Java 27 was released on September 15, 2026, continuing the platform’s six-month release cadence. The release includes nine Java Enhancement Proposals, or JEPs, covering finalized, preview and incubator functionality.
Four of the nine JEPs are final features available as part of the standard release. Four additional features remain in preview, allowing developers to evaluate them before possible future standardization. One feature continues as an incubator capability for further experimentation.
JetBrains’ announcement focuses on using Java 27 with IntelliJ IDEA and notes that the IDE supports the latest Java version. The company also highlighted work bringing Java and Kotlin language intelligence to environments including Visual Studio Code, Cursor and agentic development workflows.
The release is relevant to application teams maintaining Java services, libraries and build pipelines because it establishes a new supported platform baseline and gives developers access to features that may influence future Java versions. Organizations adopting it will still need to assess compatibility across runtimes, frameworks, build tools and production dependencies.
