CKEditor 5 changelog

This is the CKEditor 5 changelog guide. Here you will find information about the most important changes introduced in the release, new features, and bug fixes.

Information about both major and minor breaking changes is available, too, if the release introduces them. You can read more about breaking changes in CKEditor 5 in the Versioning policy guide.

You can find more information about each release in the blog posts linked at the start of each entry.

This guide provides the changelog information for the 3 latest releases of CKEditor 5. For older releases, refer to the release notes on GitHub.

We are happy to announce the release of CKEditor 5 v48.0.0.

This major release improves CKEditor AI and tables, completes the sunset of old installation methods, changes the default Export to PDF converter API version, and introduces a unified structure for root-related configuration.

With this release, we have officially completed the transition to our modern installation methods — a milestone we are excited to reach! 🎉

First introduced in CKEditor 5 v42.0.0 in June 2024, these new methods were designed to simplify the developer workflow, reduce configuration overhead, and unlock faster, more consistent updates. With the old methods now fully retired, we can focus all our energy on delivering new features, improving performance, and moving the platform forward.

If your project still relies on old installation methods, migrate to the new installation methods to continue updating to this and later versions of CKEditor 5.

If migrating in the near term is not feasible, you can extend support for legacy installation methods with CKEditor 5 Long Term Support (LTS).

The styling of suggestion previews in AI Chat, AI Review, AI Quick Actions, and AI Translate now more closely matches the content in the editing area, providing a more consistent visual experience. Initialization has also been optimized by caching model requests, reducing redundant network calls.

Colors used across the AI package are now available through a shared CSS variable palette, making AI components easier to customize. A new programmatic API guide also describes how to interact with AI features from code.

The editor now recognizes legacy HTML table attributes during upcasting, preserving styling from older HTML content and improving compatibility with CKEditor 4.

• The <table border="N"> attribute is now converted to tableBorderWidth.
• The <table cellpadding="N"> attribute is now converted to tableCellPadding.

Several default table behaviors have also been updated:

• Conversion of border="0" to borderless tables is now enabled by default.
• Table alignment is now output as CSS classes by default. Using inline styles is still possible with the useInlineStyles option.
• Support for the scope attribute in table header cells is now enabled by default.
• Added support for table footers, thanks to a community contribution from @star-szr.

The Export to PDF feature now defaults to version 2 of the converter API, so you will enjoy a range of powerful enhancements right out of the box — including advanced header and footer configurations, flexible page sizing, PDF metadata editing, owner password protection, and digital signature support.

Since the new version may produce slightly different output than version 1, we recommend reviewing the new default configuration.

If you need to keep the previous behavior, simply set the version property in the exportPdf configuration object. See the feature documentation for full details on both API versions.

Editor configuration options related to roots, such as initialData, placeholder, and label, are now grouped under config.root for single-root editors and config.roots for multi-root editors. This provides a more consistent structure for configuring editor roots.

The previous top-level configuration options remain functional but are now deprecated. See the update guide for migration details.

Please refer to the update guide to learn more about these changes.

• ai, uploadcare: Simplified AI and Uploadcare configuration structures by replacing enums with plain string values. Refer to the official updating guide for AI and Uploadcare.

• ai: Renamed the check property to commandId in the ai.chat.shortcuts configuration. Refer to the official updating guide.

• ai: Introduced the label property in place of displayedPrompt in the ai.quickActions.extraCommands configuration. The displayedPrompt property is now required only for extra commands with type 'chat'. Refer to the official updating guide.

• ai: Changed the type property values in the ai.quickActions.extraCommands configuration from uppercase to lowercase. Refer to the official updating guide.

• editor-multi-root: The config.rootsAttributes and config.lazyRoots multi-root editor config options have been removed. See #19885.

  The config.roots option should be used instead to define the editor roots and their attributes.

  The config.roots.<rootName>.modelAttributes property should be used to define the attributes of a root, while
  the config.roots.<rootName>.lazyLoad property should be used to define whether a root should be lazy loaded or not.

  Note that config.roots.<rootName>.lazyLoad property is now deprecated and will be removed in the future.

