Bump minimum PHP version to 8.*

[masteradhoc]

This ticket tracks discussion and work on the next bump to the minimum PHP version to v8.0 or higher.

Policy / Criteria for Version Bumps (by @justlevine)

There is no official policy or criteria (ref) for handling PHP Version bumps. Pending that discussion, the following is based on the processes used until now:

1. Matt is the ultimate decision maker on whether to bump the minimum PHP version.
2. That discussion is initiated by the release/project leads based on several (public and private) factors.
3. A general litmus test to gauge whether a version should be bumped is if the % of users (via ​https://wordpress.org/about/stats/) left behind by the bump is < 5%.
4. However, usage stats alone are not reason to bump the minimum PHP Version but also have a positive impact on the project/codebase/tooling/etc.

Important: Bumping the minimum PHP version (this ticket) is not the same as changing the ​minimum ''recommended'' version (v8.3 as of 10 Jan 2026).

Background: #62622, #58719, #51043, #57345

Data Points

Since many years @samiamnot has monthly put the stats updates in comments of the old tickets - see backgroound above. We can continue on this ticket with tracking the appropriate data.

The Stats projection page of @johnbillion ​can be found here.

Note: .org Stats do not offer a cross-reference between WP/PHP versions. As such these percentages include sites that may already be (colloquially) abandoned on a previous WordPress release,but could theoretically upgrade if their plugin/theme stack supports recent WP versions.

Bumping the minimum version to v8.0 would allow us to remove a lot PHP 7.* compatibility code. The work for this release could be bigger then usual so we should communicate early for when this is planned to be set.

Projection

This could take quite some time to get below the 5% threshold. Currently as of January 2026 it sits on 22.1%. We'll see how fast it can come down.

An important comment in my view from @jrf about the big effort in maintaining WP running PHP cross-version see #58719. Hopefully we can find some other supportive measures to make users more aware that an upgrade is needed - but thats for another ticket. For the moment lets keep discussions here on how to get to 8.0 and have a space to track usage by @samiamnot

Previously

#62622 Bumping the minimum PHP version to 7.4 in WordPress 7.0
#58719 Bumping the minimum PHP version to 7.2 in WordPress 6.6
#57345 Bumping the minimum PHP version to 7.0 in WordPress 6.3
#46594 Bumping the minimum PHP version to 5.6 in WordPress 5.2
#16917 Bumping the minimum PHP version to 5.2 in WordPress 3.2

[samiamnot]

Thanks @masteradhoc for opening this. What I find interesting is that PHP 8.0 usage is low (5.82%) and dropping. It will be below 5% in the next 2 or 3 months at the current rate. PHP 8.1 (15.5%) is also dropping, but that will take a while, as will 7.4 (now at 22.33%). In all likelihood, by the time of the next bump (I do not expect this to happen for well over a year, maybe more), the minimum will probably be 8.2. This is just my wild prediction.

[mukesh27]

Replying to samiamnot:

the minimum will probably be 8.2.

+1. As per ​https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php(​https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php), security fixes for PHP 8.1 ended on January 1, 2026. Next realses, we should review PHP usage on ​https://wordpress.org/about/stats/(​https://wordpress.org/about/stats/) and decide the path forward accordingly.

related to https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64494

security fixes for PHP 8.1 ended on January 1, 2026

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