Laravel 12: All new features and improvements 2026

[Laravel](/services/software development) 12: All new features and improvements (2026)

Published: July 2026 | Reading time: approx. 12 minutes Category: Laravel Updates

Laravel 12 is there and brings a wealth of exciting new features, performance improvements and developer experience optimizations. In this article we present you the most important innovations and show how you can benefit from it.

Release Information:

PHP minimum version: PHP 8.2 ** Yes, support up to 2028 Upgrade of Laravel 11: Usually easily possible

The most important new features

Improved Starter Kits NEW

Laravel 12 introduces completely revised starter kits that combine React, Vue or Livewire with Inertia.js. The new kits offer:

• Modernized UI components

• Dark fashion out-of-the-box

• Improved TypeScript support

• Optimized build processes with Vite

Native Health Checks NEW

Laravel 12 now offers native health check endpoints for your application:

// routes/web.php Route::health('/up');

// Checks automatically: // - Database connection // - Cache connection // - Queue connection

Improved Artisan commands NEW

The Artisan CLI has been extended with interactive prompts and better user guidance:

php artisan make:model

Interactive query:

- Do you want to create a migration? (yes/no)

- Do you want to create a controller? (yes/no)

- Which controller type? (resource/api/invokable)

Eloquent Performance Improvements NEW

Eloquent has been internally optimized and now offers:

• Up to 30% faster model hydrogenation

• Improved memory efficiency in large datasets

New chunkById optimizations

New Blade directives

{{-- New @once directive for one-time edition --} } @once <script src=‘/js/chart.js’> </script> @endonce

{{-- Improved @class directive --} } <div@class([ 'p-4', 'bg-red-500' => $hasError, 'bg-green-500' => $isSuccess, ] > ... </div>

New Collection Methods

// New sliding() method for sliding windows $collection = collect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5); $sliding = $collection->sliding(3); // [[1, 2, 3], [2, 3, 4], [3, 4, 5]]

// New takeUntilTimeout() method $collection->takeUntilTimeout(now()->addSeconds(5));

Upgrade Guide: From Laravel 11 to 12

Step Command/action

1. Check PHP version php -v (at least 8.2)

2. composer.json update "laravel/framework": "^12.0"

3. Update dependencies compilation

4. Check Breaking Changes Read the Upgrade Guide

5. Run tests php artisan test

Breaking Changes Note

• Some outdated methods were removed

• Minimum PHP version is now 8.2

• Some configuration options have been renamed

• Check the official documentation for details

Fazite

Laravel 12 is a solid release that further expands the strengths of the framework. Performance improvements, new starter kits and improved developer experience make upgrad