EF Core releases and planning
Stable releases
| Release | Target framework | Supported until | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| EF Core 8.0 | .NET 8 | November 10, 2026 | What's new / Breaking changes |
| .NET 6 | Expired May 14, 2024 | What's new / Breaking changes | |
| EF Core 6.0 | .NET 6 | November 12, 2024 (LTS) | What's new / Breaking changes |
| .NET Standard 2.1 | Expired May 10, 2022 | Announcement / Breaking changes | |
| .NET Standard 2.0 | Expired December 13, 2022 | Announcement | |
| .NET Standard 2.1 | Expired March 3, 2020 | Announcement / Breaking changes | |
| .NET Standard 2.0 | Expired December 23, 2019 | Announcement | |
| .NET Standard 2.0 | Expired August 21, 2021* | Announcement | |
| .NET Standard 2.0 | Expired October 1, 2018 | Announcement | |
| .NET Standard 1.3 | Expired June 27 2019 | Announcement | |
| .NET Standard 1.3 | Expired June 27 2019 | Announcement |
See supported platforms for information about the specific platforms supported by each EF Core release.
Entity Framework Core releases and support are aligned with .NET releases and support. See the .NET support policy for information on support expiration and long-term support (LTS) releases.
* EF Core 2.1 will continue to be supported when used with ASP.NET Core 2.1 on .NET Framework only. See ASP.NET Support Policy for details.
Guidance on updating to new releases
- Supported releases are patched for security and other critical bugs. Always use the latest patch of a given release. For example, for EF Core 2.1, use 2.1.x for the highest 'x' available.
- Major version updates (for example, from EF Core 2 to EF Core 3) often have breaking changes. Thorough testing is advised when updating across major versions. Use the breaking changes links above for guidance on dealing with breaking changes.
- Minor version updates do not typically contain breaking changes. However, thorough testing is still advised since new features can introduce regressions.
Release planning and schedules
EF Core releases align with the .NET Core shipping schedule.
Patch releases usually ship monthly, but have a long lead time.
See the release planning process for more information on how we decide what to ship in each release. We typically don't do detailed planning for further out than the next major or minor release.
EF Core 9.0
The next planned stable release is EF Core 9.0, or just EF9, scheduled for November 2024.
See the What's New in EF9 for more information.
