Schedules/Plasma 6

Plasma 6 is the most recent major version of the Plasma desktop environment developed by KDE for *nix computer operating systems, following its initial public release on 2024-02-28. Its codebase is architected atop version 6 of the Qt (/ˈkjuːt/, pronounced "cute"^[1]) application development framework.

It is currently in active development and intended to remain so for new and improved features as well as for bug fixes until the (as yet unscheduled) release of Plasma 7.

Releases

See also: Plasma 6 release notes

The initial release produced by each development cycle (identified by a serially incrementing integer х in the rubric v6.х.0) will be tagged on Thursday a fortnight after the second beta release (four weeks after the first beta). Tarballs will be created from a git snapshot at that time that are made accessible to packagers ahead of the official public release, which will take place on the following Tuesday.

Schedule

The schedule of Plasma 6 releases is subject to change at any time as circumstances dictate. Some prior justifications for release cadence modifications have been:

the quality of a major component determined to be substandard
a delay in the release of a mandatory dependency, such as:
- KDE Frameworks
- Qt 6
to allow time for important bug fixes or security remediations to land

All deadlines are considered deliverable at midday UTC unless otherwise specified, however if you are a developer and need a few more hours (e.g. for an important bugfix), please notify someone from the release team as soon as the need becomes apparent.

For questions about the release process or related issues, visit the #release-team channel on the KDE Matrix server.

Cadence

Note: Beginning with Plasma 6.3, each release cycle has been color-coded to better distinguish them in public-facing documentation.

New releases are initially planned to occur regularly at four (4) month intervals—roughly three (3) times per year. Once a general consensus is formed by the major Linux distributions that package Plasma that a desirable baseline stability has been achieved, a shift to six-month intervals and semi-annual releases will be considered.^[2]

Long-term support releases

There will be no long-term support (LTS) versions of Plasma 6. This decision was recorded in the 2025 Plasma Sprint notes.

Repository and soft feature freezes

Repository and soft feature freezes will occur on the second preceding Thursday before each beta release date. This means:

The list of Git repositories that will be included in the release becomes fixed
New features can only be merged if they were already open before the soft freeze, and aren't too large and risky-looking. This is necessary subjective, and people are expected to use their judgment. Exceptions can be granted if needed.

	Release manager tasks
	Begin writing the Beta release announcement using the list of noteworthy changes See the tables in the § Future releases and § Release history sections for examples.

Betas

Since Plasma 6.3, two public beta versions are published. The first beta version will be published usually on the Thursday following the corresponding KDE Frameworks release. The second beta will be published two weeks later.

A hard feature freeze as well as soft UI and soft string freezes are enabled at the time of the release of the first beta, lasting through the end of the release cycle for that version:

No exceptions will be granted to merge new features during this period
No UI or string changes are allowed without first securing an exception. This includes the default wallpaper chosen for a release.

Release manager tasks

Bump the milestone to the current version (i.e. the version that the beta leads up to) for bug fixes that failed to merge in time for the previous version and likewise bump the milestone for features that failed to merge during the current cycle to the next future release.
See the tables in the § Future releases and § Release history sections for examples.
Also be sure to review all other milestoned merge requests for the current cycle and add the "Cherry-Pick" label to those that qualify as bug fixes.

Bugfix releases

Beginning with Plasma 6.3, stable "feature" releases will each receive six (6) subsequent updates containing bug fixes, one more than was done for versions 6.0–6.2. The tags for each update are published to the code repositories on Tuesdays at weekly intervals equal to the first six positive integers in the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.

Dependencies

Releases should depend on the latest KDE Frameworks available at beta time and an agreed upon version of Qt. Ensure that the KDE Invent Continuous Integration (CI/CD) system is updated to build using said version of Qt soon after the decision is made, involving the KDE Sysadmin team as needed.

Versioned dependencies for Plasma 6 feature releases
Plasma Release	Qt Version^{[dep 1]}	KDE Frameworks Version
6.9	6.12	6.34
6.8	6.11	6.30
6.7	6.10	6.26
6.6	6.10	6.22
6.5	6.9	6.18
6.4	6.8	6.14
6.3	6.7 / 6.8 *	6.10
6.2	6.7	6.5
6.1	6.6 / 6.7 *	6.2
6.0	6.6	6.0^{[dep 2]}
Notes: ↑ Bold type and an asterisk denotes a strong recommendation when multiple versions may be used for compilation. ↑ Includes an additional dependency on KDE Gear v24.02 for libkexiv2

