Version and Compatibility

Compatibility requirements and version information for Apache Cassandra.

Java Requirements

Cassandra Version	Build JDK	Runtime JDK
Cassandra 6.0	JDK 11 or 17	JDK 17 or 21 (21 recommended for Generational ZGC)
Cassandra 5.0	JDK 11 or 17	JDK 11 or 17
Cassandra 4.1	JDK 8 or 11	JDK 8 or 11

Cassandra Version

Build JDK

Runtime JDK

Cassandra 6.0

JDK 11 or 17

JDK 17 or 21 (21 recommended for Generational ZGC)

Cassandra 5.0

JDK 11 or 17

Cassandra 4.1

JDK 8 or 11

JDK 21 with Generational ZGC (-XX:+UseZGC -XX:+ZGenerational) is the recommended runtime for Cassandra 6. See Java Support for details on JVM flag changes.

Python Requirements

cqlsh requires Python 3.6 or later.

Operating System Support

Cassandra is supported on Linux. It can run on macOS and Windows for development, but production deployments should use Linux.

Native Protocol Version

Cassandra 6 supports native protocol v6. Older protocol versions (v3, v4, v5) remain supported for backward compatibility with older drivers.

See Native Protocol Specification for the complete protocol reference.

Driver Compatibility

Official Apache Cassandra drivers are available for Java, Python, and Go. See Drivers for the current driver list and version requirements.

For the complete list of release artifacts and download links, see the Apache Cassandra download page.