Ruby Version History
4 active, 11 end-of-life. 15 versions tracked.
Ruby releases a new version every Christmas (December 25th), a tradition maintained since Ruby 2.0. Each release gets roughly 3 years of support: about 2 years of active maintenance followed by 1 year of security fixes.
Recommendation
For new projects, use Ruby 4.0. It's the latest stable release with significant language improvements and continued YJIT performance gains.
| Version | Released | End of Life | Latest Patch | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby 4.0 | December 25, 2025 | March 31, 2029 | 4.0.1 | Active |
| Ruby 3.4 | December 24, 2024 | March 31, 2028 | 3.4.9 | Active |
| Ruby 3.3 | December 25, 2023 | March 31, 2027 | 3.3.10 | Active |
| Ruby 3.2 | December 25, 2022 | March 31, 2026 | 3.2.10 | Active |
| Ruby 3.1 | December 25, 2021 | March 31, 2025 | 3.1.7 | End of Life |
| Ruby 3.0 | December 25, 2020 | April 23, 2024 | 3.0.7 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.7 | December 25, 2019 | March 31, 2023 | 2.7.8 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.6 | December 25, 2018 | March 31, 2022 | 2.6.10 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.5 | December 25, 2017 | March 31, 2021 | 2.5.9 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.4 | December 23, 2016 | March 31, 2020 | 2.4.10 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.3 | December 24, 2015 | March 31, 2019 | 2.3.8 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.2 | December 25, 2014 | March 31, 2018 | 2.2.10 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.1 | December 25, 2013 | March 31, 2017 | 2.1.10 | End of Life |
| Ruby 2.0.0 | February 24, 2013 | February 24, 2016 | 2.0.0p648 | End of Life |
| Ruby 1.9.3 | October 30, 2011 | February 23, 2015 | 1.9.3p551 | End of Life |
Ruby Support Policy
Ruby versions are supported for approximately 3 years after release. The first 2 years include bug fixes and improvements, and the final year is security-only maintenance. The exact dates vary, but the Ruby core team aims for this lifecycle consistently.
What You Need to Know
Ruby 3.2 reaches end-of-life in March 2026. Upgrade to 3.3, 3.4, or 4.0 before then.
Ruby 4.0 is the current latest release, marking the next major evolution of the language.
YJIT (Yet Another JIT) delivers 15-30% performance improvements for most Rails apps.
The Ruby 3x3 goal (3x faster than Ruby 2.0) has been achieved with YJIT.
Frequently Asked Questions
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