WooCommerce 11.1 arrived on 1 September 2026, and the standout change is one that quietly retires a plugin a lot of stores have been carrying for years.
Variation galleries, for every store
Variation galleries are now enabled for all stores by default. That means WooCommerce Additional Variation Images is being retired. You no longer need a separate extension to attach an image gallery to each product variation. If you have that plugin installed, plan its removal.
The Store API got substantially faster
Store API and REST requests are 30–42% faster in this release, with specific performance work on variable products and block registration. On a large catalogue with heavy variation use, that is a difference you can actually feel in the cart and checkout blocks.
Also in 11.1
- Product collection grid alignment improvements.
- More accurate refund details in API endpoints.
- Product CSV import improvements.
- Experimental support for videos in product galleries.
Coming from 11.0?
WooCommerce 11.0 shipped on 4 August with 551 PRs, one of the largest releases in recent memory, focused on guest checkout, performance and backlog clearing, plus a batch of experimental developer features. If you skipped it, read both sets of release notes before updating production.
Sources: WooCommerce 11.1 release notes, WooCommerce 11.0 release notes.