Qt version history


The latest version of Qt is 5.15 from 26 May 2020.
5.12 LTS, which was released on 6 December 2018, is supported for three years.
5.9 LTS, which was released on 31 May 2017, is no longer supported – support ended 31 May 2020.

Pre-releases and Qt 1

Qt 2

Qt 3

Qt 4

Qt 4 was first released in 2005 and has been unsupported since 2015.
VersionRelease dateNew features
4.028 June 2005
  • Tulip: A set of template container classes.
  • Interview: A model–view–controller architecture for item views.
  • Arthur 2D painting framework.
  • Scribe Unicode text renderer with a public API for performing low-level text layout.
  • MainWindow: A modern action-based main window, toolbar, menu, and docking architecture.
4.120 December 2005Introduced integrated SVG Tiny support, a PDF backend to Qt's printing system, and .
4.24 October 2006Introduced Windows Vista support, introduced native CSS support for widget styling, as well as the QGraphicsView framework for efficient rendering of thousands of 2D objects onscreen, to replace Qt 3.x's QCanvas class.
4.330 May 2007Improved Windows Vista support, improved OpenGL engine, SVG file generation, added QtScript.
4.46 May 2008Features included are improved multimedia support using Phonon, enhanced XML support, a concurrency framework to ease developing multi-threaded applications, an IPC framework with a focus on shared memory, and WebKit integration.
4.53 March 2009Major included features are QtCreator, improved graphical engine, improved integration with WebKit, OpenDocument Format write support and new licensing options, as well as OS X Cocoa framework support.
4.61 December 2009New APIs are Framework Animation, Gestures, Multi-touch. Now supports Symbian and Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6, support extended for some Unix systems. Improvements have also been made to overall performance.
4.721 September 2010QML and Qt Quick.
4.8 LTS 15 December 2011Qt Platform Abstraction, Threaded OpenGL support, Multithreaded HTTP, and optimized file system access.

