Qt version history

The latest version of Qt is 6.6 released on 10 October 2023.[1]

Also still supported, for commercial users,[2] are 5.15 LTS,[3] released on 26 May 2020, and 6.2 LTS, released on 30 September 2021 – long-term support (LTS) versions are generally supported for three years,[4] with a commercial license, while 5.15 support was extended to five years, so it is supported for longer or until 26 May 2025.[3] In addition the KDE project provides unofficial support for, at least, Qt 5.15,[5] i.e. not just for commercial users.

A regular release only receives patch releases during the first 6 months, until the next feature release is out, while an LTS release receives patch releases also after the next feature release is available.

Starting with 5.15 LTS, LTS releases are available only to the commercial license holders. For open source users, such LTS releases are available as regular releases only,[6] thus 5.15 is now in the commercial-only LTS phase. Qt 5.12 LTS was the last Qt version to offer an offline installer.[7] Qt 6.5 will be the next LTS version.

Pre-releases and Qt 1

VersionRelease dateNew features
0.90[8][9][10]20 May 1995First public pre-release version
0.92[11]September 1995
0.93[12]10 January 1996Documentation, network support, tutorial
0.95[13]13 March 1996Drawing transparent multicolor pixmaps
0.97[14]May 1996Clipboard support
0.98[15]11 July 1996
1.0[14]24 September 1996First stable release
1.1[14]Late 1996Tab dialog, multiline edit, tooltips, box layout
1.2[14]April 1997Slider, OpenGL support
1.3[14]September 1997Netscape plugin, progress bar, movies, input validator
1.40[14]September 1998Drag and drop, asynchronous IO, list view, scroll view, spin box, splitter, status bar, tool bar, widget stack
1.412 October 1998
1.4219 December 1998
1.4413 March 1999
1.451999Last stable release in the 1.x seriesa

Qt 2

VersionRelease dateNew features
2.026 June 1999Qt/X11 open source under QPL (Q Public License)[14][16]
2.113 April 2000
2.27 December 2000GNU General Public License 2[14][16]
2.38 March 2001

Qt 3

VersionRelease dateNew features
3.016 October 2001
3.114 November 2001
3.224 July 2003
3.35 February 2004

Qt 4

Qt 4 was first released in 2005 and has been unsupported since 2015.[17]

VersionRelease dateNew features
4.028 June 2005[14][16]
  • Tulip: A set of template container classes
  • Interview: A model–view–controller architecture for item views
  • Arthur 2D painting framework
  • Scribe Unicode text renderer with a public API for performing low-level text layout
  • MainWindow: A modern action-based main window, toolbar, menu, and docking architecture
4.120 December 2005[18]Introduced integrated SVG Tiny support, a PDF backend to Qt's printing system, and a few other features.
4.24 October 2006[19]Introduced Windows Vista support, introduced native CSS support for widget styling, as well as the QGraphicsView framework for efficient rendering of thousands of 2D objects onscreen, to replace Qt 3.x's QCanvas class.
4.330 May 2007[20]Improved Windows Vista support, improved OpenGL engine, SVG file generation, added QtScript (ECMAScript scripting engine based on QSA).[21]
4.46 May 2008[22]Features included are improved multimedia support using Phonon, enhanced XML support, a concurrency framework to ease developing multi-threaded applications, an IPC framework with a focus on shared memory, and WebKit integration.
4.53 March 2009[23]Major included features are QtCreator, improved graphical engine, improved integration with WebKit, OpenDocument Format write support and new licensing options, as well as OS X Cocoa framework support.
4.61 December 2009[24]New APIs are Framework Animation, Gestures, Multi-touch. Now supports (as Tier 1) Symbian and (as Tier 2) Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6, support extended for some Unix systems. Improvements have also been made to overall performance.
4.721 September 2010[25]QML and Qt Quick
4.8 LTS (4.8.7)15 December 2011[26]Qt Platform Abstraction, threaded OpenGL support, multithreaded HTTP, and optimized file system access

Qt 5

Qt 5 was officially released on 19 December 2012. This new version marked a major change in the platform, with hardware-accelerated graphics, QML and JavaScript playing a major role. The traditional C++-only QWidgets continued to be supported, but did not benefit from the performance improvements available through the new architecture.[27] Qt 5 brings significant improvements to the speed and ease of developing user interfaces.[28]

Framework development of Qt 5 moved to open governance, taking place at qt-project.org. It is now possible for developers outside Digia to submit patches and have them reviewed.[29]

