Node.js, the popular open-source JavaScript runtime, has released Node.js 26, shipping with a mix of platform modernization, new language features, and a round of deprecations and removals.
Node.js 26 introduces several changes, including the Temporal API enabled by default, an update to the V8 JavaScript engine to 14.6, and a bump of the Undici HTTP client to 8.0. It also retires a number of long-flagged legacy APIs as the project continues to modernize the platform.
One of the headline features in Node.js 26 is the Temporal API, now enabled without an experimental flag. Temporal is a modern date and time API that provides a more robust alternative to the legacy Date object, with first-class handling of time zones, calendars, durations, and instants.
Reaction to Temporal has been largely positive. On Hacker News, one commenter said they were "really looking forward to the temporal api being universally available," adding that "sensible date/time handling is something that really ought to be baked into the platform ootb." On Reddit, a developer noted it is "definitely much better than JS Dates," though they had "already started having to make my own helper libraries for it."
The V8 engine has been updated to version 14.6.202.33, part of Chromium 146. This brings new upsert helpers such as Map.prototype.getOrInsert() and getOrInsertComputed(), along with Iterator.concat() for iterator sequencing, plus across-the-board JIT and garbage collection improvements. Undici was bumped to 8.0.2, improving the built-in fetch() implementation with no API changes required.
The release also removes a long list of legacy APIs. http.Server.prototype.writeHeader() has been fully removed in favor of writeHead(), the legacy _stream_* modules are gone, module.register() is now runtime-deprecated, and the --experimental-transform-types flag has been removed.
Community reaction framed this as an incremental release, with a widely shared Reddit thread describing it as "a big bunch of small fixes and minor deprecations."
Developers upgrading should be aware of a few migration points. NODE_MODULE_VERSION is now 147, so any prebuilt native add-ons will need rebuilding before upgrading.
Node.js 26 remains the Current release for six months before entering long-term support in October 2026, sitting alongside the Node.js 24 Active LTS line. It arrives as competing runtimes Bun and Deno already offer Temporal, and as maintainer Rafael Gonzaga announced the release on X, describing it as "modernizing the platform." It is also the last release under the old odd/even schedule before Node.js moves to a yearly release cadence.
Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime maintained under the OpenJS Foundation, and can be upgraded following the instructions at nodejs.org.