Release day, 19 November 2026 · Updated
PHP 8.6.0, 8.5.13 and 8.4.28 on Docker Hub: which php tags are out
Not out yet. PHP 8.6.0 is scheduled for Thursday 19 November 2026. 8.5.13 and 8.4.28 are expected the same day: their release candidates were tagged on 3 and 4 November, and last year's 8.4 update shipped on the 8.5.0 release day. None of these tags is on Docker Hub as of UTC.
php:latest, php:8 and the other tags marked "expected 8.6.0" in the moving-tags table below are expected to move to PHP 8.6 when the corresponding stable images are published. The current 8.6 release-candidate images have no pecl, no built-in mbstring, and every variant is thread-safe. If your Dockerfile builds FROM one of those tags and runs pecl install without installing pecl first, the first build that pulls the 8.6 image fails at that step. Pin php:8.5-… before then, or read what to change for 8.6.
Which tags are out
Each tag appears on Docker Hub only after its image is built, so the variants of one version can arrive hours apart. Last year the Docker official-images change that added the 8.5.0 tags merged at 19:37 UTC on release day (official-images commit 137f890). On 21 October 2026 the 8.5.12 change merged at 15:16 UTC (#22541).
Where the moving tags point
| Tag | PHP today () | After 19 Nov |
|---|---|---|
php:latest, php:8 | 8.5.12 | expected 8.6.0 |
php:fpm, php:8-fpm | 8.5.12 | expected 8.6.0 |
php:apache, php:8-apache | 8.5.12 | expected 8.6.0 |
php:alpine, php:fpm-alpine, php:8-fpm-alpine | 8.5.12 | expected 8.6.0 |
php:zts, php:8-zts | 8.5.12 | 8.6 has no separate -zts tags; see "PHP today" |
php:8.5, php:8.5-fpm-alpine | 8.5.12 | expected 8.5.13 |
php:8.4, php:8.4-fpm-alpine | 8.4.27 | expected 8.4.28 |
"PHP today" means the tag has the same image digest on Docker Hub as the full-version tag, for example php:8-fpm-alpine and php:8.5.12-fpm-alpine.
Check which PHP your image runs
Pull the tag you build from and ask PHP:
docker pull php:8-fpm-alpine
docker run --rm php:8-fpm-alpine php -vThe first line of output names the version, for example PHP 8.5.12 (cli). With the Docker Buildx plugin installed, check without pulling the image layers by comparing digests:
docker buildx imagetools inspect php:8-fpm-alpine | grep Digest
docker buildx imagetools inspect php:8.5.12-fpm-alpine | grep DigestEqual digests mean the same image. To stay on 8.5 after 19 November, change FROM php:8-fpm-alpine to FROM php:8.5-fpm-alpine. That tag gets 8.5 updates and never moves to 8.6.
Is it a security release?
Not known yet. php.net marks a release as a security release in its announcement. Five of the last nine 8.5 updates (8.5.4 to 8.5.12) were. We add the answer here when the release is announced.
How we check
We read each tag's record from the Docker Hub API at about 06:00, 15:00, 19:00, 20:45 and 22:30 UTC on 19 November and at 08:00 and 15:00 UTC on 20 November, and once when this page went up. We aim to publish each scheduled read within an hour. Between reads this page is a snapshot, not a live status. "First seen" is the push time Docker Hub reported the first time we saw the tag; Docker Hub overwrites that time when an image is rebuilt, so later reads would show a later time. A tag's PHP version comes from its name, or for moving tags from an equal image digest. We do not rebuild or scan the images.
Sources: release date, the PHP 8.6 release schedule; release candidates, the php-src tags; tags and build history, docker-library/official-images library/php; the pecl and mbstring changes, docker-library/php#1654.
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