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MySQL

Summary

MySQL is Oracle's open-source (GPLv2) relational database. It is one of the most widely deployed databases, especially in the LAMP/PHP ecosystem and at large web companies. As of September 2026 there are two supported LTS lines, 8.4 (to 2032) and 9.7 (GA 2026-04-21), plus quarterly Innovation releases, which moved to calendar versions with 26.7.0 (2026-07-28). 8.0 reached end of life on 2026-04-30 (final release 8.0.46). After heavy cuts to the MySQL team in 2025 and a community push for independent governance, Oracle moved several Enterprise features into Community Server and published an advisory governance model. The community launched the independent OurSQL Foundation.

Key Facts

Attribute Detail
Website mysql.com / dev.mysql.com
Latest Version 26.7.0 Innovation (2026-07-28). Next Innovation: 26.10.0 (planned 2026-10)
Latest LTS 9.7.2 (2026-07). 9.7.0 GA 2026-04-21
Previous LTS 8.4.11 (2026-07). Premier support to 2029-04-30, Extended to 2032-04-30
End of life 8.0: 2026-04-30, final 8.0.46 (2026-04). No direct 8.0 to 9.x upgrade.
Release model LTS about every 2 years (5 + 3 years support). Innovation about quarterly. Calendar versions YY.M.P since July 2026.
Language C++ (with some C)
License GPLv2 (Community Server). Commercial license for Enterprise Edition.
Owner / governance Oracle. Advisory steering committee (AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle) since 2026-06. Independent OurSQL Foundation since 2026-05.
Default storage engine InnoDB (B+tree clustered index, MVCC, redo/undo, doublewrite)
HA Async / semi-sync replication, Group Replication, InnoDB Cluster, ClusterSet
Default ports 3306 (classic protocol), 33060 (X Protocol), 33061 (conventional GR port)

Release Tracks

The flowchart shows the supported lines and the upgrade direction as of 2026-09. Each arrow is a supported upgrade.

flowchart LR
    EOL["8.0<br/>(EOL 2026-04-30)"] -->|"8.0.37+ in-place"| LTS84["8.4 LTS<br/>(8.4.11, to 2032)"]
    LTS84 -->|"LTS to LTS"| LTS97["9.7 LTS<br/>(9.7.2, GA 2026-04-21)"]
    LTS84 -.->|"9.0 to 9.6 Innovation (ended)"| LTS97
    LTS97 -->|"quarterly"| INNO["26.x Innovation<br/>(26.7.0, then 26.10)"]
    INNO -.->|"next LTS (April 2028)"| NEXT["Next LTS<br/>(28.4, planned)"]

    style EOL fill:#c62828,color:#fff
    style LTS84 fill:#2e7d32,color:#fff
    style LTS97 fill:#2e7d32,color:#fff
    style INNO fill:#1565c0,color:#fff

Full dates, the upgrade-path matrix and version-by-version changes are in Reference: Release and Support Matrix.

Architecture at a Glance

A typical production deployment is an InnoDB Cluster: MySQL Router sends writes to the Group Replication primary and reads to secondaries. Details are in Explanation.

graph LR
    APP["Application"] --> ROUTER["MySQL Router<br/>(6446 R/W, 6447 R/O)"]
    ROUTER --> P["mysqld primary<br/>(InnoDB + binlog)"]
    ROUTER --> S1["mysqld secondary"]
    ROUTER --> S2["mysqld secondary"]
    P <-->|"Group Replication<br/>(Paxos-based XCom)"| S1
    P <-->|"Group Replication"| S2
    SHELL["MySQL Shell AdminAPI"] -.->|"manage"| P

What Changed in 2025-2026

Date Event
2025-09 Oracle lays off a large part of the MySQL engineering team (The Register: about 70 engineers).
2026-01/02 Community summits. Percona-led open letter (about 200 signatories) asks for foundation governance.
2026-02-11 Oracle announces a "new era of community engagement" (Community innovation, developer growth, transparency).
2026-04-21 9.7 LTS: hypergraph optimizer (off by default), JSON Duality DML, GR primary election / flow-control stats / telemetry move to Community. DISTANCE() vector search stays HeatWave / MySQL AI only.
2026-04-30 8.0 end of life.
2026-05-27 OurSQL Foundation launches (Percona, PlanetScale, PingCAP, Alibaba, VillageSQL). Oracle is not a member.
2026-06-25 Oracle publishes the MySQL Community Governance Model with an advisory technical steering committee.
2026-07-28 26.7.0, the first calendar-versioned Innovation release: Thread Pool in Community, Change Stream Applier, GR MYSQL communication stack default, post-quantum TLS.

Background: Explanation: Governance and Community.

