Unicode 18.0.0

2026 September NN (Announcement)

STATUS: This is a preliminary draft page for an upcoming release. Some details may be missing or incorrect, and some links may be wrong or broken. During the beta review period, feedback about errors on this page will be helpful and appreciated.

This page summarizes the important changes for the Unicode Standard, Version 18.0.0.
This version supersedes all previous versions of the Unicode Standard.

A. Summary

Unicode 18.0 adds 13,047 characters,
for a total of 172,848 characters.
The new additions include 4 new scripts:

• Chisoi
• Proto-Cuneiform (numerals)
• Jurchen
• Seal

New Data Files for Unicode 18.0

• JurchenSources.txt
• SealSources.txt

Synchronization

Several other important Unicode specifications have been updated for Version 18.0.
The following five Unicode Technical Standards are versioned in
synchrony with the Unicode Standard, because their data files cover the same repertoire.
All have been updated to Version 18.0:

Some of the changes in Version 18.0 and associated Unicode Technical Standards
may require modifications
to implementations. For more information, see the migration and modification sections of
those specifications.

See Sections D through H below for additional details regarding the changes in this version of
the Unicode Standard, its associated annexes, and the other synchronized Unicode specifications.

See the following resource links for general information about Unicode versions
and other information about the Unicode Standard and other publications
of the Unicode Consortium.

B. Technical Overview

Version 18.0 of the Unicode Standard consists of:

• The core specification
• The code charts (delta and archival) for this version
• The Unicode Standard Annexes
• The Unicode Character Database (UCD)

The core specification gives the general principles,
requirements for conformance, and guidelines for implementers. The
code charts show representative glyphs for all the Unicode
characters. The Unicode Standard Annexes supply detailed normative
information about particular aspects of the standard. The Unicode
Character Database supplies normative and informative data for
implementers to allow them to implement the Unicode Standard.

Core Specification

The core specification for Version 18.0 is available for browsing online
as per-chapter web pages. Because the full table of contents for the core specification is provided,
with interactive links, no separate bookmarks page is provided for this release,
nor are separate chapter links provided directly in this summary page
for the Unicode Standard.
Anchors for chapters, sections, tables, and figures in the core specification are
shown with the convention of a “#” in the left margin of the heading or caption.
Those anchors can be clicked on to provide custom bookmarks to any particular
portion of the text, down to the level of subsections.

The HTML version of the core specification is authoritative. However, for
convenience of reference, an archival
version of core specification is also available as
a single pdf. (13 MB)

Code Charts

Several sets of code charts are available. They serve different
purposes:

The block-by-block, delta, and consolidated code charts are a stable part of this release of the Unicode Standard. They will never be updated. The auxiliary code charts are
provided for information, and have no stability guarantees.

Han Radical-Stroke Indices

There are a number of radical-stroke indices available to assist in
the lookup of Han ideographs in the code charts.

The complete radical-stroke index is a stable part of this release of the Unicode Standard. It will never be updated.

Unicode Standard Annexes

STATUS: During the alpha review and beta review periods,
links to individual UAXes (or UTSes) point to the proposed update for that document, if any.
If no proposed update has been posted for the document, links point to the last published
version of the document, for reference.

Links to the individual Unicode Standard Annexes for this
version are available in
Section I, List of Components below. The summary list of significant changes
in the content of each Unicode Standard Annex for Version 18.0 can be found
in Section G, Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes below.

Unicode Character Database

STATUS: During the beta review period, the draft of UCD data includes data for the complete, planned character repertoire of Unicode 18.0, including all data changes approved by UTC for version 18.0.

Data files
for Version 18.0 of
the Unicode Character Database are available. The ReadMe.txt in that directory provides a roadmap
to the functions of the various subdirectories.
Detailed documentation about the data files can be found in
UAX #44, Unicode Character Database.

Version References

Version 18.0.0 of the Unicode Standard
should be referenced as:

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0.0, (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium,
2026. ISBN 978-1-936213-NN-N)
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/

The terms “Version 18.0” or “Unicode 18.0” are abbreviations for the full version reference, Version 18.0.0.