• table: Table alignment is now output as CSS classes instead of inline styles by default. See #3225.

  It can be reverted to the previous behaviour by setting the useInlineStyles configuration option to true.

• table: Changed the default value of table.tableLayout.stripFigureFromContentTable from true to false. See #19771.

  As a result, the <figure> wrapper is now preserved on content tables by default when the layout tables feature is enabled.

• CKEditor 5 DLL builds are no longer available due to the deprecation of legacy installation methods. See the migration path. See #17779.

• CKEditor 5 packages no longer ship the src/, theme/ and lang/ directories on npm due to the deprecation of legacy installation methods. See the migration path. See #17779.

• All styles previously shipped in @ckeditor/ckeditor5-theme-lark have been redistributed to the appropriate packages, which now provide those CSS assets directly.

• core, editor-balloon, editor-classic, editor-decoupled, editor-inline, editor-multi-root: The editor no longer updates config.initialData during startup. Use config.roots.main.initialData for single-root editors and config.roots.<rootName>.initialData for multi-root editors. See #19885.

• core, editor-balloon, editor-classic, editor-decoupled, editor-inline, editor-multi-root, watchdog: Added support for creating editors and watchdogs using configuration only, without passing a source element or initial data as the first argument. Passing a source element or initial data as the first argument is now deprecated but still supported. Use config.attachTo for ClassicEditor, config.root.element for single-root editors, and config.roots.<rootName>.element for MultiRootEditor. See #19887.

• ai: Moved the public API from AIChat to AIChatController. This affects integrations that use the AIChat API.

• core: The default word breaking behavior in the content area has been updated to prevent unwanted breaks in tables. If you customized the --ck-content-word-break CSS variable in your integration, migrate to the new --ck-content-overflow-wrap variable to retain the same effect. See #19986.

• engine: Deep schema verification during model.insertContent() is now enabled by default. It is no longer behind an experimental flag. See #19217.

  Previously, this behavior required opting in via config.experimentalFlags.modelInsertContentDeepSchemaVerification: true. Now it is always active, ensuring that all elements and attributes in inserted content follow the schema - including deeply nested structures.

  If needed, you can temporarily opt out by setting config.experimentalFlags.modelInsertContentDeepSchemaVerification: false. Note that this option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

• export-pdf: Export to PDF now uses version 2 of the converter API by default. This may produce slightly different output, so update any converter options to match the new API. To keep version 1, set the version property in the exportPdf configuration object.

• import-word: The ImportWordEditing#getToken() method is now asynchronous and returns a promise.

• mention: Mention elements in the data output now include the data-mention-uid attribute. This affects only integrations that define custom mention downcast converters. If you defined one, update it to include data-mention-uid in the output and omit it during clipboard operations; see the update guide.

• table: The improved handling of table heading rows is now enabled by default. Rows are no longer incorrectly marked or moved as header rows when earlier rows are not header rows. See #19431.

• table: Added new block-level left and right alignment options. The editor also recognizes equivalent inline margin styles and converts them to these alignment types. See #3225.

• table: The shallow option used with TableUtils#setHeadingRows and TableUtils#setHeadingColumns has been renamed to updateCellType. See #19431.

• table: Added support for importing HTML tables with the legacy border="0" attribute as borderless tables. Closes #19038.

• table: The experimental handling of the legacy border="0" HTML attribute is now enabled by default. If you had config.experimentalFlags.upcastTableBorderZeroAttributes in your configuration, remove it because the flag is no longer recognized. See #19038.

• track-changes: Moved TrackChangesEditing#registerBlockAttribute() and TrackChangesEditing#registerInlineAttribute() to the SuggestionConversion plugin in the ckeditor5-collaboration-core package.

  The purpose and behavior of these methods remains the same.

• track-changes: Suggestion marker DOM elements now use the data-suggestion attribute consistently.

  This may affect custom code or CSS that relies on data-suggestion-id.

• ui: The scope of the .ck-reset_all-excluded class has been expanded to also include the container wearing that class (e.g. to limit inheritance of font properties).