Evaluation

Pros Cons
Huge install base, mature tooling, every cloud offers managed MySQL (RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL, Azure, HeatWave, PlanetScale) Oracle governance. The engineering team was cut in 2025. Community influence is advisory only.
Two LTS lines with 8-year support and production-ready 8.4 defaults 8.0 is EOL: forced migration, with a breaking 8.4 upgrade (native_password, SLAVE statements removed)
InnoDB Cluster: built-in HA with automatic failover, Router and Shell tooling Open core: vector DISTANCE(), audit, firewall, data masking, KMS keyrings are Enterprise or HeatWave only
Strong OLTP performance for simple, high-QPS workloads Fewer extensions and a weaker analytical SQL surface than PostgreSQL
Hypergraph optimizer, JSON Duality, Thread Pool now in Community (9.7/26.7) Group Replication limits: 9 members, write scaling limited, sensitive to network latency
Drop-in alternatives exist (Percona Server). Wire-compatible ecosystem (Vitess, TiDB, Aurora). MariaDB has diverged and is no longer a drop-in replacement

When It Fits

  • Web and SaaS OLTP with simple, high-rate queries, especially PHP (WordPress, Laravel, Magento) and existing MySQL estates.
  • Teams that want built-in HA without third-party tooling (InnoDB Cluster).
  • Horizontal scale through MySQL-compatible layers (Vitess/PlanetScale, TiDB) while keeping the MySQL protocol.

Consider PostgreSQL for extension-heavy or analytical SQL workloads and CockroachDB for multi-region, active-active writes. See the database comparison.

Editions and HeatWave

Offering What it adds
Community Server (GPLv2) InnoDB, replication, Group Replication, InnoDB Cluster, Shell, Router. Since 9.7/26.7 also hypergraph optimizer, Thread Pool, GR telemetry.
Enterprise Edition (commercial) Audit, Firewall, data masking (dynamic masking new in 9.7), Enterprise Backup, LDAP/Kerberos/WebAuthn/OpenID Connect auth, KMS keyrings, Enterprise Monitor
HeatWave (Oracle Cloud service) In-memory columnar OLAP accelerator, Lakehouse over object storage, AutoML, GenAI + vector store (DISTANCE()), Autopilot tuning
MySQL AI HeatWave AI capabilities (including vector DISTANCE()) for Enterprise deployments outside the cloud service

Alternatives and Forks

  • Percona Server for MySQL: drop-in, tracks 8.4 and 9.7, adds open-source audit, masking, keyring vault and DISTANCE() (9.7.2-2+).
  • MariaDB Server: fork since 2009. Current LTS 12.3 (supported to 2029-06). Galera-based HA and native vector/HNSW indexes. Incompatible GTIDs, JSON storage and no Group Replication.
  • MySQL-compatible distributed systems: Vitess / PlanetScale, TiDB (PingCAP), Amazon Aurora MySQL.

See Explanation: MySQL, MariaDB and Percona Server.

Topic Map

  • How-to Guides: containers, upgrading off 8.0, InnoDB Cluster, replication, backup/PITR, tuning, security setup, troubleshooting, commands and recipes.
  • Reference: release/support matrix, upgrade paths, version changes, 8.4 default changes, limits, auth/privilege/keyring tables, hardening checklist, benchmark figures.
  • Explanation: server and InnoDB internals, redo/undo/binlog, replication and Group Replication, InnoDB Cluster, release model, governance, security model.

Sources

Questions

Open

  • Will the OurSQL Foundation and Oracle's steering committee converge, or will a community fork emerge if Oracle's commitments stay advisory?
  • Will Oracle ship vector DISTANCE() in Community Server, as its February 2026 plan implied for 9.7?
  • When will the hypergraph optimizer become the default in Community Server?
  • When will Percona XtraBackup 9.7 reach GA, and will Percona build for 26.x Innovation? As of 2026-09-28 the newest 9.7 tag in percona/percona-xtrabackup is 9.7.1-rc1 (released 2026-07-15), which backs up any MySQL 9.7.x; there is no 26.x tag.

Answered

  • Is MySQL 8.0 still supported? No. Extended Support ended 2026-04-30 and 8.0.46 was the last release. Upgrade to 8.4 LTS first (8.0.37+ in place), then optionally to 9.7 LTS.
  • Why is there no MySQL 9.8? 9.7 was the last sequentially numbered series. Releases from July 2026 use calendar versions (26.7, 26.10, ...).
  • When is the next LTS after 9.7 due? MySQL 28.4, scheduled for April 2028. Oracle plans a new LTS about every two years; new LTS lines use calendar versions, while 8.4 and 9.7 keep their numbers (Oracle MySQL blog: calendar versions, LTS and Innovation, checked 2026-09-28).