content/develop/whats-new/8-0.md
Redis 8.0 introduces powerful new capabilities, including the beta release of the Vector Set data structure, designed for AI use cases such as semantic search and recommendation systems.
This release also delivers over 30 performance improvements, including:
Additionally, the Redis Community Edition has been renamed to Redis Open Source, marking a shift toward a unified, modern distribution. This version offers the full power of Redis — no modules, no fragmentation — just Redis.
Below is a detailed breakdown of these updates.
The new Vector set data structure supports high-dimensional vector similarity search, which is ideal for AI use cases such as semantic search and recommendation systems. Vector set complements Redis’s existing vector search capabilities via Redis Search and is currently available in beta. APIs and behaviors may change in future releases.
Redis 8 builds on Redis 7.4’s introduction of field-level expiration in hashes and adds three new commands for working with hashes:
These commands simplify common caching and session management usage patterns.
Redis Search allows users to use Redis as a document database, a vector database, a secondary index, and a search engine. With Redis Search, users can define indexes for hash and JSON documents, and use a rich query language for vector search, full-text search, geospatial queries, and aggregations.
Use cases include:
JSON or hashesRedis Search powers a wide range of applications, from AI retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems to full-featured search engines.
Access Control Lists (ACLs) have been updated to support the new data structures introduced in Redis 8. Existing ACL categories such as @read and @write now include commands for JSON, time series, VECTOR, and probabilistic data structures.
These updates allow for more precise control over which operations users can perform on each data structure.
Redis 8 delivers the largest performance leap in Redis history with over 30 optimizations, including:
These improvements benefit both single-node and clustered deployments. More details are available in the Redis 8 GA blog post.
Commands from included modules are now covered under standard categories (e.g., +@read, +@write). For example, a user with +@all -@write will no longer be able to execute JSON.SET as they could before.
Explicit inclusion of new command categories is required to maintain access.
{{<embed-md "redis8-breaking-changes-rqe.md">}}
Over time, Redis introduced several modules to address new use cases such as search, vector similarity, time series analysis, and probabilistic modeling. While these modules extended Redis’s functionality, managing version compatibility and module installation introduced friction.
Redis Stack partially solved this by bundling modules together, but it also created fragmentation across the ecosystem.
Redis 8 merges Redis Stack and Redis Community Edition into a single unified distribution: Redis Open Source. All previously modular functionality is now built into the Redis Open Source package, eliminating the need to manage separate modules. You now get a single, consistent feature set across all deployments.
Redis 8.0 delivers just Redis — no modules, no fragmentation.