# When will Node-RED 4.0 be released?
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854
**Category:** General
**Created:** [24 February 2024 13:07 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854 "2024-02-24T13:07:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/lius)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 13:07 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/1 "2024-02-24T13:07:27Z")
Since Node.js 16 reached end of life in October 2023, running the official Docker image of Node-RED version 3.x can no longer be considered safe. While I understand that requiring Node.js 18 or 20 would constitute a [breaking change](https://github.com/node-red/node-red-docker/pull/402#issuecomment-1875933674), and thus won't happen before Node-RED 4.0, it would be beneficial to have insight into the timeline for the next major update. Unfortunately, the [release page](https://nodered.org/about/releases/) hasn't been updated since 2022, still tentatively suggesting the release of Node-RED 4.0 for April 2023.
The situation is becoming increasingly problematic as numerous downstream dependencies of third-party Node-RED packages have already transitioned to requiring Node.js version 18 or higher. As a result, they cannot be seamlessly installed onto Node-RED 3.x.
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### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 13:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/2 "2024-02-24T13:29:13Z")
18 and 20 already recommended
[https://nodered.org/docs/faq/node-versions](https://nodered.org/docs/faq/node-versions)
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### Author:  [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 13:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/3 "2024-02-24T13:29:34Z")
> [@lius](#):
>
> Node-RED can no longer be considered safe.
Why does the fact that node-red _can_ be used with earlier versions make it unsafe when it is used with 18 or 20?
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### Author:  [@lius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/lius)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 13:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/4 "2024-02-24T13:37:20Z")
Your comment made me realize that I didn't mention Node-RED's official Docker image at all. 🤦♂️ Updated my original post accordingly now.
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### Author:  [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 14:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/5 "2024-02-24T14:17:45Z")
I'm no docker expert but it's not a lot of trouble to load an nr image with a more recent version of node.js [Docker image using node16 - #4 by UnborN](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/docker-image-using-node16/84176/4)
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### Author:  [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 17:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/6 "2024-02-24T17:27:17Z")
We'll have an initial beta of Node-RED 4.0 in the next couple weeks.
We already publish docker images for Node-RED 3.x for node 18, all the details of the available images is available here: [GitHub - node-red/node-red-docker: Repository for all things Node-RED and Docker related](https://github.com/node-red/node-red-docker?tab=readme-ov-file#image-variations)
There's nothing stopping you upgrading today.
The latest tag does still point at node 14, but as has been discussed a number of times, changing the latest tag to a different node version is a major change and not one we will do in a minor release.
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### Author:  [@greengolfer](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/greengolfer)
#### Post date: [24 February 2024 20:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/7 "2024-02-24T20:02:27Z")
> [@knolleary](#):
>
> There's nothing stopping you upgrading today.
True, if you want to use ready-made images.
However, if you want/need to build your own, then the docker-custom Dockerfile ([node-red-docker/docker-custom/Dockerfile.custom at master · node-red/node-red-docker · GitHub](https://github.com/node-red/node-red-docker/blob/master/docker-custom/Dockerfile.custom)) is still using `ARG NODE_VERSION=16`
I have tried to change to 18. It failed. Not being good at this, I have tried to fix this, though...
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### Author:  [@lius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/lius)
#### Post date: [25 February 2024 07:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/8 "2024-02-25T07:08:25Z")
> [@knolleary](#):
>
> We'll have an initial beta of Node-RED 4.0 in the next couple weeks.
That's exciting news. Updating the release page might be a worthwhile consideration.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [25 May 2024 07:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/when-will-node-red-4-0-be-released/85854/9 "2024-05-25T07:09:07Z")
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