9.7 released 21 April 2026, latest 9.7.2.
MySQL 9.7 is currently supported. It reaches end of life on 21 April 2034.
What changed
MySQL 9.7 is an Innovation Release that succeeds the preceding 9.x Innovation Release. It carries the MySQL 9.x development line forward rather than establishing a new long-term-support baseline. The meaningful release-specific changes for a migration assessment are the changes recorded in the 9.7 release notes: new or changed server behavior, deprecated or removed interfaces, security fixes, and corrections to prior defects. Teams should review those notes against their installed 9.6-or-earlier version, because the required upgrade work depends on which intervening 9.x releases they have skipped.
What staying costs
MySQL 9.7 remains supported, so remaining on it does not by itself create an immediate unsupported-software exposure. It is nevertheless an Innovation Release, where the supported target advances as the innovation line advances. Staying on 9.7 for an extended period can defer fixes and compatibility improvements delivered in later releases, increase the number of changes that must be absorbed in a later upgrade, and leave application, connector, operating-system, and cloud-platform testing tied to an older server baseline. The main operational risk is not simply the version number; it is allowing upgrade testing, backup restoration testing, and replication compatibility validation to fall behind until a move becomes urgent.
What to do
Treat 9.7 as a maintained but transitional baseline. Inventory the exact server, client, connector, and replication versions in use, then compare the 9.7 release notes and all intervening release notes with your current version. Test the intended upgrade path in a production-like environment, including logical and physical backup restore, application SQL and authentication behavior, replication topology behavior, performance-sensitive queries, and monitoring or administration tooling. Confirm that the target version is supported by your operating system, deployment platform, drivers, and managed-service offering. Keep a tested rollback or recovery plan, and schedule regular review of the current MySQL release line so that a future upgrade is incremental rather than a large version jump.
We can tell you what moving off MySQL 9.7 involves.
What it takes to move off MySQL 9.7 depends on what you built on it — the version you are on, how much depends on it, and how much of the work is mechanical. Leave your email with this version and we can tell you what that looks like for you.
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