At the latest Dev Chat, the core team confirmed that WordPress PHP Support for 7.2 and 7.3 is going away in WordPress 7.0. On paper that is a routine version bump. The numbers behind it are less routine, because they point at technical debt and performance bottlenecks the project has put off dealing with for years.
Dropping support means a refactor across the whole ecosystem, not a line change in a readme. And roughly 22% of all WordPress sites are still on PHP 7.4, which is the part that worries me. Those sites are running out of road on both security and performance.
The legacy bottleneck: WordPress PHP support
WordPress PHP Support really comes down to which language features core is allowed to use, things like JIT (Just-In-Time) compilation and typed properties. Every legacy code path kept alive for 7.2 and 7.3 pushes core developers toward “lowest common denominator” code, and that costs everyone speed.
Managing clients on 7.4 is like running a marathon in a weighted vest. That is why the push to work with hosts and site owners on bringing those numbers down matters to the platform and not just to individual sites. I went through how these changes hit the 2026 WordPress Release Schedule in an earlier breakdown.
Defensive coding: checking versions
Check the requirement before your plugin or theme runs any of its main logic. That is what keeps a user from hitting the “White Screen of Death” when modern code lands on an ancient environment. A short check in your main entry file is enough.
<?php
/**
* Prevent execution on unsupported PHP versions.
*/
function bbioon_check_php_support() {
if ( version_compare( PHP_VERSION, '7.4', '<' ) ) {
deactivate_plugins( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) );
wp_die(
esc_html__( 'This plugin requires PHP 7.4 or higher to function properly.', 'bbioon-textdomain' ),
esc_html__( 'Plugin Compatibility Error', 'bbioon-textdomain' ),
array( 'back_link' => true )
);
}
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'bbioon_check_php_support' );
WordPress 6.9.1 and maintenance cycles
Before any of that, there is WordPress 6.9.1, due February 3, 2026. It is a maintenance release, so it squashes bugs instead of shipping new APIs. Scrubs are running weekly and the team sounds confident about the date.
If you have tickets sitting in Trac or GitHub, ship those fixes now. The official 6.9.1 announcement lists everything being addressed. Stability is the priority for this one, and the 2026 Core Rep nominations are open on top of it.
Server-side verification via WP-CLI
If you manage more than a couple of servers, skip the dashboard. WP-CLI will audit the PHP status of the whole fleet in one pass, faster and with fewer mistakes than clicking through 50 backends.
# Audit PHP version across all managed sites
wp eval 'echo "PHP Version: " . PHP_VERSION;'
# Check core update status
wp core check-updateIf this WordPress PHP Support work is eating your dev hours, I can take it off your plate. I have been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
Final takeaway: modernize or fail
Dropping 7.2 and 7.3 clears out code that has been holding core back. The 22% still on PHP 7.4 will not have that choice for long once WordPress 7.0 lands, so move your infrastructure while it is still on your own schedule. I go into more detail in my guide on Preparing for WP 7.0.