  Because of this, elements of the CKEditor user interface excluded from the CSS reset by the usage of the .ck-reset_all-excluded class may be prone to unexpected styling. Please make sure to verify the visual styling of such UI elements after updating to this version.

• Updated to TypeScript 5.5.4.

• ai: AIChatController plugin now fires replyCreated and interactionCreated events when a new AIReply or AIChatInteraction is created.

• ai: Added the ai.chat.context.alwaysAddSelection configuration option. When enabled, the document selection is added to the AI Chat context automatically. This option is disabled by default.

• export-pdf: Export to PDF now uses version 2 of the converter API by default. To keep version 1, set the version property in the exportPdf configuration object.

• footnotes: Added support for configuring the items available in the footnotes list styles dropdown. Pass the listStyles array in the configuration to choose which list styles are shown.

• footnotes: Added support for the arabic-indic list style in footnotes. It is not shown in the dropdown by default, but it can be added to the list of available styles using the listStyles configuration option.

• remove-format: The remove format feature now clears inherited formatting from empty paragraphs and other block elements. Closes #19851.

• table: Introduced support for changing table cell types between data and header. Closes #16730.

• table: Introduced support for the scope attribute in table header cells to improve semantic markup and screen reader accessibility. This feature is enabled by default and can be disabled by setting config.table.tableCellProperties.scopedHeaders to false. Closes #3175.

• table: Added support for table footers. You can now specify the number of footer rows in a table. The table row context menu has been updated with a new Footer row toggle to control this setting. Closes #12952.

  This feature is disabled by default and can be enabled by setting config.table.enableFooters to true.

  Thanks to @star-szr.

• table: Preserved table borders from legacy HTML content. Closes #19633.

  When loading HTML content that uses the deprecated border attribute on tables, the editor now keeps the original border width instead of ignoring it.

• table: Preserved table cell padding from legacy HTML content. Closes #19634.

  When loading HTML content that uses the deprecated cellpadding attribute on tables, the editor now keeps the original cell padding instead of ignoring it.

• ai: Fixed an issue where new lines were ignored in the user message displayed in the AI Chat feed.

• ai: Reset the “Show changes” button state after the balloon for an AI Quick Action is displayed.

• ai: Fixed the incorrect order of user messages and AI agent responses in the AI Chat feed when loading a conversation from history.

• ai: Fixed an error thrown when the user stopped an ongoing AI Chat interaction and the remaining replies were not flushed to the UI.

• ai: Fixed a console error that could occur when AI Quick Actions were closed during response streaming.

• ai: Fixed an error thrown by CKEditor AI features when processing content that contains mentions. See #20010.

• comments: Fixed inline annotations so they stay attached to the target element when it scrolls inside its parent container.

• code-block: Fixed inconsistent vertical spacing around code blocks in the content area. Code blocks now use explicit vertical margins that match other block widgets. Closes #19982.

• core: Fixed excessive word breaking in tables rendered in the content area. Words will now only break when they genuinely overflow their container, preventing awkward splits in narrow table columns. Closes #19986.

• engine: Removed the unintended public exports autoParagraphEmptyRoots, isParagraphable, and wrapInParagraph.

  These utilities were not part of the supported public API.

• engine: Gradients in background styles are no longer ignored and are properly normalized. Closes #19787.

• engine: Fixed background normalization so it no longer drops layers from the background CSS shorthand. Multi-layer backgrounds are now parsed and serialized correctly. See #19787.

• footnotes: Fixed the footnotes configuration typings to use defaultListStyle instead of defaultStyle.

• import-word: Improved the initialization time of the ImportWordEditing plugin. Token retrieval now runs in the background, so it does not block editor startup.

• link: Removed the unintended public export ensureSafeUrl.

  This utility was not part of the supported public API.

• real-time-collaboration: Fixed the inconsistent font family in collaboration user markers.

• show-blocks: Fixed the Show blocks feature so block labels render in all editor types when the dir attribute is present either on the editable element itself or on its ancestor wrapper. Closes #19866.

• track-changes: Fixed suggestion marker DOM elements that used data-suggestion-id instead of data-suggestion.

• ui: Updated the CSS reset rules so .ck-reset_all-excluded also applies to the container that uses this class. Closes #19967.

