PHP 8.1 Reached End of Life in December 2025: Is Your WordPress Site at Risk
PHP 8.1 officially reached end of life on December 31, 2025. Any WordPress site still running PHP 8.1 in 2026 will never receive another security patch from the PHP project. Here is what you need to do.
What PHP End of Life Means
The PHP project maintains each major version for three years: two years of active support including new features and bug fixes, followed by one year of security-only support. After the security support period ends, a version reaches end of life. No further patches of any kind are released for that version, including security patches, regardless of what vulnerabilities are discovered in the future.
PHP 8.1 reached end of life on December 31, 2025. As of January 2026 and beyond, any vulnerability found in PHP 8.1 will not be patched by the PHP project. If you are running WordPress on PHP 8.1 today in April 2026, you are running on an unsupported PHP version.
PHP Support Status in April 2026
| PHP Version | Support Status | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 8.3 | Active support until November 2026 | Recommended |
| PHP 8.2 | Security support until December 2026 | Acceptable |
| PHP 8.1 | End of life since December 31, 2025 | Upgrade immediately |
| PHP 8.0 | End of life since November 2023 | Critical risk |
| PHP 7.4 | End of life since November 2022 | Critical risk |
What WordPress Recommends
WordPress.org recommends PHP 8.1 or higher as the minimum supported version. However, recommending a version as a minimum for WordPress compatibility is not the same as recommending it for security. WordPress can run on PHP 8.1, but PHP 8.1 is no longer receiving security patches. The minimum you should be running for a secure WordPress site in April 2026 is PHP 8.2.
How to Upgrade Your PHP Version
The process varies by hosting provider. On most managed WordPress hosting platforms and cPanel-based shared hosting, you can change your PHP version in the hosting control panel without any downtime. Log in to your control panel, locate the PHP version selector, and choose PHP 8.2 or 8.3.
Before upgrading, it is good practice to check that your active plugins and theme are compatible with PHP 8.2 or 8.3 by reviewing their changelogs or testing on a staging site.
How ScanMyWordPress Helps
ScanMyWordPress displays the PHP version reported by your WordPress installation on every website dashboard. If your site is running an end-of-life PHP version, this is visible in your scan results. Pro and Lifetime plan users receive scan data that includes PHP version information with every daily automated scan.