month. Based on this slowdown, @johnbillion's projection that we could make the move in in v6.9 will likely be too early. I assume that by v7.0 we can make the move.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much (going down about 0.20% a month) and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP.

Updated for early Feb 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

For the first time in a while, the combined percentage of site on unsupported PHP versions has dropped below 5%. As we stand now, 4.96% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.10% in the past month, vs 0.14% in the previous month.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be dropped next, are still decreasing, but at a much slower pace. This month it was down 0.15%, vs 0.20 last month and 0.21% the previous month, and stands at 5.67%. Based on this slowdown, @johnbillion's projection that we could make the move in in v6.9 will likely be too early. I assume that by v7.0 we will have numbers low enough to consider making the move.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much (going down about 0.20% a month) and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP.

I've tweaked ​my stats projection page to better account for the slowing decline in 7.2+7.3 sites.

@johnbillion nice overview! Would it be possible to include PHP 8.4 as well? Would be interesting to see the progress there. But another topic :)

As we're currently at 5.67% for PHP 7.2 and PHP 7.3 i think it would be great to tell everyone and especially also hosts that it will be considered to deprecate it in v6.9. Then everyone gets enough time to prepare and the Release Leads could check with Matt to see his opinion on a drop for the versions that are already unsupported since many years.

I haven't bothered trying to project changes to usage of other versions because it's not a particularly accurate projection, it's intended really to give us an idea of when support for older versions can be dropped.

I'm going to wait until 6.8 is nearer release before speaking with Matt and Mary about this, but I will.

Moving this to 6.9 for visibility. This does not mean a decision has been made, and this still depends entirely on the usage numbers. It might get bumped to 7.0.

Updated for early Mar 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be dropped next, are still decreasing, but slowly. This month it improved and was down 0.24%, vs 0.15% last month and 0.20% the previous month. It now stands at 5.43%. Based on this pace, @johnbillion's projection that we may be able to make the move in in v6.9 may still be possible, but I doubt that it will be likely (it may be low enough a month or two after the v6.8 release, but that may be too late).

As we stand now, 4.85% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.11% in the past month, vs 0.10% in the previous month and 0.14% the month before that.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much (going down about 0.20% a month) and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP.

Updated for early Apr 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be dropped next, improved on last month's rate. This month it was down 0.27%, vs 0.24% last month and 0.15% the previous month. It now stands at 5.16%. Based on this pace it will likely move below the 5% rate within the next month. @johnbillion's projection that we may be able to make the move in in v6.9 looks very possible.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.67% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.18% in the past month, vs 0.11% last month and 0.10% the month before that. This improvement is nice to see.

@johnbillion, It is my understanding that 6.9 ​will not be released until at least early 2026. That should take the guessing out of this move since by that time 7.2+7.3 will likely be under 4%. With PHP 7.4 currently at 29.93% (the most popular PHP version of WordPress sites as of this point), I can't imagine making PHP 8.0 the minimum version for a few years.

Yep.

The milestone was reached. As of some point in the past 12 hours, PHP 7.2 usage was down to 2.31% and PHP 7.3 down to 2.68% for a combined 4.99%.

Thanks for keeping on top of this @samiamnot !

Perhaps we can bring this up for early decision? Would be a nice turn of events to be able to announce the version drop this far in advance.

As we now know that the next WordPress version will be released by earliest in the next year it would be amazing to make the decision and then use this time to tell everyone that WordPress 6.9 will drop PHP 7.2 + 7.3 early. This way theme authors, plugin authors and WP developers can prepare early.

As PHP 7.4 is still huge in usage and even if it takes one year to get WP 6.9 out will not be close to be dropped. So there wouldnt be a need to reconsider later.

Yeah it's safe to say there won't be any objection to increasing the minimum supported version to 7.4 for WordPress 6.9 given that it won't be released this year.

However I don't think we should start making any changes to trunk to remove support for 7.2 and 7.3 just yet. We are looking at potentially 9+ months of minor releases that will need to continue supporting 7.2, and if commits for minor releases are plucked from trunk then it just adds extra work to ensure the point releases remain compatible. Maybe we bump the minimum support version in trunk in about 6 months?

This is all assuming the new release schedule remains in place.

Updated for early May 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, dropped below the 5% threshold and now stand at 4.97%. I would love to see @johnbillion update his projections. We have at least 8 months until the next release and there is probably not a good reason to make an early post about this expected move.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.53% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.14% in the past month.

Updated for early June 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, dropped below the 5% threshold last month when it reached 4.97%. It now dropped to 4.78%. We have at least 7 months until the next release and these numbers will continue to drop.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.38% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.15% in the past month.

Updated for early July 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping anow reached 4.63%. We have at least 6 months until the next release and these numbers will continue to drop.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.26% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropps about 0.12% per month.

Thanks @johnbillion!
Great to see this getting accepted. If anything is needed let me know, happy to help.

Updated for early August 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 4.53%. This is a reduction of 0.10% since last month, the smallest drop in the two years I have been tracking this.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.20% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.06% in the past month, the smallest change since I started tracking this.

Let's hold off on this for 6.9 but revisit after.

Let's hold off on this for 6.9 but revisit after.

@matt is there a particular reason or concern that you're able to share? Perhaps there's a middle ground or a different way we as contributors can address it?

