WordPress 6.8 was released on 15 April 2025 under the codename ‘Cecil’, in honour of pianist Cecil Taylor, one of the pioneers of free jazz. This release brings fewer eye-catching new features, focusing instead on refining the tools used on a daily basis: faster page switching, stronger password storage and a host of minor fixes.

Almost instant page switching: speculative loading

When a visitor hovers over or clicks on a link, WordPress can pre-load the next page using the browser’s Speculation Rules API, so that it appears almost instantly. WordPress uses a conservative setting by default to avoid placing an unnecessary load on the server, and this behaviour can be customised using a plugin or custom code. The feature works in modern browsers; older browsers simply ignore it.

We’ve written about further ways to speed up your site in our article on optimising WordPress performance.

Stronger password storage with bcrypt

WordPress now stores user passwords using the bcrypt algorithm, which requires significantly more computing power to crack than the previous method. You don’t need to do anything: existing passwords will continue to work, and will automatically be converted to the new format the next time the user logs in. This release has also strengthened other aspects of encryption. Our WordPress security checklist covers how to further protect your site.

Style Book for classic templates

The Style Book has been given a new, clearer layout and more straightforward labels, and now works with classic templates too, provided they support editor-styles or have a theme.json file. You’ll find it under Appearance > Design, and it also shows the effect of changes made in CSS or the Customiser.

The settings for data views in the editor are now easier to navigate, sticky posts can be excluded from the Query Loop block, and numerous minor fixes make the workflow smoother.

Performance and accessibility

In addition to speculative loading, version 6.8 speeds up the block editor, the registration of block types and the caching of queries. The Interactivity API has taken the first step towards ensuring that no single interaction takes longer than 50 milliseconds. More than 100 accessibility fixes affect all core themes, menu management, the Customiser and the block editor.

Version 6.8 is compatible with PHP versions 7.2 through 8.4; full support for PHP 8.4 was added to WordPress in the spring of 2026.

Update

Before updating, make a backup, then start the update from the Updates menu in the control panel or via the WP Toolkit on our WordPress hosting. Backported security fixes for the 6.8 branch were last available in October 2026 with release 6.8.11, but officially only the latest major version is ever supported. Full details can be found in the 6.8 release notes and the developer’s guide.

The previous major release was WordPress 6.7 ‘Rollins’, and the next one will be WordPress 6.9 ‘Gene’.

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