The citation and permalink for the latest published version of the Unicode Standard is:

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard.
https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/

A complete specification of the contributory files for Unicode
18.0 is found below in Section I, List of Components.
For examples of how to cite particular portions of the Unicode Standard, see also the Reference Examples.

Errata

Errata incorporated into Unicode 18.0 are listed by date in
a separate table. For corrigenda and errata after the release of Unicode 18.0, see the list of current
Updates and Errata.

C. Stability Policy Update

A new property stability policy has been added for the ID_Compat_Math_Start and
ID_Compat_Math_Continue properties. See the Character Encoding Stability Policies.

D. Textual Changes and Character Additions

Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes are listed in Section G.

Character Assignment Overview

13,047 characters have been added.
Most character additions are in new blocks, but there are also character additions to a number of existing blocks. For details, see the delta code charts.

New Blocks

The following blocks are newly defined in Version 18.0:

E. Conformance Changes

The conformance section of the standard has been updated with
new definitions and requirements regarding the use of variation selectors
and variation sequences.

F. Changes in the Unicode Character Database

The detailed listing of all changes to the contributory data files of the Unicode Character Database
for Version 18.0 can be found in
UAX #44, Unicode Character Database.
The changes listed there include character additions and property revisions to existing characters that will affect implementations.
Some of the important impacts on implementations migrating from earlier versions of the standard are highlighted in
Section M.

G. Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes

In Version 18.0, some of the Unicode Standard Annexes have had significant revisions. The most important of these changes are listed below. For the full details of all changes, see the Modifications section
of each UAX, linked directly from the following list of UAXes.

H. Changes in Synchronized Unicode Technical Standards

There are also significant revisions in the Unicode Technical Standards whose
versions are synchronized with the Unicode Standard. The most important of these changes are listed below.
For the full details of all changes, see the Modifications section
of each UTS, linked directly from the following list of UTSes.

I. List of Components

This section lists the components of Version 18.0.0 of the Unicode
Standard. The version numbering and the role of each component are
explained in
Versions of The Unicode Standard.

M. Implications for Migration

STATUS: During the beta review period,
the following section is incomplete. For issues which may impact migration, see the
detailed notes presented under Notable Issues for Beta Reviewers
on the 18.0 beta review page.

There are a significant number of changes in Unicode 18.0 which may impact implementations upgrading
to Version 18.0 from earlier versions of the standard. The most important of these are listed
and explained here, to help focus on the issues most likely to cause unexpected trouble during upgrades.

Core Specification Changes

New content has been added for Unicode 18.0, and many other improvements have been made to the text.

Script-related Changes

There are four new scripts encoded in Unicode 18.0. Two of these scripts,
Jurchen and Seal, are large ideographic scripts. For Proto-Cuneiform, only
the archaic digits are added in Unicode 18.0; addition of additional signs is
anticipated for a future version.

General Character Property Issues

Security and Identifier-related Issues (See UAX #31 and UTS #39.)

TBD

Segmentation (See UAX #14.)

TBD

Numeric Property Issues

There is one new set of decimal digits added in Unicode 18.0, for the newly encoded Chisoi script. Implementations of numeric values and numeric formatting
should take this new set into account.

Archaic Cuneiform Numerals: TBD

CJK/Unihan Changes

See UAX
#38, Unicode Han Database (Unihan) for further details on these changes

Standardized Variation Sequences

Changes to Code Charts

• There are a number of other Han glyph updates.
• Other glyph updates are listed explicitly in the
  delta charts index page.
• The two code charts for Egyptian hieroglyphs contain extensive functional and phonetic
  information derived from the data file Unikemet.txt, and have notable further updates for Version 18.0.

Collation-related Changes

TBD

Emoji Changes

For details about emoji changes, see the Unicode 18.0 emoji charts and Emoji Recently Added, v18.0.