Will the free threading Python build become the default?

I’m a bit confused by the language I’ve seen referring to free-threading becoming the “default” - does this mean the “main” build will have free threading by default but the GIL build will continue to be maintained and released? Or is it actually “mandatory” i.e. there will only be one build and it will only have one runtime mode?

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See PEP 703 (Making the Global Interpreter Lock Optional in CPython) acceptance, specifically the rollout section within the first post.

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Moved this question to a separate thread from Environment marker for free-threading

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The initial phase 1 release (see PEP link above) is part of the upcoming 3.13. 3.13.0rc1 was released a few days ago. Please install and test if at all interested.

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