Qt ( pronounced "cute") is a cross-platform application development framework for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems with little or no change in the underlying codebase while still being a native application with native capabilities and speed.
Qt is currently being developed by Qt Group, a publicly listed company, and the Qt Project under open-source governance, involving individual developers and organizations working to advance Qt. Qt is available under both commercial licenses and open-source GPL 2.0, GPL 3.0, and LGPL 3.0 licenses.
Purposes and abilities Qt is used for developing graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and multi-platform applications that run on all major desktop platforms and mobile or embedded platforms. Most GUI programs created with Qt have a native-looking interface, in which case Qt is classified as a widget toolkit. Non-GUI programs can also be developed, such as command-line tools and consoles for servers. An example of such a non-GUI program using Qt is the Cutelyst web framework.
Qt supports various C++ compilers, including the GCC and Clang C++ compilers and the Visual Studio suite. It supports other languages with bindings or extensions, such as Python via Python bindings and PHP via an extension for PHP5, and has extensive internationalization support. Qt also provides Qt Quick, that includes a declarative scripting language called QML that allows using JavaScript to provide the logic. With Qt Quick, rapid application development for mobile devices became possible, while logic can still be written with native code as well to achieve the best possible performance.
Other features include SQL database access, XML parsing, JSON parsing, thread management and network support.
Releases
The latest version of the Qt Framework is Qt 6.11, which was released on 23 March 2026.
Also still supported are versions 6.10 until 7 October 2026 and 6.8 LTS until 8 October 2029. Version 6.5 LTS is supported for commercial users only until 3 April 2026. Additionally, extended support for all versions 5.0 (released in 2012) and newer is available for commercial users.
Minor versions of Qt are typically released twice a year and are supported until one year after release date under standard support conditions. Typically, every third minor version becomes a long-term support version which gets additional patches. LTS versions are supported for commercial users until five years after their release date (three years prior to version 6.8).
Release history
The following table summarizes historical Qt releases up to Qt 4.
Version Release date Notes 0.90 20 May 1995 First public pre-release version 1.0 24 September 1996 First stable release 1.45 1999 Last release of the Qt 1 series.On 14 October 2016, the KDE community released a restored variant of Qt 1.45 adapted to run on modern Linux systems. 2.0 26 June 1999 Qt/X11 released under the QPL 2.1 13 April 2000 2.2 7 December 2000 First release available under the GNU GPL v2 2.3 8 March 2001 3.0 16 October 2001 3.1 14 November 2001 3.2 24 July 2003 3.3 5 February 2004 Improved internationalization, Unicode maturity, Mac support improvements. 4.0 28 June 2005 Major architecture redesign. Arthur painting framework, Model/View framework, Integration of formerly commercial technologies. 4.1 20 December 2005 4.2 4 October 2006 First mainstream Qt release with SVG support and improved OpenGL integration. 4.3 30 May 2007 4.4 6 May 2008 4.5 3 March 2009 Begin of Qt Creator integration era. WebKit becomes a core component. 4.6 1 December 2009 Animation Framework, State Machine Framework, Graphics View improvements. 4.7 21 September 2010 QML and Qt Quick introduced. 4.8 15 December 2011 Final feature release of Qt 4. long-term maintained branch until transition to Qt 5. 4.8.7 26 May 2015 Final release of the Qt 4 series
Qt 5
Qt 5 was released on 19 December 2012 and introduced a significantly revised architecture focused on graphical performance, mobile and embedded platforms, and improved modularization. Several Qt 5 releases were designated as long-term support (LTS) releases. Qt 5.15, released on 26 May 2020, was the final feature release of the Qt 5 series. Standard support ended on 26 May 2023, while extended support for subscription license holders continued until 26 May 2025.
Version Release date Support end(extended) Notes 5.0 19 December 2012 19 June 2013 First Qt 5 release. Introduced the Qt Platform Abstraction (QPA), a new graphics architecture and improved support for mobile platforms. 5.1 19 June 2013 iOS and Android support promoted from technology preview. Introduced Qt Quick Controls. 5.2 19 December 2013 First release with official support for iOS, Android and WinRT. 5.3 20 May 2014 Introduced support for Qt WebEngine based on Chromium. 5.4 11 December 2014 Expanded Qt Quick functionality and improved multimedia support. 5.5 30 June 2015 Qt WebEngine declared production ready. 5.6 LTS 16 March 2016 16 March 2019 First Qt 5 LTS release. Added support for Windows 10, Windows Universal Apps and improved high-DPI support. 5.7 16 June 2016 Added preliminary support for macOS Sierra and modern C++ features. 5.8 23 January 2017 Improved Qt Quick performance and support for modern graphics APIs. 5.9 LTS 31 May 2017 Added configuration support for high-DPI displays and substantial Qt Quick performance improvements. 5.10 6 December 2017 Introduced Qt Quick Controls 2 as the recommended controls framework. 5.11 12 June 2018 Improved tooling and performance across Qt Quick and embedded platforms. 5.12 LTS 4 December 2018 Added WebGL streaming support through Qt for WebAssembly. Last Qt version to provide an offline installer. 5.13 18 June 2019 11 December 2019 Continued expansion of WebAssembly support and improvements to Qt Quick. 5.14 11 December 2019 Added support for modern graphics APIs including Vulkan, Metal and Direct3D through the Rendering Hardware Interface (RHI). 5.15 LTS 26 May 2020 26 May 2023(26 May 2025) Final feature release of the Qt 5 series. Introduced Qt Quick 3D and completed the transition towards Qt 6. Extended support for subscription license holders continued until 26 May 2025.
