Chrome Browser: Moving to a 2-Week Release Cycle
Starting September 8, 2026 (with the Chrome 153 release), Chrome is officially moving to a 2-week release cycle across all major platforms (Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows), shifting from the current four-week cadence.As the web platform is constantly advancing, we want to ensure that developers and users have immediate access to the latest capabilities, security fixes and performance improvements.We are taking this significant step to further increase Chrome's development velocity and, whilst releases will be more frequent, their smaller scope aims at minimizing disruption and simplifies post-release debugging. Thanks to recent process enhancements, this shift is designed to maintain Chrome's high standards for stability.Managing Your Environment: Stable vs. Extended StableWhile this increased velocity delivers features and fixes faster, we understand that a shorter release cycle may raise concerns regarding maintenance costs and update management for enterprise IT teams.To help mitigate maintenance overhead, the Extended Stable channel is available as a reliable alternative. Extended Stable will continue with its existing eight-week cycle. By switching specific organizational units (or your entire fleet) to Extended Stable, administrators can maintain a slower, more predictable update cadence without absorbing the 2-week overhead.It’s worth noting that the new 2-week Stable option remains the most secure choice. We highly recommend utilizing the standard 2-week Stable channel if immediate access to vulnerability patches is a larger priority for your organization than minimizing maintenance costs. Impact on ChromeOS DevicesWe will continue to offer extended release options for Chromebook users. Because our priority is a seamless experience, the latest Chrome releases will roll out to ChromeOS only after dedicated platform testing. We are currently adapting these channels for the new 2-week browser cycle. We will share more specific details soon regarding milestone updates for managed ChromeOS devices.Next Steps & ResourcesWe recommend reviewing the differences between all Chrome browser release channels ahead of September. If you choose to adjust your fleet's cadence, utilize this Help Center article to learn how to manage updates and deploy the Extended Stable option.Additionally, because a Chrome Beta for each version will now ship three weeks before the stable release, we highly recommend administrators test with the Beta channel to keep up to date with any upcoming changes that might impact internal sites and applications. For a complete look at the new release schedule and technical details, please review the official announcement on the Chrome for Developers blog.
