Oracle Releases JDK 26 with Key Enhancements

Oracle released the Java Development Kit (JDK) 26 on March 18, 2025, marking the 17th feature release under its six-month cadence established in 2018. This non-long-term support version introduces 10 JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs) that enhance performance, concurrency, cryptography, and network capabilities, while removing obsolete components to streamline the platform.

The release focuses on practical improvements for developers building modern applications. JEP 517 adds support for the HTTP/3 protocol to the HTTP Client API, enabling libraries and applications to connect to HTTP/3 servers with minimal code adjustments. This update, built on the QUIC transport protocol, aims to reduce latency in microservices and API-driven workloads by addressing head-of-line blocking issues common in earlier HTTP versions. Similarly, JEP 522 optimizes the G1 garbage collector, the default in the HotSpot JVM, by reducing synchronization between application threads and GC threads through dual card tables. Officials noted this change could improve throughput by 5 to 15 percent in reference-heavy scenarios, such as database operations or web request processing, without altering user interactions.