# VTK 9.7.0 and 10.0.0 Release Planning
**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371
**Category:** Announcements
**Created:** [April 3, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371 "2026-04-03T11:10:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/1 "2026-04-03T11:10:41Z")
# VTK Release Plan
As announced in this [post](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-4-0-release/14577), VTK now follows a regular (calendar-based) release plan, but as mentioned in this [blog](https://www.kitware.com/webgpu-one-graphics-api-to-rule-them-all/), **VTK 10.0** is on the horizon.
- Expect a minor release in June 2026 with intermediate patch releases in between, as needed.
- Expect a major release in December 2026, see below.
- The master and release branches will split one month and a half before the scheduled release date. Please ensure that all feature branches are merged before the split.
- A proposed detailed release plan will be announced a few weeks before each release.
Following this schedule, the next planned releases are as follows:
- VTK v9.7.0 is planned for **June 2026**
- VTK v10.0.0 is planned for **December 2026**
As detailed in the blog, VTK 10 will contain a major change, the change of the default rendering backend from OpenGL to WebGPU, but it will be possible to opt-out and use OpenGL rendering.
VTK 9.7.0 will already contain all the WebGPU features required to be able to test this backend, but it will be an opt-in, that we strongly suggest users to test their workflow with.
As this is a major release, we may decide to postpone it dependending on feedback, or even to add another minor release before effectively releasing VTK 10.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/2 "2026-06-08T15:02:14Z")
Here is the detailed plan for 9.7.0 release (sorry for the delay).
06/22/2026: Release split, no new features will be going into VTK 9.7.0 after this date
06/22/2026 to 07/17/2026: Release candidates are published and tested. Critical bug fixes are integrated into the VTK release branch.
07/17/2026: VTK 9.7.0 is released.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2026, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/3 "2026-06-29T07:06:15Z")
VTK 9.7 release branch has been split from master on June 27th and VTK 9.7.0-RC1 is available (but not the wheels sadly) here: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/v9.7.0.rc1?ref\_type=tags](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/v9.7.0.rc1?ref_type=tags)
The whole planning is henceforth delayed by a week:
06/27/2026 to 07/24/2026: Release candidates are published and tested. Critical bug fixes are integrated into the VTK release branch.
07/24/2026: VTK 9.7.0 is released.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/4 "2026-07-17T06:26:23Z")
vtk v9.7.0-RC2 (and RC1) have been tagged.
Python wheels for v9.7.0-RC2 are still being generated.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2026, 9:14am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/5 "2026-07-28T09:14:10Z")
vtk v9.7.0-RC3 has been tagged: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/v9.7.0.rc3?ref\_type=tags](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/tree/v9.7.0.rc3?ref_type=tags)
Python wheels are available here: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/packages](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/packages)
This may be the last RC, plan have shifted a bit more:
07/28/2026 to 08/03/2026: RC3 is published, very last critical fixes are merged
08/03/2026: VTK 9.7.0 is released.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2026, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/6 "2026-08-03T15:45:16Z")
A few more critical fixes were merged, RC4 is ongoing.
08/03/2026 to 08/10/2026: RC4 is published, hopefully no more bugfixes to merge
08/10/2026: VTK 9.7.0 is released.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 7:34am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/7 "2026-08-05T07:34:41Z")
VTK v9.7.0-RC4 has been tagged, wheels are currently being generated ([https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/pipelines/507639](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/pipelines/507639)) and will be available here [https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/packages](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/packages).
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2026, 8:19am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/8 "2026-08-17T08:19:24Z")
VTK v9.7.0 has been tagged, wheels are available on pypi, anouncement post coming.
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### Author:  [@sankhesh](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/sankhesh)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/9 "2026-08-17T15:37:35Z")
We are excited to announce the release of VTK v9.7.0 - [https://www.kitware.com/vtk-9-7-0/](https://www.kitware.com/vtk-9-7-0/)
For a feature highlight and a vtk - python API demo, register here to get access to the recorded webinar - [https://www.kitware.com/webinars/whats-new-in-vtk-9-7-0/](https://www.kitware.com/webinars/whats-new-in-vtk-9-7-0/).
For detailed release notes, please visit: [9.7 - VTK documentation](https://docs.vtk.org/en/latest/release_details/9.7.html).
You can find the documentation and source tarballs here: [https://vtk.org/download/](https://vtk.org/download/).
Python wheels are available on PyPI: [https://pypi.org/project/vtk/9.7.0/](https://pypi.org/project/vtk/9.7.0/).
Thank you for your continued support!
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/10 "2026-09-23T14:42:55Z")
VTK v9.7.1 will soon be tagged, we may do a VTK v9.7.2 in the coming weeks if more fixes keeps coming in.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2026, 2:53pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-7-0-and-10-0-0-release-planning/16371/11 "2026-09-28T14:53:51Z")
VTK v9.7.1 has been released.