VersionRelease dateStandard support untilExtended support availabilityNew features
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.0 (5.0.1)2012-12-19[30]Already endedYes
  • Major overhaul of the Qt 4.x series.
  • Complete Wayland support, including the client-side decorations.
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1 (5.1.1)2013-07-03Already endedYes
  • New modules and experimental Android and iOS support as technology preview.[31]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.2 (5.2.1)2013-12-12Already endedYes
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.3 (5.3.2)2014-05-20Already endedYes
  • Focus on stability and usability[32]
  • Introduction of qmlcompiler.
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.4 (5.4.2)2014-12-10Already endedYes
  • Full WinRT and Windows Phone support
  • Introduction of Qt WebEngine based on Chromium internal components that will eventually replace QtWebKit in future versions.
  • Dynamic GL switching between graphic backends on Windows (ANGLE or OpenGL)
  • Native "look and feel" for Qt Quick Controls backends on Android platforms[33]
  • Introduction of Qt WebChannels providing a QObject bridge over WebSockets. Initially only integrated with Qt WebKit, but with Qt WebEngine integration under way for 5.5
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.5 (5.5.1)2015-07-01Already endedYes

Features available in Qt 5.5 according to official Qt.io website:[34]

  • New modules: Qt 3D, Qt Canvas 3D, Qt Location
  • Deprecated modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative (Qt Quick 1), Qt Script
  • Bluetooth Low Energy API final release
  • On Windows, there will be no more OpenGL-only or ANGLE-only builds and Qt will manage this dynamically
  • GStreamer 1.0 support
  • New video filtering framework
  • Camera and QML MediaPlayer improvement on iOS
  • Qt NFC for Linux
  • SSL/TLS improvements for Qt Network
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.6 LTS (5.6.3)2016-03-16Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[35]

  • Deprecated Modules: Qt Script, Qt Enginio
  • Removed Modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative (Qt Quick 1)
  • Qt Core: Several performance improvements, including reduction of memory usage in dynamic properties, and performance optimisations in QString
  • Qt Network: Support HTTP redirection
  • Qt Gui: Improved cross-platform OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1
  • Qt Multimedia: Adding playlist QML type
  • Qt WebEngine: Based on Chromium 45, with support for pepper plugins including Flash, API for custom URL schemes, intercepting and blocking network requests and also tracking or blocking cookies
  • Qt QML: Reduced memory consumption
  • Embedded platforms: support for Intel Atom-based NUCs

This release was the first Qt5 release to be Long-Term Supported with three years standard support.[2]

Old version, no longer maintained: 5.7 (5.7.1)2016-06-16Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[36]

  • Minimum C++ 11 compiler required.
  • New modules: Qt 3D[37] and Qt Quick Controls 2, a set of embedded and mobile oriented controls
  • Open-sourced modules (previously commercial-only): Qt Charts, Qt Data Visualization, Qt Virtual Keyboard, Qt Purchasing, and Qt Quick 2D Renderer
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 49
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.82017-01-23[38]Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[38][39]

  • New Qt Lite configuration system allowing savings of more than 60% in binary size compared to Qt 5.6
  • Qt Wayland Compositor (included as a Technology Preview in Qt 5.7) is now fully supported
  • Qt Serialbus is now fully supported
  • Qt Network and Web Sockets gained full support for TLS PSK cyphersuites
  • Reduced startup time and memory consumption of The QML engine, by caching binary representations of QML and JS files on disk
  • Performance improvements to the Qt Quick 2D renderer, by supporting partial updates in the Qt Quick scene graph
  • The Qt Quick Controls 2 have gained new types such as dialogs, rounded buttons and tool separators.
  • Qt WebEngine now has the ability to print web pages; now uses Chromium 53
  • Qt SCXML is now fully supported
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.9 LTS (5.9.9)2017-05-31[40]Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[40][41]

  • Qt Network has gained support for HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
  • Qt Web Sockets can now use external TCP sockets
  • Improvements in NFC support for Android
  • Various improvements to the 3D engine
  • Performance and memory improvements QML engine
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 56
  • Qt Gamepad has graduated from Tech Preview status to being fully supported
  • Qt Quick scenes can now be embedded within a Qt 3D application, e.g. to place 2D UI controls inside a 3D environment
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.10 (5.10.1)2017-11-30[42]Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[43]

  • Qt Quick got a plugin that allows placing arbitrarily shaped items into the scene
  • Qt Quick: new pointer handlers
  • New styles for Qt Quick Controls 2
  • Streaming UI into WebGL enabled browser
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 61
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.11 (5.11.3)2018-05-22[44]Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[45][46]

  • Optimized QML Compiler Pipeline
  • Replacing the qmlcompiler tool with qmlcachegen tool and making CONFIG += qtquickcompiler available in open source.[45][47]
  • Expanded Support for Loading Compressed Textures in Image element
  • New Accessibility Backend on Windows
  • Qt High-DPI Support
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 65
  • new Python module: Qt for Python 5.11
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.12 LTS (5.12.12)2018-12-06[48]Already endedYes

