# Apache Kafka: what changed from 3 to 4

- Product: Apache Kafka (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka)
- Vendor: Apache Software Foundation
- Range: changelog entries numbered after 3.9.2 up to and including 4.3.1, stable releases only
- Entries below: 10 releases (newest first)
- Resolved: 3 is 3.9.2 and 4 is 4.3.1, the newest stable release of each major we track
- Carrying security changes: 0 · CVEs mentioned: 0 · Mentioning breaking changes: 0 · Removing or deprecating something: 0
- Page: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/compare/3...4

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

## What changed (1 change, grouped by kind)

### Fixed

#### 4.3.1 (2026-06-25)

- Fixed a Kafka Streams RocksDB native memory leak

_9 releases carry no categorized changes yet: 4.2.1, 4.3.0, 4.1.2, 4.0.2, 4.2.0, 4.1.1, 4.0.1, 4.1.0, 4.0.0._

## Release notes

### 4.3.1 — Apache Kafka 4.3.1 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-06-25
- Version: 4.3.1
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/06/25/apache-kafka-4.3.1-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.3.1

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.3.1. This is a bugfix release that includes several critical fixes, most notably a fix for a Kafka Streams RocksDB native memory leak. For a full…

- **fixed** — Fixed a Kafka Streams RocksDB native memory leak

### 4.2.1 — Apache Kafka 4.2.1 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-05-30
- Version: 4.2.1
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/05/30/apache-kafka-4.2.1-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.2.1

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.2.1. This is a bugfix release that includes several critical fixes. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. See the Upgra…

### 4.3.0 — Apache Kafka 4.3.0 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-05-22
- Version: 4.3.0
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/05/22/apache-kafka-4.3.0-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.3.0

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka® 4.3. This release contains many new features and improvements. This blog post will highlight some of the more prominent ones. For a full list of c…

### 4.1.2 — Apache Kafka 4.1.2 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-03-17
- Version: 4.1.2
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/03/17/apache-kafka-4.1.2-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.1.2

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.1.2. This is a bugfix release that includes several critical fixes. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. See the Upgra…

### 4.0.2 — Apache Kafka 4.0.2 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-03-16
- Version: 4.0.2
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/03/16/apache-kafka-4.0.2-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.0.2

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.0.2. This is a bugfix release that includes several critical fixes. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. See the Upgra…

### 4.2.0 — Apache Kafka 4.2.0 Release Announcement

- Date: 2026-02-17
- Version: 4.2.0
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2026/02/17/apache-kafka-4.2.0-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.2.0

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka® 4.2. This release contains many new features and improvements. This blog post will highlight some of the more prominent ones. For a full list of c…

### 4.1.1 — Apache Kafka 4.1.1 Release Announcement

- Date: 2025-11-12
- Version: 4.1.1
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2025/11/12/apache-kafka-4.1.1-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.1.1

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.1.1. This is a bugfix release that includes several critical fixes. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. See the Upgra…

### 4.0.1 — Apache Kafka 4.0.1 Release Announcement

- Date: 2025-10-13
- Version: 4.0.1
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2025/10/13/apache-kafka-4.0.1-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.0.1

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka 4.0.1. For a full list of changes, be sure to check the release notes. See the Upgrading to 4.0.1 from any version 0.8.x through 3.9.x section in t…

### 4.1.0 — Apache Kafka 4.1.0 Release Announcement

- Date: 2025-09-04
- Version: 4.1.0
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2025/09/04/apache-kafka-4.1.0-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.1.0

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka® 4.1.0. This release contains many new features and improvements. This blog post will highlight some of the more prominent ones. For a full list of…

### 4.0.0 — Apache Kafka 4.0.0 Release Announcement

- Date: 2025-03-18
- Version: 4.0.0
- Original notes: https://kafka.apache.org/blog/2025/03/18/apache-kafka-4.0.0-release-announcement/
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/apache-kafka/releases/4.0.0

We are proud to announce the release of Apache Kafka® 4.0. This release contains many new features and improvements. This blog post will highlight some of the more prominent ones. For a full list of c…