Future releases

Upcoming Plasma 6 releases
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.6.91 (6.7 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2026-05-28
6.7.0	Stable	Thu 2026-06-11	Tue 2026-06-16	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.7
6.7.1	Bugfix	Tue 2026-06-23
6.7.2	Bugfix	Tue 2026-06-30
6.6.6	Bugfix	Tue 2026-07-07
6.7.3	Bugfix	Tue 2026-07-14
6.7.4	Bugfix	Tue 2026-08-04
6.7.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2026-08-27		Plasma 6.8 § Noteworthy changes and additions Dependencies: Qt 6.11 / KDE Frameworks 6.30
6.7.5	Bugfix	Tue 2026-09-08
6.7.90 (6.8 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2026-09-10		Plasma 6.8 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.8
6.7.91 (6.8 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2026-09-24
6.8.0	Stable	Thu 2026-10-08	Wed 2026-10-14	Coincides with the 30th anniversary of KDE's inception
6.8.1	Bugfix	Tue 2026-10-20
6.8.2	Bugfix	Tue 2026-10-27
6.7.6	Bugfix	Tue 2026-11-03
6.8.3	Bugfix	Tue 2026-11-10
6.8.4	Bugfix	Tue 2026-12-01
6.8.5	Bugfix	Tue 2027-01-05
6.8.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2027-01-07		Plasma 6.9 § Noteworthy changes and additions Dependencies: Qt 6.12 / KDE Frameworks 6.34
6.7.7	Bugfix	Tue 2027-01-19		Takes place two weeks early (w.r.t. Fibonacci schedule) to occur just prior to branching of Plasma 6.9 This extra release marks the termination of support for the X11 window manager. Last scheduled release of Plasma 6.7 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.7
6.8.90 (6.9 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2027-01-21		Plasma 6.9 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.9
6.8.91 (6.9 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2027-02-04
6.9.0	Stable	Thu 2027-02-18	Tue 2027-02-23	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.9
6.9.1	Bugfix	Tue 2027-03-02
6.9.2	Bugfix	Tue 2027-03-09
6.8.6	Bugfix	Tue 2027-03-16		Delayed two weeks (w.r.t. Fibonacci schedule) to prevent conflicts with Plasma 6.9.1 and 6.9.2 Last scheduled release of Plasma 6.8 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.8
6.9.3	Bugfix	Tue 2027-03-23
6.9.4	Bugfix	Tue 2027-04-13
6.9.5	Bugfix	Tue 2027-05-18
6.9.6	Bugfix	Tue 2027-07-13		Last scheduled release of Plasma 6.9 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.9

Release history

6.7 series

Plasma 6.7 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.6.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2026-04-30		Plasma 6.7 § Noteworthy changes and additions Dependencies: Qt 6.10 / KDE Frameworks 6.26
6.6.90 (6.7 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2026-05-14		Plasma 6.7 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.7

6.6 series

Plasma 6.6 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.5.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Fri 2026-01-02		Delayed one day by New Year's Day holiday Plasma 6.6 § Noteworthy changes and additions Dependencies: Qt 6.10 / KDE Frameworks 6.22
6.5.90 (6.6 Beta 1)	Beta	Tue 2026-01-13		Released two days earlier than originally scheduled Plasma 6.6 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.6 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.6
6.5.91 (6.6 Beta 2)	Beta	Tue 2026-01-27		Released two days earlier than originally scheduled
6.6.0	Stable	Thu 2026-02-12	Tue 2026-02-17	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.6
6.6.1	Bugfix	Tue 2026-02-24
6.6.2	Bugfix	Tue 2026-03-03
6.6.3	Bugfix	Tue 2026-03-17
6.6.4	Bugfix	Tue 2026-04-07
6.6.5	Bugfix	Tue 2026-05-12

6.5 series

Plasma 6.5 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.4.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2025-09-04		Plasma 6.5 § Noteworthy changes and additions
6.4.90 (6.5 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-09-18		Plasma 6.5 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.5 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.5
6.4.91 (6.5 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2025-10-02
6.5.0	Stable	Thu 2025-10-16	Tue 2025-10-21	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.5
6.5.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-10-28
6.5.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-04
6.5.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-18
6.5.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-12-09
6.5.5	Bugfix	Tue 2026-01-13
6.5.6	Bugfix	Tue 2026-03-10

