We are pleased to announce the Toad for Oracle 2026 R3 beta
We encourage you to participate in the beta program to help us deliver a high quality product. This is your opportunity to participate in the development, direction, and testing of Toad for Oracle. By becoming a beta tester you will have direct access to the development team and product management via the Toad World forum.
How to join the Beta program:
- Read the Beta Agreement. Downloading the Toad Beta constitutes usage agreement.
- Install Toad for Oracle version 2026 R2 first.
a. This must be a licensed, non-trial version
b. Run version 26.2 at least once before running the beta.
c. Leave 26.2 installed. The beta does not replace it. - Download and install the beta (links below)
- Please post suggestions or problem reports to this forum. The development team reads every post and typically responds very quickly.
Versions
Windows, if you use a 32-bit Oracle client:
Windows, If you use a 64 bit Oracle client (or no Oracle Client at all):
Mac:
Expiration and Release Schedule
- Each beta expires after 4 weeks
- New betas are released often, typically on Mondays. An indicator will appear on Toad's status bar when a new version is available. Click it to download and install the update (No need to remove the old beta first, just install the new one on top of it).
- Stay up to date with the latest beta and you'll be able to use it until the next version of Toad is officially released.
A note about Oracle clients:
- 12cR2 and 18c are the recommended client versions.
- 19c and 21c clients will work, but they leak memory with LOBs, and sometimes hang when cancelling queries against 11gR2 servers. The memory leak is not terribly severe, but something to be aware of. You can just restart Toad if/when you need to reclaim the leaked memory.
- 12cR1 and older clients don't handle XMLTYPE natively.
- Some newer (19/21) client/server combinations throw ORA-03120 when querying XMLTYPE in Toad. Details and workarounds here.
Toad's no-client option
- Uncheck the "Use Oracle Client" box on the login window to connect to the database without an Oracle client.
- Pros of no-client option:
- No setup required
- It is a bit faster than using a client.
- No issues with XMLTYPE
- Supported: LDAP, TNSNames.ora, TNS_ADMIN environment variable, Oracle Encryption and Data Integrity, Spool SQL, SSH, TCPS, IPV6, External authentication, and Oracle Wallet connections.
- Can connect to every database version since 7.3!
- Can connect to very old and very new database versions at the same time.
- Cons of no-client option:
- Not supported: Oracle client style tracing/logging, proxy connections, Kerberos
- If you don't have an Oracle client installed, of course you won't have their tools like SQL*Plus, DataPump, Import/Export, but if you have a client installed Toad can still use these tools, even if you run Toad in no-client mode.
What is this sorcery that Toad can connect to the database without an Oracle client?
- The Oracle client is just DLLs (and some other files) produced by Oracle that know how to connect to the database. Toad now contains code that can achieve the same thing. We did not compile Oracle DLLs inside of Toad, or package them together in any way.
The beta change log is below