Notable improvements:[49]

  • Technology preview of Qt for WebAssembly.
  • Support of Qt for Python was announced to follow shortly after the release.
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 69
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.132019-06-19[50]Already endedYes[51]

Notable improvements:

  • Gapless playback in QML VideoOutput
  • Qt Design Studio: can import from Sketch.
  • Qt Lottie (new Tech Preview): can import animations from Adobe After Effects.
  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 73 (adds PDF viewing, disabled on Linux in official packages[52]).
  • Qt Canvas 3D removed.
  • Qt CoAP: now supports DTLS.
  • Qt Multimedia: Added support of GStreamer for Windows/macOS.
  • Qt Quick: Added support to TableView for hiding rows and columns.

Last version that supports development for old android versions (5.1 Lollipop, 4.4 KitKat , 4.1 Jelly Bean).

Old version, no longer maintained: 5.142019-12-12[53]Already endedYes[51]

New Modules

  • Qt Quick Timeline

Notable improvements

  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 77
  • Qt Network supports Kerberos Proxy Authentication

Deprecated modules:

  • Qt Script
  • Qt Quick Controls 1
  • Qt XML Patterns

Qt for android applications required minimum android 6.0 (API 23) to run.

style="background-color: #FDB3AB; " title="Old version, no longer maintained" data-sort-value="5.15 (Open source[54])" | Old version, no longer maintained: 5.15 (Open source[54]) 2020-05-26[55] Already ended n/a

New Modules

  • Qt Quick 3D
  • Qt Lottie is now officially supported

Notable improvements

  • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 80
  • Abstracting 3D graphics APIs

Deprecated modules:

  • Qt Script
  • Qt Quick Controls 1
  • Qt XML Patterns
class="templateVersion co" style="background-color: #FEF8C6; " title="Older version, yet still maintained" data-sort-value="5.15 LTS (Commercial licenses[54])" | Older version, yet still maintained: 5.15 LTS (Commercial licenses[54]) 2023-05-26[3][56] Yes[55]

The KDE project provides unofficial support for Qt 5.15 in the form of a collection of bugfix patches, most of which are backported from Qt 6.[5] As KDE has a policy of not assigning version numbers to their patches, Linux distributions use ad-hoc schemes when using this fork of Qt5: OpenSUSE, for example, calls its June 2021 version "5.15.2+kde200".[57]

Qt 6

Qt 6.0 was officially released on December 8, 2020.[58]

VersionRelease dateStandard support untilExtended support availabilityNew features
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.0 (6.0.4[59])2020-12-08Already endedYes

Major overhaul of the Qt 5.x series, including:

  • Minimum C++17 now required[60]
  • Switched to CMake build system[60]
  • New graphics architecture[60]
  • Many modules omitted
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.1 (6.1.3[61])2021-05-06Already endedYes
  • Added modules: Active Qt, Qt Charts, Qt Data Visualization, Qt Device Utilities, Qt Graphical Effects, Qt Lottie, Qt State Machine, Qt Virtual Keyboard[62]
Older version, yet still maintained: 6.2 LTS (6.2.9[63])2021-09-302024-09-30Yes

First Qt 6 release with long-term support.[64]

  • Added modules: Qt Bluetooth, Qt Multimedia, Qt NFC, Qt Positioning, Qt Quick Dialogs, Qt RemoteObjects, Qt Sensors, Qt SerialBus, Qt SerialPort, Qt WebChannel, Qt WebEngine, Qt WebSockets, Qt WebView[64]
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.3 (6.3.2[65])2022-04-12Already endedYes
  • Focus on quality and bug fixes[66]
  • Qt Quick Compilers[66]
  • New Qt Quick controls[66]
  • Qt Quick 3D reflection support[66]
  • New Qt PDF module[66]
Older version, yet still maintained: 6.4 (6.4.3[67])2022-09-292023-09-29Yes
  • Qt HTTP Server[68]
  • Qt Quick 3D Physics[68]
  • Reintroduces Qt TextToSpeech from Qt 5[68]
Current stable version: 6.5 LTS (6.5.3[69])2023-04-032026-03-30Yes
  • Qt Shader Tools and Qt Quick Effect Maker.[70] Most modules (from 5.15) are kept, some have been merged into others, though a few dropped, such as Qt Gamepad, and Qt Script (Qt QML provides same functionality)
Current stable version: 6.6 (6.6.0[71])2023-10-102024-10-10Yes
  • ...

Notes

^a On 14 October 2016, KDE's 20th anniversary, a KDE developer re-released a variant of Qt 1.45 that he made work with modern Linux systems.[72]

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