Qt 5

Qt 5 was officially released on 19 December 2012. This new version marked a major change in the platform, with hardware-accelerated graphics, QML and JavaScript playing a major role. The traditional C++-only QWidgets continued to be supported, but did not benefit from the performance improvements available through the new architecture. Qt 5 brings significant improvements to the speed and ease of developing user interfaces.
Framework development of Qt 5 moved to open governance, taking place at qt-project.org. It is now possible for developers outside Digia to submit patches and have them reviewed.
VersionRelease dateStandard Support UntilExtended Support AvailabilityNew features
2012-12-19Already endedYes
  • Major overhaul of the Qt 4.x series.
  • Complete Wayland support, including the client-side decorations.
2013-07-03Already endedYes
  • New modules and experimental Android and iOS support as technology preview.
    • 2013-12-12Already endedYes
  • First release with official support of Android and iOS.
  • Some code from KDE Platform 4 moved into Qt instead of KDE Frameworks 5.
    • 2014-05-202016-12-10Yes
  • Focus on stability and usability
    • 2014-12-102017-07-01Yes
  • Full WinRT and Windows Phone support
  • Introduction of Qt WebEngine based on Chromium internal components that will eventually replace QtWebKit in future versions.
  • Dynamic GL switching between graphic backends on Windows
  • Native "look and feel" for Qt Quick Controls backends on Android platforms
  • Introduction of Qt WebChannels providing a QObject bridge over WebSockets. Initially only integrated with Qt WebKit, but with Qt WebEngine integration under way for 5.5
    • 2015-07-012018-03-16YesFeatures available in Qt 5.5 according to official Qt.io website:
    • New modules: Qt 3D, Qt Canvas 3D, Qt Location
    • Deprecated modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative, Qt Script
    • Bluetooth Low Energy API final release
    • On Windows, there will be no more OpenGL-only or ANGLE-only builds and Qt will manage this dynamically
    • GStreamer 1.0 support
    • New video filtering framework
    • Camera and QML MediaPlayer improvement on iOS
    • Qt NFC for Linux
    • SSL/TLS improvements for Qt Network
    2016-03-162019-03-16YesNotable improvements:
    • Deprecated Modules: Qt Script, Qt Enginio
    • Removed Modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative
    • Qt Core: Several performance improvements, including reduction of memory usage in dynamic properties, and performance optimisations in QString
    • Qt Network: Support HTTP redirection
    • Qt Gui: Improved cross-platform OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1
    • Qt Multimedia: Adding playlist QML type
    • Qt WebEngine: Based on Chromium 45, with support for pepper plugins including Flash, API for custom URL schemes, intercepting and blocking network requests and also tracking or blocking cookies
    • Qt QML: Reduced memory consumption
    • Embedded platforms: support for Intel Atom-based NUCs
    This release was the first Qt5 release to be Long Term Supported with three years standard support.
    2016-06-162017-06-16Yes
    Notable improvements:
    • New modules: Qt 3D and Qt Quick Controls 2, a set of embedded and mobile oriented controls
    • Open-sourced modules : Qt Charts, Qt Data Visualization, Qt Virtual Keyboard, Qt Purchasing, and Qt Quick 2D Renderer
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 49
    2017-01-232018-01-23YesNotable improvements:
    • New Qt Lite configuration system allowing savings of more than 60% in binary size compared to Qt 5.6
    • Qt Wayland Compositor is now fully supported
    • Qt Serialbus is now fully supported
    • Qt Network and Web Sockets gained full support for TLS PSK cyphersuites
    • Reduced startup time and memory consumption of The QML engine, by caching binary representations of QML and JS files on disk
    • Performance improvements to the Qt Quick 2D renderer, by supporting partial updates in the Qt Quick scene graph
    • The Qt Quick Controls 2 have gained new types such as dialogs, rounded buttons and tool separators.
    • Qt WebEngine now has the ability to print web pages.
    • Qt SCXML is now fully supported
    2017-05-312020-05-31YesNotable improvements:
    • Qt Network has gained support for HTTP Strict Transport Security
    • Qt Web Sockets can now use external TCP sockets
    • Improvements in NFC support for Android
    • Various improvements to the 3D engine
    • Performance and memory improvements QML engine
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 56
    • Qt Gamepad has graduated from Tech Preview status to being fully supported
    • Qt Quick scenes can now be embedded within a Qt 3D application, e.g. to place 2D UI controls inside a 3D environment
    2017-11-302018-10-30YesNotable improvements:
    • Qt Quick got a plugin that allows placing arbitrarily shaped items into the scene
    • Qt Quick: new pointer handlers
    • New styles for Qt Quick Controls 2
    • Streaming UI into WebGL enabled browser
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 61
    2018-05-222019-05-22YesNotable improvements:
    • Optimized QML Compiler Pipeline
    • Expanded Support for Loading Compressed Textures in Image element
    • New Accessibility Backend on Windows
    • Qt High-DPI Support
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 65
    • new Python module: Qt for Python 5.11
    2019-01-312021-12-05YesNotable improvements:
    • Technology preview of Qt for WebAssembly.
    • Support of Qt for Python was announced to follow shortly after the release.
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 69
    2019-06-192020-06-19?Notable improvements:
    • Gapless playback in QML VideoOutput
    • Qt Design Studio: can import from Sketch
    • Qt Lottie : can import animations from Adobe After Effects
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 73.
    • Qt Canvas 3D removed.
    • Qt CoAP: now supports DTLS.
    • Qt Multimedia: Added support of GStreamer for Windows/macOS.
    • Qt Quick: Added support to TableView for hiding rows and columns.
    2019-12-122020-12-12?New Modules
    • Qt Quick Timeline
    Notable improvements
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 77
    • Qt Network supports Kerberos Proxy Authentication
    Deprecated modules:
    • Qt Script
    • Qt Quick Controls 1
    • Qt XML Patterns
    2020-05-262023-05-26YesNew Modules
    • Qt Quick 3D
    • Qt Lottie is now officially supported
    Notable improvements
    • Qt WebEngine now uses Chromium 80
    • Abstracting 3D graphics APIs
    Deprecated modules:
    • Qt Script
    • Qt Quick Controls 1
    • Qt XML Patterns