  This change reduces the impact of the CKEditor’s .ck-reset_all class in DOM elements that are explicitly excluded from the reset by the .ck-reset_all-excluded class.

• ui: Disabling a menu bar menu now also closes it if it was open, preventing an open panel from remaining in a non-interactive state. Closes #18214.

• core, editor-balloon, editor-classic, editor-decoupled, editor-inline, editor-multi-root, watchdog: Reorganized root-related editor configuration under config.root for single-root editors and config.roots for multi-root editors. Closes #19885.

  The config.initialData, config.placeholder, and config.label options are deprecated in favor of config.root.initialData, config.root.placeholder, and config.root.label.
  In multi-root editors, define these options per root using config.roots.<rootName>.initialData, config.roots.<rootName>.placeholder, and config.roots.<rootName>.label.

• paste-from-office, table: Introduced new table block alignments, blockLeft and blockRight, allowing tables to be aligned to the left or right without text wrapping. The table properties balloon now includes two new buttons to easily apply these alignments. Closes #3225, #6174, #8412, #8752, #9982, #10867, #14921, #17932, #19337.

  Added additional spacing between a table and the surrounding text when wrapping is enabled. This prevents issues such as list markers overlapping with the table when placed next to each other.

  Added support for pasting to and from MS Word for all table alignment types: left, right, center, blockLeft, and blockRight.

• collaboration-core, track-changes: Moved TrackChangesEditing#registerBlockAttribute() and TrackChangesEditing#registerInlineAttribute() to the SuggestionConversion plugin in the ckeditor5-collaboration-core package.

• ai: AIChatController is now a public class. Moved public API from AIChat to AIChatController to avoid duplication.

• ai: Decreased the line height in the AI Chat prompt input field to match feed messages.

• ai: AIChat#addSelectionToChatContext() now returns void instead of Promise.

• ai: Suggestion previews in AI features now follow the styling of the content in the editing area more closely.

• ai: Optimized AI features initialization by caching model requests, reducing redundant network calls and improving load performance.

• ai: Improved handling of agent responses in the Markdown format.

• ai: Marked selected AI programmatic APIs as experimental. These APIs are production-ready but may change in minor releases without the standard deprecation policy.

• ai: Added a shared CSS variable palette for colors used across the ckeditor5-ai package.

  This makes AI components easier to customize.

• ai: Removed the built-in Amazon Bedrock integration in the legacy AI Assistant. The AWSTextAdapter class remains available but now throws an error when used, and this change does not affect CKEditor AI. If you rely on this integration, contact support.

• ckbox: Fixed an issue where the CKBox dialog was not visible in fullscreen mode. Closes #19290.

• engine: Model#hasContent() can now check ModelSelection and ModelDocumentSelection instances. See #19847.

• markdown-gfm: Enhanced MarkdownGfmMdToHtml to support custom plugins and to export the default plugin chain used by the Markdown parser.

• utils: Introduced Rect.getDomElementRects() method that conveniently retrieves all Rects of a DOM element while preserving their source for further processing (e.g. Rect#getVisible()).

• Replaced string-based soft requirements with plugin constructors across selected packages to improve developer experience and align plugin dependency handling across repositories. This update also adjusts package metadata and dependencies to match the new constructor-based requirements. See #17779. Closes #19747.

  The following dependencies no longer rely on soft requirements:

