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Documentation Index

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Introduction

Laravel 11 was released in March 2024. This guide covers everything you need to upgrade a Laravel 10.x application to 11.x.
Estimated upgrade time: about 15 minutes. The actual impact depends on the size of your application and which features you use.

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Automated upgrade with Laravel Shift

You can automate much of the upgrade process using Laravel Shift. Shift automatically updates your dependencies and configuration files.

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Changes by impact level

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High impact

  • Updating dependencies
  • Application structure changes
  • Floating-point type changes
  • Column modifier persistence when altering columns
  • SQLite minimum version
  • Sanctum update

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Medium impact

  • Carbon 3
  • Password rehashing
  • Per-second rate limiting
  • Spatie Once package

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Low impact

  • Doctrine DBAL removal
  • Eloquent model casts method
  • Spatial type changes
  • Enumerable contract
  • UserProvider contract
  • Authenticatable contract

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Upgrade steps

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Updating dependencies

High impact Update the following entries in your composer.json: 
{
  "require": {
    "laravel/framework": "^11.0",
    "nunomaduro/collision": "^8.1"
  }
}
If you use these optional packages, update them as well: 
{
  "require": {
    "laravel/breeze": "^2.0",
    "laravel/cashier": "^15.0",
    "laravel/dusk": "^8.0",
    "laravel/jetstream": "^5.0",
    "laravel/octane": "^2.3",
    "laravel/passport": "^12.0",
    "laravel/sanctum": "^4.0",
    "laravel/scout": "^10.0",
    "laravel/spark-stripe": "^5.0",
    "laravel/telescope": "^5.0",
    "livewire/livewire": "^3.4",
    "inertiajs/inertia-laravel": "^1.0"
  }
}
Then install the updated dependencies: 
composer update
If you use Cashier Stripe, Passport, Sanctum, Spark Stripe, or Telescope, publish their migrations: 
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=cashier-migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=passport-migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=sanctum-migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=spark-migrations
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=telescope-migrations
If you use the Laravel installer, update it as well: 
composer global require laravel/installer:^5.6
If you previously added doctrine/dbal manually, you can remove it. Laravel 11 no longer depends on it.

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PHP version requirements

High impact Laravel 11 requires PHP 8.2.0 or higher. Laravel’s HTTP client also requires curl 7.34.0 or higher.

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Application structure changes

High impact Laravel 11 introduces a simplified default application structure with significantly fewer service providers, middleware, and configuration files. However, you do not need to migrate your application structure when upgrading from Laravel 10 to 11. Laravel 11 is designed to support the Laravel 10 application structure as-is. Key structural changes in new Laravel 11 applications:
  • Middleware, exception handlers, and routing are now configured directly in bootstrap/app.php
  • app/Http/Kernel.php is removed and consolidated into bootstrap/app.php
  • The default number of service providers is reduced; they are managed in bootstrap/providers.php
  • Fewer files in config/ (publish them on demand with php artisan config:publish)

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Breaking changes

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Authentication

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Password rehashing

Medium impact Laravel 11 automatically rehashes passwords at login if the hashing algorithm’s “work factor” has changed. If your User model’s password field is named something other than password, specify it with the authPasswordName property: 
class User extends Authenticatable
{
    protected $authPasswordName = 'custom_password_field';
}
To disable this behavior, add the following to config/hashing.php: 
'rehash_on_login' => false,

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UserProvider contract

Low impact The Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\UserProvider contract has a new rehashPasswordIfRequired method. If you have a class that implements this interface, add the method: 
public function rehashPasswordIfRequired(Authenticatable $user, array $credentials, bool $force = false);

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Authenticatable contract

Low impact The Illuminate\Contracts\Auth\Authenticatable contract has a new getAuthPasswordName method. If you have a class that implements this interface, add the method: 
public function getAuthPasswordName()
{
    return 'password';
}

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Database

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SQLite minimum version

High impact If you use SQLite, you now need SQLite 3.26.0 or higher. Note that new Laravel 11 projects default to SQLite as the database driver.