As I see it:

• The current v7.2 limitation is becoming more and more of a tooling headache (which makes it an AI Agent headache too), and the ability to start ​inlining class properties also has a _huge_ impact on AI accuracy (both for core contribs and downstream usage).
• 7.4+ is a [​mostly non-negotiable prerequisite for the PHP AI Client, and will also either slow development/adoption on the MCP/Abilities API/Experiments or become a blocker on getting them into core.

Conversely,

• The work to bump is negligible and (AFAIK) already done
• We have ~4 months to announce the bump in advance. We've never had that much lead time to warn people.
• Waiting to WP7.0 means the earliest it'll start to have a real effect is WP7.1, which is a lifetime in the current era of subsidized-compute LLMs.

My educated guess from previous trends says v6.9 is the difference between us being able to hit a minimum PHP8.0 by WP v7.5 - which (assuming AI doesn't completely upend things and/or we don't decide to leave behind 5% of the web) will be critical by that point.

Updated for early September 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 4.39%. This is a reduction of 0.14% since last month.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (as of WP 6.6) going back to PHP 5.2. This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 4.09% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.10% in the past month, the smallest change since I started tracking this.

Interesting tidbit: PHP 7.4 is no longer the most used version of PHP. It's just been overtaken by 8.2.

@johnbillion , I am curious to see how quickly 7.4 will drop down to the point it can be dropped. Likely not for a number of years.

Replying to matt:

Let's hold off on this for 6.9 but revisit after.

@matt I think this change should go ahead in 6.9. The goal of increasing the minimum supported version of PHP is only ever to ensure the long term maintainability of WordPress. This ticket, like its forebears, contains plenty of statistical analysis and reasoning in favour of dropping support for PHP 7.2 and 7.3. The only data point that is not in favour of this change is your brief comment.

We're already seeing the negative effects of continuing to support PHP 7.2. For example, the AI team are building libraries for cutting edge technology but are constrained by the syntax of -- and tooling that needs to be compatible with -- a version of PHP that was released 8 years ago and is used by 2% of sites.

If you're still not in favour of this change then please drop your concerns in a comment here. If you've changed your mind then I'll go ahead and ensure this change is made in time for beta 1.

Updated for early October 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 4.25%. This is a reduction of 0.14% since last month. If the current pace continues, we will be below 4% by the time WP 6.9 is released in early December, and it will likely drop below the percentage of sites already abandoned with the dropped support for PHP 5.2 - 7.0 in WP 6.6.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (support removed in WP 6.6). This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As we stand now, 3.98% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.12% in the past month. Since Jan, we dropped a full percentage point, something pretty significant.

Based on the milestone change, it sounds like this is not going to make it in WP 6.9, which is disappointing for the variety of reasons mentioned above.

• Can we be sure the bump to 7.4 will be in WP 7.0 (5.5 years past PHP 7.2's end-of-life)?
• Are there any plans in place to drop PHP 7.4 support (currently 3 years past end-of-life)?

Maintaining full support in core (and plugins following core) for 9 major versions of a language is quite a tall order. Plugins often have the added burden of maintaining things for a version or two behind of WP core.

@bradshawtm , as you can see in ​WordPress stats, PHP 7.4 currently accounts for 24.1% of all active WordPress sites. It will likely take years before that is low enough to drop.

I agree that it'll be a while before PHP 7.4 can be dropped, but if there are no plans or tentative target dates, there's also little incentive for hosts to upgrade.

On the other hand, if there are tentative plans on some roadmap, even a few years out, the upgrade rate will organically increase more rapidly and outreach to hosts is easier to do.

PHP is releasing a new version every year, and we're not dropping old versions nearly as quickly; ideally there'd be a goal to narrow that gap rather than let it continue to widen.

The good news is that PHP 7.4 has dropped by more than 8.5 points in the last 11 months, though this will rate will level out over time without some reason for that momentum to continue.

Updated for early November 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 4.12%. This is a reduction of 0.13% since last month. If the current pace continues, we will be below 4% by the time WP 6.9 is released in early December.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (support removed in WP 6.6). This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As it stands now, 3.90% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.08% in the past month. Since Jan, it dropped a full percentage point, something pretty significant.

PHP 7.2 + 7.3 combined now stands at 3.99%. A nice milestone to have reached shortly before the 6.9 release.

Updated for early December 2025 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 3.98%. This is a reduction of 0.14% since last month.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (support removed in WP 6.6). This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As it stands now, 3.80% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.1% in the past month. Since Jan, it dropped 1.26%, something pretty significant.

Updated for early Jan 2026 based on ​WordPress stats.

7.2 + 7.3 that are slated to be the next PHP versions no longer supported by WordPress, continued dropping and reached 3.87%. This is a reduction of 0.11% since last month.

The percentage of sites on unsupported PHP versions (PHP 5.2 - 7.3) stands at 7.61% of sites. Many are old abandoned sites that are unlikely to be updated.

For historical reasons, here are the stats for no longer supported versions (support removed in WP 6.6). This is not changing much and many are likely "abandoned" sites that are on old versions of WP. As it stands now, 3.74% of sites are on unsupported PHP versions, something that dropped 0.06% in the past month. Since Jan 2025, it dropped 1.32%.

In 61459:

We'll continue on #64494 to get the supported version higher then 7.4 when the time is right.