6.4 series

Plasma 6.4 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.3.80 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2025-05-01		Plasma 6.4 § Noteworthy changes and additions
6.3.90 (6.4 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-05-15		Plasma 6.4 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.4 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.4
6.3.91 (6.4 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2025-05-29
6.4.0	Stable	Thu 2025-06-12	Tue 2025-06-17	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.4
6.4.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-06-24
6.4.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-01
6.4.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-15
6.4.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-08-05
6.4.5	Bugfix	Tue 2025-09-09
6.4.6	Bugfix	Tue 2025-11-11		Delayed one week (w.r.t. Fibonacci schedule) to avoid shared release date with Plasma 6.5.2

6.3 series

Plasma 6.3 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.3 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2024-12-26
6.2.90 (6.3 Beta 1)	Beta	Thu 2025-01-09		Plasma 6.3 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.3 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.3
6.2.91 (6.3 Beta 2)	Beta	Thu 2025-01-23
6.2.91.1 (6.3 Beta 2 Patch)	Patch	Fri 2025-01-24
6.3.0	Stable	Thu 2025-02-06	Tue 2025-02-11	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.3
6.3.1	Bugfix	Tue 2025-02-18
6.3.2	Bugfix	Tue 2025-02-25
6.3.3	Bugfix	Tue 2025-03-11
6.3.3.1	Patch	Wed 2025-03-12		Contains updated version of KWin
6.3.4	Bugfix	Tue 2025-04-01
6.3.5	Bugfix	Tue 2025-05-06
6.3.6	Bugfix	Tue 2025-07-08		Delayed one week (w.r.t. Fibonacci schedule) to avoid shared release date with Plasma 6.4.2

6.2 series

Plasma 6.2 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Release date	Notes
6.2 (repo/feature freeze)	Soft freeze	Thu 2024-08-29
6.1.90 (6.2 Beta)	Beta	Thu 2024-09-12		Plasma 6.2 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.2 ⇒ Unmerged bug fixes for v6.2
6.2.0	Stable	Thu 2024-10-03	Tue 2024-10-08	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.2
6.2.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-10-15
6.2.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-10-22
6.2.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-11-05
6.2.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-11-26
6.2.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-12-31

6.1 series

Plasma 6.1 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Notes
6.0.80 (6.1 Alpha)	Alpha	Thu 2024-05-09
6.0.90 (6.1 Beta)	Beta	Fri 2024-05-24	Plasma 6.1 branched ⇒ Unmerged features for v6.1 ⇒ Open merge requests for v6.1
6.1.0	Stable	Tue 2024-06-18	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6.1
6.1.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-06-25
6.1.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-07-02
6.1.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-07-16
6.1.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-08-06
6.1.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-09-10

6.0 series

Plasma 6.0 release series
Plasma version	Release type	Tarball date	Notes
5.80.0 (6.0 Alpha)	Alpha	Wed 2023-11-08	Plasma 6 release notes
5.90.0 (6.0 Beta 1)	Beta	Wed 2023-11-29
5.91.0 (6.0 Beta 2)	Beta	Wed 2023-12-20
5.92.0 (6.0 RC 1)	Release Candidate	Wed 2024-01-10
5.93.0 (6.0 RC 2)	Release Candidate	Wed 2024-01-31
6.0	Stable	Wed 2024-02-28	Initial public release of KDE Plasma 6
6.0.1	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-05
6.0.2	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-12
6.0.3	Bugfix	Tue 2024-03-26
6.0.4	Bugfix	Tue 2024-04-16
6.0.5	Bugfix	Tue 2024-05-21

References

↑ Wilper, Simon (2025-11-07) "Qt for Beginners § Introduction to Qt", Qt Wiki. Archived from the original on 2026-03-31. Last accessed on 2026-05-02.
↑ Graham, Nathan (2023-05-09) "Plasma 6 proposal: Change the release schedule". plasma-desktop issue tracker, KDE Invent.

External links

A list of open Plasma 6 bugs can be found at the KDE Bugzilla instance.

The schedule of upcoming Plasma 6 releases is also published at:

[3] Bold type and an asterisk denotes a strong recommendation when multiple versions may be used for compilation.

[4] Includes an additional dependency on KDE Gear v24.02 for libkexiv2

[qtwiki-1] Wilper, Simon (2025-11-07) "Qt for Beginners § Introduction to Qt", Qt Wiki. Archived from the original on 2026-03-31. Last accessed on 2026-05-02.

[release_cadence-2] Graham, Nathan (2023-05-09) "Plasma 6 proposal: Change the release schedule". plasma-desktop issue tracker, KDE Invent.

[1]

[2]

[dep 1]

[dep 2]

Apr	MAY	Jun
	23
2025	2026	2027