  • ckeditor5-ai: CloudServices.
  • ckeditor5-ckbox: LinkEditing, PictureEditing, ImageUtils, ImageEditing, ImageUploadEditing, ImageUploadProgress, CloudServices.
  • ckeditor5-ckfinder: Link, LinkEditing, CKFinderUploadAdapter.
  • ckeditor5-easy-image: CloudServices, ImageUpload.
  • ckeditor5-emoji: Mention.
  • ckeditor5-export-pdf: CloudServices.
  • ckeditor5-export-word: CloudServices.
  • ckeditor5-heading: Paragraph.
  • ckeditor5-import-word: CloudServices.
  • ckeditor5-link: ImageEditing, ImageUtils, ImageBlockEditing.
  • ckeditor5-list-multi-level: ListEditing.
  • ckeditor5-merge-fields: ImageUtils, ImageEditing, Mention.
  • ckeditor5-paste-from-office-enhanced: PasteFromOffice.
  • ckeditor5-real-time-collaboration: Comments, CommentsRepository, CloudServices, RevisionHistory, TrackChanges, TrackChangesEditing.
  • ckeditor5-revision-history: Users.
  • ckeditor5-slash-command: Mention.
  • ckeditor5-style: GeneralHtmlSupport.
  • ckeditor5-track-changes: Comments, CommentsRepository, Annotations, EditorAnnotations.
  • ckeditor5-typing: Delete, Input.
  • ckeditor5-uploadcare: PictureEditing, ImageUploadEditing, ImageUploadProgress, ImageEditing, ImageUtils.

• Updated es-toolkit to v1.45.1.

• Updated translations.

We are releasing CKEditor 5 v47.6.1, a patch that fixed three regressions discovered after v47.6.0.

• engine, undo: Fixed undo marker restoration for markers spanning multiple paragraphs. Previously, comments and suggestions could be restored to incorrect ranges. Closes #19916.
• ai: Resolved an issue where AI Chat would crash when attempting to open a past conversation that was created by a model no longer available.
• widget: Fixed a regression where the caret (|) jumped over an empty paragraph when navigating with arrow keys near widgets. Closes #19812.

We are excited to announce the release of CKEditor 5 v47.6.0.

A Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability has been discovered in the General HTML Support feature (CVE-2026-28343). This vulnerability could be triggered by inserting specially crafted markup, leading to unauthorized JavaScript code execution if the editor instance used an unsafe General HTML Support configuration.

This vulnerability affects only installations where the editor configuration meets the following criteria:

• General HTML Support is enabled,
• General HTML Support configuration allows inserting unsafe markup (see Security section to learn more).

You can read more details in the relevant security advisory and contact us if you have more questions.

This release introduces new list indentation capabilities and expands the customization options for CKEditor AI, giving integrators more control over the AI-powered editing experience.

CKEditor AI is now available as an on-premises deployment, giving you full control over the AI service by running it on your infrastructure. The on-premises version supports everything the cloud option offers, plus:

• Custom AI models and providers — use your models from OpenAI, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or self-hosted solutions.
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) support — extend the AI with custom external tools by connecting MCP servers, enabling use cases like searching internal knowledge bases or querying company databases directly from the AI chat.

Learn more about deployment options and MCP support.

The AI Review feature now supports custom review commands defined by integrators. Until now, the review was limited to built-in commands like proofreading, clarity, readability, and tone adjustment. With this release, you can create review commands tailored to your editorial guidelines, brand voice, or domain-specific quality standards.

Custom commands are registered via config.ai.review.extraCommands and made visible in the UI through config.ai.review.availableCommands. The same option lets you reorder, filter, or shorten the list of built-in commands to match your needs. See the documentation for details.

We are introducing AI Chat Shortcuts, a new opt-in plugin that displays configurable shortcut buttons in the AI Chat panel before the first message is sent. Shortcuts provide clear, actionable entry points that guide users toward the most useful AI capabilities. From launching a predefined prompt to starting a specific review or translation flow to navigating directly to the Review or Translate tab.

Integrators define shortcuts with a name, icon, and an action. Each shortcut can also configure which AI capabilities (model, web search, reasoning) are active for the prompt. Learn more in the documentation.

We are streamlining and standardizing the way list indentation is handled. With improved UX, it is now possible to indent whole lists and also individual list items with consistent styling and no custom implementation required.

This improvement is compatible with Paste from Office, Export to Word, Export to PDF, and Track Changes plugins. It also provides RTL support.

We upgraded @aws-sdk/client-bedrock-runtime to the latest version to address a recently disclosed security vulnerability in the fast-xml-parser dependency. We marked this update as a minor breaking change due to the use of dynamic imports in one of the underlying packages, which may impact certain build environments.

