diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ea25a8a48b..00c3a81832 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-## 2.26.0-rc.0 / 2021-03-24
+## 2.26.0 / 2021-03-31
 
 Prometheus is now built and supporting Go 1.16 (#8544). This reverts the memory release pattern added in Go 1.12. This makes common RSS usage metrics showing more accurate number for actual memory used by Prometheus. You can read more details [here](https://www.bwplotka.dev/2019/golang-memory-monitoring/).
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 59c21106d3..7a25c70f90 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.26.0-rc.0
+2.26.0