PHP requirements

Last updated on

26 November 2025

Some individual modules may have specific requirements for PHP extensions and configurations beyond those listed below, so, please check the module's documentation as well.

The recommended tool for Drupal development DDEV always offers the latest PHP version.

PHP versions supported

PHP version	Drupal version
PHP version	10.3	10.4	10.5	10.6	11.0	11.1	11.2	11.3	12.0
8.1 (notes)	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
8.2	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No
8.3	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No
8.4	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No
8.5	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	Issue	❌ No	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes

Drupal 10 requires at least PHP 8.1. PHP 8.1.6 is recommended.

What does it mean for a PHP version to be supported? What does it mean for the PHP installation to be "too old"?

Drupal minor versions receive a predefined window of security coverage (typically 12 months) as long as a supported PHP version is used. Please note that PHP has its own definition of what is a supported PHP version.

We prefer to allow sites to receive security updates even if they are using a version of PHP that is no longer supported. However, Drupal's upstream dependencies may drop support for older PHP versions before the Drupal major version reaches its end of life. If this happens, the Drupal site will no longer be able to install security updates for that dependency, so we can no longer guarantee its security coverage.

Site owners will receive warnings on their site status report that their PHP installation is "too old" if the site's PHP version is old enough that a dependency is likely to drop support for it.

If a dependency does drop support for a PHP version that was initially supported by the Drupal major version, an unscheduled minor release may be created to require the new PHP and dependency versions. For example, Drupal 10.5 supported PHP 8.1, so if a Drupal 10 dependency drops support for PHP 8.1 (security support ends at the end of 2025) before Drupal 10's end-of-life date in December 2026, we may create a new minor version outside the normal schedule that increases the PHP version requirement to 8.2 and the dependency's version requirement to the supported version.

No supported version of Drupal supports any version of PHP 7 (including PHP 7.4, unsupported by PHP since November 2022).

What does it mean for a version of PHP to be "recommended"?

Drupal will work on all supported PHP versions. Recommended PHP versions are the best choice for building a Drupal site because they will remain supported longer.

PHP extensions needed

Extensions used by Drupal core are defined in Core's composer.json file - see for example the file for Drupal 11.x. Look at the "require" section and the keys starting with "ext-".

Note: Adding a PHP extension to your system, at least on Linux (and Mac), means finding and installing the relevant PHP package using your package manager. Typically the package name for the Foo extension is named "php-foo" or "php8.3-foo", but this isn't always the case. Some extensions are part of the core PHP package and hence are enabled by default.

Database extensions

The PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension must be activated for Drupal 9 and higher to install and run correctly. The PECL version of PDO is not compatible with Drupal 9 and cannot be used. In addition, a PHP extension for connecting to your chosen database must be installed and enabled.

Drupal's currently supported database connectors are SQLite, mysql (the original MySQL extension), mysqli (an improved connector for newer MySQL installations), and pgsql (for PostgreSQL).

XML extension

PHP XML extension (for Blog API, Drupal, and Ping modules). This extension is enabled by default in a standard PHP installation; the Windows version of PHP has built-in support for this extension. Enabling the XML extension also enables PHP DOM. DOM is now a system requirement.

Image library

An image library for PHP such as the GD library is a required extension in Drupal 9 and higher, and is needed for image manipulation (resizing user pictures, image and image cache modules). ImageMagick is also supported for image manipulations in Drupal core.

OpenSSL

The PHP OpenSSL extension is recommended to allow Drupal to make outgoing requests using HTTPS and is required when using the Update Manager. Read PHP OpenSSL requirements for more information.

JSON

Drupal 9 and higher require PHP compiled with JSON. JSON support is normally compiled as part of PHP core, but in case you're getting errors like PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function Drupal\\Component\\Serialization\\json_encode() in ... core/lib/Drupal/Component/Serialization/Json.php try adding the JSON extension.

cURL

The PHP cURL extension is required for automated testing in Drupal 9 and higher, as well as Aggregator and some contributed modules. Many Linux distributions and development stacks will have it enabled by default, but if your system doesn't either enable it in php.ini (typically on Windows) or install it using your package manager (typically on Linux).

Mbstring

The PHP mbstring extension provides multibyte specific string functions used for Drupal installation in other languages except for English and also multilingual sites in Drupal. It helps deal with multibyte encodings in PHP and also handles Unicode based encoding like UTF-8 or UCS-2.

PHP configuration settings

Memory requirements

PHP memory requirements can vary significantly depending on the modules in use on your site. The minimum required memory size is 64MB.

Warning messages will be shown if the PHP configuration does not meet these requirements. However, while these values may be sufficient for a default Drupal installation, a production site with a number of commonly used modules enabled could require more memory. Typically 128 MB or 256 MB are found in production systems. Some installations may require much more, especially with media-rich implementations. If you are using a hosting service it is important to verify that your host can provide sufficient memory for the set of modules you are deploying or may deploy in the future. (See the Increase PHP memory limit page in the Troubleshooting FAQ for additional information on modifying the PHP memory limit.)

.htaccess settings

Some of the memory settings are contained in the default .htaccess file that ships with Drupal, so you shouldn't need to set them explicitly. Note, however, that setting PHP configuration options from .htaccess only works under the following conditions:

With Apache (or a compatible webserver)
If the .htaccess file is actually read, i.e. AllowOverride All in the main Apache configuration (usually httpd.conf) is enabled
If PHP is installed as an Apache module

In some shared hosting environments, access to these settings is restricted. If you cannot make these changes yourself, please ask your hosting provider to adjust them for you.

Other interfaces

See the PHP manual for how to change configuration settings for other interfaces to PHP.

Xdebug

If using Xdebug:

Setting: xdebug.show_exception_trace = 0
Reason: Could cause Drupal's installer to crash.

Using Xdebug with Drupal 9:

Setting: xdebug.collect_params = ?
Reason: Setting xdebug.collect_params too high will prevent Drupal 9 from installing and working properly.

Setting: xdebug.max_nesting_level = 256
Reason: Using the default max_nesting_level of 100 (in xdebug versions < 2.3) causes some pages to crash.

Note: From version 3.0 an onwards, xdebug.collect_params Has been removed. Arguments are now always visible with variable contents and argument name

PHP from different sources

Drupal is designed to work with PHP as distributed on PHP.net. Every effort is made to make it work with PHP versions from other sources but this is only done on a best effort basis. In particular, Suhosin is known to break certain features; and some operating systems move core components into other packages.