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Column modifier persistence when altering columns

High impact When altering a column, you must now explicitly re-specify all modifiers you want to keep. Any attribute not listed will be dropped. 
// Laravel 10: unsigned, default, and comment were preserved automatically
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->integer('votes')->nullable()->change();
});

// Laravel 11: all attributes must be listed explicitly
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
    $table->integer('votes')
        ->unsigned()
        ->default(1)
        ->comment('The vote count')
        ->nullable()
        ->change();
});
If you’d rather not update all existing migrations, squash them first: 
php artisan schema:dump

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Floating-point type changes

High impact The double and float migration column types are now consistent across all databases. 
// double: total digits and decimal places arguments are no longer needed
$table->double('amount');

// float: only an optional precision argument
$table->float('amount', precision: 53);
The unsignedDecimal, unsignedDouble, and unsignedFloat methods have been removed. Use method chaining to add the unsigned attribute: 
$table->decimal('amount', total: 8, places: 2)->unsigned();
$table->double('amount')->unsigned();
$table->float('amount', precision: 53)->unsigned();

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Eloquent model casts method

Low impact The base Eloquent model class now defines a casts method. If any of your models define a casts relationship, the name will conflict and must be changed.

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MariaDB dedicated driver

Very low impact Laravel 11 adds a dedicated database driver for MariaDB. If you connect to MariaDB, you can now use the mariadb driver: 
'driver' => 'mariadb',

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Spatial type changes

Low impact Spatial column types are now consistent across all databases. Replace point, lineString, polygon, and similar methods with geometry or geography: 
$table->geometry('shapes');
$table->geography('coordinates');
To specify a type and spatial reference system explicitly, pass subtype and srid: 
$table->geometry('dimension', subtype: 'polygon', srid: 0);
$table->geography('latitude', subtype: 'point', srid: 4326);

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Doctrine DBAL removal

Low impact Laravel has removed its dependency on Doctrine DBAL. The following classes and methods have been removed:
  • Schema\Builder::useNativeSchemaOperationsIfPossible()
  • Connection::getDoctrineConnection()
  • Connection::getDoctrineSchemaManager()
  • Connection::registerDoctrineType()
  • DatabaseManager::registerDoctrineType()
  • Schema\Grammars\ChangeColumn class
  • Schema\Grammars\RenameColumn class
Use the new native schema inspection methods instead: Schema::getTables(), Schema::getColumns(), Schema::getIndexes(), and Schema::getForeignKeys().

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Dates

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Carbon 3

Medium impact Laravel 11 supports both Carbon 2 and Carbon 3. If you upgrade to Carbon 3, note that diffIn* methods now return floating-point numbers and use negative values to indicate direction in time.

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Rate limiting

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Per-second rate limiting

Medium impact Laravel 11 now supports per-second rate limiting instead of per-minute. The GlobalLimit and Limit class constructors now accept seconds. 
// Before (minutes)
new GlobalLimit($attempts, 2); // 2 minutes

// After (seconds)
new GlobalLimit($attempts, 2 * 60); // 120 seconds
The decayMinutes property on Limit has been renamed to decaySeconds. The ThrottlesExceptions and ThrottlesExceptionsWithRedis constructors also now accept seconds: 
new ThrottlesExceptions($attempts, 2 * 60);
new ThrottlesExceptionsWithRedis($attempts, 2 * 60);

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Packages

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Publishing service providers

Very low impact New Laravel 11 applications no longer have a providers array in config/app.php. If your package publishes a service provider, use the ServiceProvider::addProviderToBootstrapFile method: 
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

ServiceProvider::addProviderToBootstrapFile(Provider::class);

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Sanctum

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Sanctum update

High impact Laravel 11 does not support Sanctum 3.x. Update the Sanctum constraint in your composer.json to ^4.0. Sanctum 4.0 no longer auto-loads migrations. Publish them manually: 
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=sanctum-migrations
Also update the middleware configuration in config/sanctum.php: 
'middleware' => [
    'authenticate_session' => Laravel\Sanctum\Http\Middleware\AuthenticateSession::class,
    'encrypt_cookies' => Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
    'validate_csrf_token' => Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\ValidateCsrfToken::class,
],

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Spatie Once package

Medium impact Laravel 11 ships its own once helper. If you use the spatie/once package, remove it from composer.json to avoid conflicts.

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Summary

Laravel 11 includes significant structural changes, but since the Laravel 10 application structure continues to work, you can upgrade incrementally.
ChangeImpactAction required
Update composer.json dependenciesHighChange to laravel/framework ^11.0
PHP 8.2 requiredHighCheck your PHP version
Column modifier persistenceHighReview all change() calls in migrations
Floating-point type changesHighReview double/float column definitions
SQLite 3.26.0+ requiredHighCheck your SQLite version
Sanctum ^4.0HighPublish migrations
Carbon 3MediumReview diffIn* method return values
Per-second rate limitingMediumChange decayMinutes to decaySeconds
Doctrine DBAL removedLowMigrate to native schema methods

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References

Last modified on April 11, 2026