If you use webpack to build an editor bundle, configure it to bundle dynamic imports eagerly:

module: {
  parser: {
    javascript: {
      dynamicImportMode: 'eager'
    }
  }
}

If you do not use CKEditor AI with a dedicated bundle, no action is required.

Please note that the old installation methods will only remain available up to CKEditor 5 v48.0.0, which is planned for release at the beginning of Q2 2026. For more timeline details, refer to the dedicated GitHub issue.

In CKEditor 5 v42.0.0 in June 2024, we introduced new installation methods designed to improve and simplify the developer workflow. Soon, they will be the only available paths to install and use CKEditor 5.

If your project still relies on old installation methods, now is a good time to plan your next steps. We recommend choosing between these two options:

1. Migrate to the new installation methods, which are the recommended path for most users. The new installation methods provide a cleaner setup, easier upgrades, and better alignment with future CKEditor 5 releases.
2. Consider CKEditor 5 Long-Term Support (LTS). If migrating in the near term is not feasible, you can extend support for legacy installation methods.

• ai: Simplified the default greeting message shown when starting a new AI Chat conversation. To restore the previous message content, set config.ai.chat.welcomeMessage to the following:

  “Hi, I’m your AI assistant. Think of me as your writing buddy, reviewer, or research partner. I can suggest changes to your document, help generate ideas, offer feedback, discuss attached files, and much more!”

• ai: Updated @aws-sdk/client-bedrock-runtime to version 3.994.0. This update introduced dynamic imports in a dependency, which may affect some build environments.

• ai: Added the config.ai.review.availableCommands configuration option to customize which review commands are shown in the AI Review tab.

• ai: Introduced the AIChatShortcuts plugin, which displays configurable shortcuts in the AI Chat feed when starting a new conversation.

• ai: Added support for custom AI Review commands. Custom commands can now be configured using config.ai.review.extraCommands.

• export-pdf: Added the enable_mirror_margins option to the V2 PDF export converter API, allowing margins to alternate between odd and even pages for double-sided layouts.

• html-support: Added support for the [sandbox] attribute on <iframe> elements rendered in the editing view. Filtering rules can be adjusted using the htmlSupport.htmlIframeSandbox configuration option.

• indent: Added list indentation integration to the IndentBlock feature (enabled by default). Closes #19490.

  Added commands for whole-list indentation (indentBlockList and outdentBlockList) and list-item indentation (indentBlockListItem and outdentBlockListItem). Indentation can be rendered using margin-left/margin-right styles (offset-based) or CSS classes (class-based).

• list: Added support for the arabic-indic list style type in the list properties plugin. Closes #19802.

• ai: Fixed an issue where using DLLs for the AI package together with the TrackChanges plugin could fail due to a SuggestionConversion plugin conflict.
• ai: Fixed an issue where AI Quick Actions content overflowed in the preview window.
• ai: Starting or loading an AI chat conversation no longer closes unrelated open dialogs in the editor.
• ai: Displayed the Selected content label instead of "" when the Ask AI action is used on selections that include non-text content, such as an image without a caption.
• ai: Displayed text from all selected table cells in the chat context pill after using Ask AI on a selection inside a table.
• ai: AI Review and AI Translate no longer throw errors when users click “Stop generating” after some changes have already been generated.
• engine: Treated the [srcdoc] attribute of <iframe> elements as unsafe and sanitized it in the editing pipeline. Restricted the [src] attribute of <iframe> elements to disallow javascript: and data: URLs containing whitespace characters.
• link: Added support for defining multiple manual link decorators that operate on the same attributes. If an automatic decorator conflicts with a manual one, only the manual one is used. Closes #19695.
• table: Improved accessibility by reflecting table captions in the figure element aria-labelledby attribute. This change improves screen reader labeling for tables. Closes #15979.
• table: Preserved the <figure> wrapper on content tables when table.tableLayout.stripFigureFromContentTable is set to false and the layout tables plugin is enabled. Closes #19771.
• track-changes: Fixed an issue causing plugin conflicts when using the TrackChanges DLL together with certain features, such as AI.

• ai: Added the config.ai.chat.welcomeMessage configuration option to customize the greeting message shown in the AI Chat feed when starting a new conversation.
• Updated translations.