Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai

Larry Ellison announced Oracle AI Database 26ai  today in his keynote at Oracle AI World conference in Las Vegas. And I am pretty certain you may want some clarification on what this means exactly. Therefore, let me clarify the details, and why Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai.

What did Larry Ellison announce?

Larry gave a spoiler already in the Q1 earnings call where he referred to Oracle AI Database instead of Oracle Database. He was clearly emphasizing the AI capabilities of our flagship product. From now on, it will be known as Oracle AI Database. This will apply to other key products as well, for instance Oracle Autonomous AI Database. But not all products will see a new name. Oracle Database Vault stays the same for instance as do tools such as SQL*Plus.

But the much bigger announcement is the replacement of Oracle Database 23ai with Oracle AI Database 26ai. I can foresee some eyebrows being raised about this. This replacement occurred because our engineering teams have added so many new AI innovations across AI Vector Search, Agentic AI, AI management, AI Data Development, AI Analytics, and AI App Development on top of Oracle Database 23ai.

Since I am publishing this blog post shortly after Larry’s keynote at Oracle AI World 2025, I will link the recording for your convenience later.

Oracle AI Database 26ai is available now on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure on Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS.  It is also available now on-premises on engineered systems such as Oracle Exadata and Oracle Database Appliance, and in Oracle Database Free for developers.  While the date for Oracle AI Database 26ai on other platforms has not been announced, we will update My Oracle Support (MOS) Doc ID: 742060.1 when it is announced.

Is this a new release?

Yes, this is a new release.  However, unlike previous releases this release simply adds new AI functionality on top of Oracle Database 23ai without changing the internal architecture or modifying existing APIs.  Therefore, there is no need for a complex database upgrade or re-certification of apps.  The core database architecture remains the same as 23ai, and the release numbering reflects this (see below).

Also, the Lifetime Support Policy for Oracle Database 23ai applies to Oracle AI Database 26ai as well. As we announced last year, Oracle Database 23ai is a Long Term Support release – and this automatically applies to Oracle AI Database 26ai as well since it replaces Oracle Database 23ai.

Do you need to upgrade, or will you patch?

Certainly, this is the next question you’ll have, especially those of you who are already live on Oracle Database 23ai.   Because Oracle AI Database 26ai simply adds additional functionality on top of Oracle Database 23ai, this is the simplest update in Oracle history. If your database is already running 23ai, you can simply apply the October 2025 quarterly Release Update (RU) that has version number 23.26.0 – there is no upgrade or application recertification needed.  You can use your preferred quarterly update tool and even apply this update in a rolling fashion if you are running Real Application Clusters, just like other quarterly Release Updates.

The update process is the following:

• Oracle Database 19c  ==> Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai
• Oracle Database 21c    ==> Upgrade to Oracle AI Database 26ai
• Oracle Database 23ai ==> Apply the October RU to get to Oracle AI Database 26ai

If you are on 19c or 21c, you can upgrade directly to 26ai – there is no need to upgrade to 23ai first.

If you are running on 23ai on Oracle’s Autonomous Database there is nothing for you to do!  Your 23ai Autonomous Databases will be automatically updated to 26ai Autonomous AI Databases.

If you want more details or want to see how this works, come to our talks at Oracle AI World this week.

Will the release numbering change?

Yes, it will.  As part of the Oracle AI Database release, we are changing the release numbering scheme for Oracle Database to make it much simpler to understand.

The first number of the release stays the same since Oracle AI Database 26ai simply replaces Oracle Database 23ai – it remains “23”.

The second number of the release indicates the year of the release update, e.g. 26 for 2026.

And the third number marks the quarter of the release update, e.g. 1,2,3 or 4.

You will now be able to determine the date of a Release Update by just looking at the first three numbers of the version!  These are the numbers that everyone looks at.

Here are a few examples of the release numbering:

• April 2025: Oracle Database 23ai – 23.8.0.25.04
• July 2025: Oracle Database 23ai – 23.9.0.25.07
• October 2025: Oracle AI Database 26ai – 23.26.0.0.0
• January 2026: Oracle AI Database 26ai – 23.26.1.0.0
• April 2026: Oracle AI Database 26ai – 23.26.2.0.0

Well, I know, you may ask yourself what the zero in 23.26.0 means. Obviously, there is no zero quarter in a year. But we wanted to cut over to the new numbering scheme now late in 2025 to launch it at Oracle AI World. Hence, it got the unusual “0” for the quarter before 2026.

I know, this is quite a change in some ways.

But I am certain you won’t look back in a short while. In addition, we comply more closely with the naming conventions in the cloud.

Further Links and Information

• Introducing Oracle Database 26ai
• Watch Juan Loaiza’s video introducing Oracle AI Database 26ai
• Our talks and labs at Oracle AI World 2025 in Las Vegas
• MOS Note: 742060.1 – Oracle Release Schedule
• Oracle Lifetime Support Policy for Technology Products
• Blog Post: EBS 12.2 and Oracle AI Database 26ai

–Mike