Qt 6
Qt 6 was released on 8 December 2020 as the successor to Qt 5. It introduced a modernized graphics architecture centered around the Rendering Hardware Interface (RHI), significant improvements to Qt Quick and QML, a revised module structure, and the transition away from several deprecated Qt 5 technologies.
Qt follows a time-based release model with new feature releases approximately twice per year. Selected releases are designated as Long-Term Support (LTS) releases for commercial customers. Since Qt 6.8, the commercial LTS support period has been extended from three to five years.
Version Release date Support end Notes 6.0 8 December 2020 — Initial Qt 6 release; introduced the Rendering Hardware Interface (RHI), modernized graphics stack and revised module structure. 6.1 4 May 2021 — Incremental improvements and expanded platform support. 6.2 (LTS) 30 September 2021 September 2024 First Qt 6 long-term support release; improved stability, performance and platform support. 6.3 31 March 2022 — New APIs and framework refinements. 6.4 29 September 2022 — Multimedia improvements, enhanced WebEngine support and Qt Quick enhancements. 6.5 (LTS) 3 April 2023 April 2026 Long-term support release; performance improvements, updated modules and continued Qt 5 migration support. 6.6 11 October 2023 — Performance optimizations, tooling improvements and expanded platform support. 6.7 2 April 2024 — New Qt Quick capabilities, graphics improvements and framework refinements. 6.8 (LTS) 8 October 2024 October 2029 Long-term support release; Qt Graphs, Qt GRPC and Qt HTTP Server promoted from technical preview. Beginning with Qt 6.8, commercial LTS releases are supported for five years. 6.9 31 March 2025 — OAuth2 improvements, updated emoji rendering, Qt Quick enhancements and Qt Quick 3D updates. 6.10 17 September 2025 — Flexbox layouts for Qt Quick, accessibility improvements and vector animation enhancements. 6.11 18 March 2026 — Hardware-accelerated 2D rendering improvements, Qt Quick 3D enhancements, interactive graphing additions and asynchronous programming improvements. 6.12 (LTS)30 September 2026September 2031Long-term support release; EU Cyber Resilience Act compliance, Qt Canvas Painter, performance improvements, QML hot reloading and HarmonyOS support.
Supported release Unsupported release
Qt in use In 2017, Qt Group estimated a community of about 1 million developers worldwide in over 70 industries.
Desktop UIs
Graphical user-interfaces and desktop environments that utilize Qt/QML as widget toolkit: KDE Plasma, a libre desktop environment for various computing devices DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment) of Linux Deepin UKUI (Ubuntu Kylin User Interface) CutefishDE, a desktop environment built with Qt Quick and essential KDE frameworks LXQt (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) Lumina, a desktop environment designed for BSD-based TrueOS Lomiri (formerly Unity8), a convergent desktop environment started by Canonical, maintained by Ubports Maui Shell, a DE that also features their own app suite Unity 2D, a desktop shell written in Qt and QML Trinity DE, a continuously developed fork based on KDE3 SDDM, a display manager written in QML that is compatible with X11 and Wayland.
Embedded and mobile UIs Actively developed or maintained AsteroidOS, an open source operating system designed for smartwatches Avionics, Panasonic's in-flight entertainment system Sailfish OS, a mobile operating system developed by Jolla Plasma Mobile, a touch-based GUI developed by KDE LuneOS, community-driven successor for Palm/HP webOS Nemo Mobile, based on Mer Lomiri, formerly known as Unity8, a phone UI developed by Ubports, originally by Canonical Tesla Model S in-car UI webOS, a multitask operating system from LG for smart devices like TVs and smartwatches Sky Q, the home entertainment system of Sky plc Available, but inactive MeeGo handset and tablet UX Qtopia, a system by Nokia for embedded and mobile devices
Applications using Qt
Many notable open-source or proprietary cross-platform software are using Qt or QML:
010 Editor, a commercial hex editor and text editor for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS. Ableton Live Adobe Photoshop Album Adobe Photoshop Elements AMD's Radeon Software Crimson Edition driver tool application. Audacious, a music player for Linux, other Unix-like operating systems, and Microsoft Windows. Audacity, a digital audio editor and recording application (starting with version 4.0). Autodesk Fusion Autodesk Maya Autodesk 3ds Max Bitcoin Core, the reference bitcoin implementation. Most bitcoin forks also provide the reference GUI. Calibre, ebook collection application Celestia, real-time 3D simulator of the entire known universe (Qt only available with v1.7.0) CryEngine V editor DaVinci Resolve, a video editor Dogecoin Core community-driven cryptocurrency software. Dolphin (emulator), an emulator for the Wii and GameCube Dorico notation software Dragonframe stop motion animation software EAGLE by CadSoft Computer / Autodesk, an EDA application with schematic capture, PCB layout, auto-router and CAM features FreeCAD, free open source parametric 3D CAD modeler FreeMat free open source numerical computing environment Gambas free open source BASIC integrated development environment GCompris educational suite for children Google Earth GPlates, a plate tectonics visualisation software Igor Pro, a data analysis software Krita graphics editing and digital painting software LMMS, a cross-platform music production software