Microsoft Releases .NET 11 with Performance Boosts and AI Features

Microsoft officially launched .NET 11 at the .NET Conf 2026 online conference, bringing a series of updates focused on runtime performance, developer productivity, and AI app building, covering web, mobile, and desktop development. .NET is a free, open-source software platform maintained by Microsoft and the open-source community.

For performance, the new version includes hundreds of runtime and library optimizations, plus a native compilation entry and pre-warmed build services to cut tool startup time. C# 15 adds union types, letting the compiler check whether any result handling is missed.

On the AI side, the toolkit ships with built-in MCP server templates, and AI libraries with agent frameworks support model access, tool calls, and workflow orchestration. Blazor also introduces experimental AI UI components. The cross-platform framework .NET MAUI now uses the CoreCLR runtime by default.

.NET 11 is a standard support version with two years of support. Microsoft reminds developers to check compatibility and hardware requirements before upgrading, and to verify results through real testing.