Releases and Upgrades Schedule 2026

[Laurie29]

Reaching out to ask when we are likely to know the rough timetable for the 2026 general releases? Is the cadence of general releases moving out next year? We are in the process of high level planning for 2026, and need to start considering the impact a change in cadence may have on the organization business planning. 

Many thanks  

[Marc Mouries]

The cadence for ServiceNow general releases is not changing in 2026. It will remain at two major family releases per year, consistent with previous years. The only notable change is the naming convention, which moves from city names to country names starting with Australia for the first release in 2026.

You can expect:

• First major release (Australia): EA in early spring, GA in late spring.
• Second major release (Brasil): EA in early fall, GA in late fall.

ServiceNow will continue to invest in innovation and enhancements across the platform and the ServiceNow Store to deliver more value to customers, more quickly.

[Mark Manders]

Naming is the only notable change? The fact that ServiceNow is releasing their major release later (ServiceNow communication stated Australia GA is in May), is more huge than the naming going to countries. This also means that Brasil GA will be 6 months later, which is November, causing upgrades to run in December, which is often a month many customers don't have time for this, due to the holidays and End of Year work that needs to be done. 
How is this not notable?

[Simon Hendery]

Exactly @Mark Manders. To say the cadence isn't changing is simply not correct.

[Mark Manders]

@Simon Hendery the fact that a ServiceNow Employee makes this statement is what bothers me most. @Marc Mouries doesn't even respond when he is called on that statement. I know different, but there are people in the Community that attach more value to what a ServiceNow Employee is stating in answers/articles/blogs. And the change to the release windows makes a huge difference for people planning their upgrades. If you don't know something, don't answer or do your research before you answer.

[Marc Mouries]

Thanks for raising this,  @Mark Manders .  I appreciate you sharing how the timing impacts your planning.  When I replied earlier, I was referring specifically to the cadence, meaning the number of major releases per year, which stays the same at two family releases annually.

You’re right that the dates this cycle are a bit later than in previous years, and I didn’t clearly call that out in my original response.

To be transparent, I was so excited about the fact that we’re going to pack a lot of new capability into each of the release cycle in 2026, that I didn’t put enough emphasis on the date movement itself. I hear you that these timing changes can create real challenges, especially around end‑of‑year workloads. My goal was simply to share the cadence information that was available at the time, not to minimize the operational impact.

Thanks again for calling it out. I always try to help the community as best as I can.

The tentative Early Access date for Brazil is September 10.