Next.js 16 shipped October 2025. Three minor releases followed — 16.1 in December, 16.2 in March 2026, 16.3 in June 2026. I've gone through every release note so you don't have to. Here's what actually matters.
Turbopack Is Now the Default
Webpack is out. Turbopack — built in Rust — is the stable default for both development and production. No configuration needed. You get it automatically on upgrade.
Real numbers from actual projects — production builds dropped from 24.5 seconds to 5.7 seconds. Fast Refresh is up to 10x faster. If you have a custom webpack config — run next dev --webpack or next build --webpack to keep it. Everyone else just upgrades and it works.
16.1 added Turbopack File System Caching for next dev — stores compiler artifacts on disk between restarts. Large projects see significant improvement on cold starts after the first run. 16.3 added Persistent Cache for Builds — reusable cache speeds up successive production builds. Also in 16.3: a Rust port of the React Compiler (experimental) that's faster than the Babel version.
