ISO 9001:2026: what changed from 2015, and what to do now

ISO published the sixth edition of ISO 9001 on 16 September 2026. ISO 9001:2026 cancels and replaces ISO 9001:2015, and it also absorbs the 2024 amendment on climate change. If you hold a 2015 certificate, nothing lapses tomorrow: there is a three-year transition. But the new edition is what your certification body will audit you against at your transition audit, and from March 2028 it is the only edition new certificates are issued against.

Is ISO 9001 changing in 2026?

Yes, and it already has. The short version: the structure you know stays, and six things change. The clauses still run from 4 (context of the organization) to 10 (improvement), so a working 2015 system does not need rebuilding. What the new edition asks for is more explicit attention to culture, ethics, risk, opportunity and change, plus a clearer set of definitions.

The six changes, as ISO lists them

The Foreword of ISO 9001:2026 names the main changes itself. In its order:

• Core terms in Clause 3. The standard now includes a limited set of management system terms and definitions in its own Clause 3. ISO 9000 remains the normative reference for all quality management terms.
• Quality culture and ethical behaviour. Both are now addressed within the requirements, particularly in relation to leadership, awareness and the environment for the operation of processes. In clause terms, that is 5.1, 7.3 and 7.1.4.
• Risks and opportunities separated. Clause 6.1 is now split into determining risks and opportunities (6.1.1), actions to address risks (6.1.2) and actions to address opportunities (6.1.3), so each gets its own consideration.
• Stronger management of change. The requirements on changes to the quality management system have been reinforced, so that changes support the achievement of intended results (planning of changes sits in clause 6.3).
• More guidance in Annex A. Annex A has been revised to clarify the structure, terminology and intent of the requirements. It is informative and adds no requirements.
• Annex B removed. The list of other ISO/TC 176 standards has gone. References to them now sit in Annex A and on the committee's website.

What stays the same

The process approach and the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle are still the frame, and the standard still says it does not require your documentation to follow its clause structure or use its terminology. Internal audit (9.2), management review (9.3) and nonconformity and corrective action (10.2) keep their places. If your 2015 system works, most of it carries over unchanged.

The transition dates

Transition rules come from the accreditation side, not from ISO. Global Accreditation Cooperation (Global ACI), which took over the role of the IAF in January 2026, published them on the same day as the standard, in its Transition Requirements for ISO 9001:2026:

• 31 March 2027: accreditation bodies are ready to assess certification bodies against the new edition.
• 30 September 2027: accreditation bodies complete their transition decisions on the certification bodies they accredit.
• 31 March 2028: from this date, new and initial certifications are to ISO 9001:2026 only.
• 30 September 2029: the end of the three-year transition for organisations certified to ISO 9001:2015.

The move itself can happen at a scheduled surveillance or recertification audit, or in a separate transition audit. Ask your certification body which it proposes, and when. That answer decides how much time you really have, far more than the 2029 date does.

What to do before your next audit

None of this needs a new system. It needs evidence that the new expectations are met. A practical order:

1. Read the new edition against your system. Map each changed clause to the procedure, record or meeting that meets it today, and write down the gaps.
2. Make quality culture and ethics visible. Decide how leadership demonstrates them, how people are made aware of them, and where that shows up in your records, rather than writing a new policy nobody reads.
3. Split your risk register. Record opportunities, and the actions you take on them, separately from risks, so an auditor can see both were considered.
4. Put changes through a controlled process. For changes to the quality management system, record what changed, why, who approved it and how you checked that it did what it was meant to.
5. Update the internal audit programme. Add the changed clauses to the next audit round, so your own audit finds the gaps before the certification body does.
6. Take it to management review. Make the transition an input to the next management review, with an owner and a date.
7. Agree the timing with your certification body. Then plan backwards from that audit date, not from 2029.

If this is your first certification rather than a transition, start on the 2026 edition: from March 2028 it is the only one you can be newly certified to. Our guide to what happens at each stage of the certification audit still applies.

What it means for defence suppliers working to AQAP

AQAP 2110, in its current Edition D, requires a quality management system that satisfies ISO 9001:2015, and that reference did not change on 16 September. The contract decides which edition you are held to, so read it rather than assume. A quality system moved to ISO 9001:2026 still has to show the acquirer, or the Government Quality Assurance Representative, what AQAP 2110 asks for on top, and the transition is a sensible moment to check that the two still line up.

Where ComplyTrain fits

ComplyTrain's QMS functionality is structured around the ISO 9001 clause structure, which the 2026 edition keeps: requirements, documents, risks, internal audits, management reviews and corrective actions sit in one system, linked to the clause they evidence. That turns a gap analysis against the new edition into a review of those links rather than a search through folders. See ISO 9001 in ComplyTrain for how the standard is set up, or book a demo to walk through your own system.

ComplyTrain supports ISO 9001:2026 alongside ISO 9001:2015, so an organisation working to the 2015 edition can plan its move to the new one in the same system.

Sources: ISO 9001:2026, Foreword (ISO, September 2026); Global ACI, Transition Requirements for ISO 9001:2026 (16 September 2026).