• The Java Version Almanac
• Java Bytecode

Class File Versions

Each JDK Release comes with its class file version. Class files are backward compatible. But class files compiled for newer JDK releases cannot be executed and will result in an UnsupportedClassVersionError.

A class file version consists of a major and a minor version: <major>.<minor>

For recent JDK releases, the major version is incremented for every release and the minor version is 0. The only exception are class files which use preview features of that JDK release. In that case the minor version is 65535. A class file which uses preview features can only be loaded by the JDK release matching the major version. Loading such classes with a newer JDK release is not permitted.

The following table lists class file versions for each JDK release. Follow the linked JDK information to find download options for a suitable JDK.