Laravel 13 Release Date and the Support Window I Plan Around
Short version for the impatient: Laravel 13 shipped on March 17th, 2026, and the date that should drive your upgrade planning is not that one. It's the day bug fixes stop for the version you're running. For Laravel 12 that day was August 13th, 2026, which means it already passed while I was busy with other things. I opened my spreadsheet of client apps last week and the Laravel 11 rows made me…
Laravel 13 was released on March 17th, 2026, and the crucial date for upgrade planning is not that one, but rather when bug fixes stop for the version you are currently using. For Laravel 12, the bug fix support ended on August 13th, 2026, meaning it had already passed when the author was working on other tasks. The author had previously miscalculated the support window for Laravel 11, which ended in March. This post presents an updated version of the support table and a tool to avoid guessing.
The Laravel release notes and Laravel News agree that major versions have been released in early years since Laravel 9: Laravel 9 in February 2022, Laravel 10 in February 2023, Laravel 11 in March 2024, Laravel 12 in February 2025, and Laravel 13 in March 2026. The schedule is expected to continue this pattern, with Laravel 14 in the first quarter of 2027. Laravel 13 requires PHP 8.3, and Laravel News indicates that Laravel 14 will require PHP 8.4.
Bug fixes are available for 18 months, while security fixes are provided for two years. Laravel 10 had bug fixes ending on August 6th, 2024, and security fixes ending on February 4th, 2025, with the end of life. Laravel 11 had bug fixes ending on September 3rd, 2025, and security fixes ending on March 12th, 2026, with the end of life. Laravel 12 had bug fixes ending on August 13th, 2026, and security fixes running until February 24th, 2027. Laravel 13 has bug fixes until Q3 2027 and security fixes until Q1 2028.
The author explains that Laravel's support is consistent for every major version, with bug fixes lasting 18 months and security fixes for two years. This differs from the commonly believed two-year window for security fixes. The reasoning behind this is practical: packages in the ecosystem follow the framework, and surrounding code you depend on moves on faster than the framework's security window suggests. The author recommends treating Laravel upgrades as a holding pattern rather than a place to live.
The author also notes that yearly cadence upgrades have become smaller due to Laravel moving to Semantic Versioning with Laravel 6 in September 2019. Since then, minor and patch releases should not break anything, and feature releases occur throughout the year. Laravel 13.0 was released in March 2026, and by September 2026, it had reached 13.33, with thirty-three feature and fix releases absorbed through a composer update.
The author emphasizes that each major version only needs to include changes that break something, making the upgrade process manageable.
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