The fourth Release Candidate (“RC4”) for WordPress 7.0 is ready for download and testing!
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 RC4 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 7.0 is the best it can be.
You can test WordPress 7.0 RC4 in four ways:
| Plugin | Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.) |
| Direct Download | Download the RC4 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website. |
| Command Line | Use this WP-CLI command:wp core update --version=7.0-RC4 |
| WordPress Playground | Use the WordPress Playground instance to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required – just click and go! |
The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is May 20, 2026. 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. Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!
Please continue checking the Make WordPress Core blog for 7.0-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.
What’s in WordPress 7.0 RC4?
Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? Take a look at the WordPress 7.0 Field Guide. For technical information related to the issues addressed since RC3, you can browse the following links:
- Closed 7.0 WordPress Core Trac tickets since May 8, 2026
- 7.0 Gutenberg commits since May 8, 2026
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 7.0 RC4 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be.
This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0.
For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.
If you encounter a potential bug or 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.
