Google’s Chrome browser moves to a two-week release cycle

Google on Tuesday announced that its Chrome browser will move to a faster release cycle later this year, with a new major version launching every two weeks.

The first version to launch at this sped-up cadence is version 153, scheduled for September 8, 2026.

Currently, Chrome runs on a four-week cycle, a cycle the company first introduced in 2021. Until then, the Chrome team released an update every six weeks. In 2023, Google also started shipping weekly security updates and launched an early stable release channel that sits between the beta channel and the stable releases that most users opt for.

Google will continue to release an extended stable version as well, mostly for enterprise users. This version will continue on its eight-week release cycle.

In its announcement, the company says the motivation behind this faster cadence is to “ensure developers and users have immediate access to the latest performance improvements, fixes, and new capabilities.”

Chrome’s updated release cycle for versions 152 and 153 (credit: Google).

Each individual release, however, will be smaller, which should minimize the chance of disruption and help the team with its post-release debugging. The team also notes that, “thanks to recent process enhancements, we are confident this shift will maintain our high standards for stability.”

A four-week cycle is very much the standard in the industry today. Microsoft’s Edge, which, like Chrome, is based on the Chromium project’s Blink engine, uses the same cadence — as does Mozilla’s Firefox. Apple does things a bit differently, with major releases still tied to OS updates. Since Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and virtually every other alternative browser are based on Chromium, chances are we’ll see them move to a similar sped-up cadence as well.

ChromeOS, Google’s operating system for the Chromebook ecosystem, will also move to this faster cycle at some point, but those details are still forthcoming.

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