ISO 9001:2015 vs ISO 9001:2026: changes and transition

The short answer: ISO 9001:2015 is the fifth edition of the international standard for quality management systems, and it has now been replaced by ISO 9001:2026, published on 16 September 2026. Accredited 2015 certificates stay valid until 30 September 2029, and from 31 March 2028 new accredited certifications are issued only against the 2026 edition. The changes are targeted, not a rewrite.

The dates come from the transition document of the international accreditation community, which applies in every country whose accreditation body has signed its arrangement. Below: what the 2015 edition is, what the 2026 edition changes, how the transition works, and what to do if you hold a 2015 certificate or are about to get one.

What ISO 9001:2015 is

ISO 9001 sets out the requirements for a quality management system: the processes, responsibilities and controls an organisation uses to deliver products and services that consistently meet customer requirements and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. It is the standard behind more than one million accredited certificates, according to the Global ACI transition requirements for ISO 9001:2026, and it is used by sector schemes such as IATF 16949 (automotive), TL 9000 (telecommunications) and ISO 22163 (railway).

The 2015 edition replaced ISO 9001:2008. Its ISO foreword describes a technical revision with a new clause sequence and updated quality management principles. Its introduction rests on three ideas that anyone who has been through a 2015 audit will recognise:

• the process approach, to plan processes and how they interact;
• the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, to make sure processes are resourced, managed and improved;
• risk-based thinking, to identify what could push processes off their planned results and put preventive controls in place.

In February 2024 the 2015 edition received Amendment 1. A joint IAF/ISO communiqué of 22 February 2024 explains that it added two statements to clauses 4.1 and 4.2: the organisation shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue, and a note that relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change. That is why Global ACI calls the outgoing edition ISO 9001:2015 including Amd1:2024.

Is ISO 9001:2015 still valid?

Yes, for now. ISO 9001:2026 replaces it as a standard, but existing accredited certificates do not lapse overnight. The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) ceased operations on 1 January 2026, and its work, together with that of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), now sits with Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated (Global ACI). Global ACI announced on 16 September 2026 a three-year transition period. Its document is mandatory for the accreditation bodies that have signed the Global ACI Multilateral Recognition Arrangement and for the certification bodies they accredit.

If you have been working from the draft standard, the reference is now the final text.

ISO 9001:2015 vs ISO 9001:2026: what changes

The ISO foreword to the 2026 edition states that this sixth edition cancels and replaces ISO 9001:2015, which has been technically revised, and incorporates Amendment 1:2024. It then lists the main changes. Global ACI describes them clause by clause in section 3 of its transition document, and judges the overall changes minimal: it expects organisations to find them largely intuitive and attainable with reasonable effort, depending on their context.

Quality culture and ethical behaviour (5.1.1, 7.3)

This is the most visible change. The ISO foreword says quality culture and ethical behaviour are now addressed within the requirements, in particular those on leadership, awareness and the environment for the operation of processes.

According to Global ACI, the list of top management commitments in 5.1.1 has been reorganised with a new item on promoting quality culture and ethical behaviour, and now speaks of promoting continual improvement rather than improvement. A new NOTE 2 reads: "An organization's quality culture and ethical behaviour are reflected in its shared values, attitudes, and established practices." Clause 7.3 (awareness) now includes organisational quality culture and ethical behaviour among the things people need to be aware of.

In practice, auditors will look for behaviour that shows quality and ethics are lived, not written: how concerns are raised and handled, what happens when an urgent delivery conflicts with a quality requirement, who has the authority to stop a shipment.

Risks and opportunities separated (6.1)

Clause 6.1 now has three sub-clauses, which Global ACI lists as "6.1.1 Determining risks and opportunities", "6.1.2 Actions to address risk" and "6.1.3 Actions to address opportunities". The introduction of the standard pairs risk-based thinking, aimed at preventing undesired results, with opportunity-based thinking, aimed at pursuing desired results.

Under the 2015 edition many organisations kept a single risk register where the opportunities column stayed mostly empty. With the 2026 edition opportunities get their own actions: a new market, a customer asking for an additional certification, a process ready to be digitised.

Stronger change management (6.3)

The foreword says the requirements on changes to the quality management system have been reinforced to support the achievement of intended results. Global ACI reports that the second paragraph of 6.3 now opens with that purpose and adds three items to plan: how the effectiveness of changes will be monitored and evaluated, how changes are communicated, and how their results will be reviewed. If your organisation changes structure, suppliers or ERP often, this is the clause to read first.

Quality policy and management review (5.2.1, 9.3.2)

In 5.2.1 some elements have moved into the item requiring the policy to take into account the context of the organisation and support its strategic direction. In 9.3.2, management review inputs are no longer things to take into consideration when planning the review: the review shall include them. A new input is added, changes in the needs and expectations of interested parties relevant to the quality management system.

Terms, documented information, annexes

• Terms and definitions: clause 3 now includes a limited set of core management system terms, with quality-specific terms for quality management system, quality policy and quality objectives. ISO 9000 remains the normative reference for quality terms.
• Documented information: Global ACI notes a new phrase and a clarification of what it means for documented information to be available.
• Annex A: revised to give more clarification on structure, terminology and the intent of requirements, as informative text with no additional requirements.
• Annex B: removed. References to other ISO/TC 176 standards now sit in Annex A and on the committee website.

What does not change

The 2026 introduction keeps the process approach, the PDCA cycle and the alignment with the harmonised structure common to ISO management system standards (Global ACI cites alignment with Annex SL). The Global ACI list of changes, which says it is not exhaustive, reports no changes to the operational requirements of clause 8. The climate change statements added in 2024 are now part of the base text.

The transition timeline

Global ACI counts every date from the last day of the publication month, September 2026:

1. 31 March 2027: accreditation bodies ready to assess certification bodies against the 2026 edition, and transition process announced.
2. 30 June 2027: accredited certification bodies submit their transition declaration and supporting documents.
3. 30 September 2027: accreditation bodies complete their transition decisions.
4. 31 March 2028: from this date, new and initial accredited certifications are issued only against ISO 9001:2026.
5. 30 September 2029: end of transition. Accredited certifications to the 2015 edition are no longer valid.

A certification body can issue accredited 2026 certificates only after its accreditation body has transitioned its accreditation. If you want to move early, ask your certification body when it expects that decision. National accreditation bodies publish their own arrangements within this framework, so the certification body is your practical point of reference.

How the transition audit works

Under section 5.2 of the Global ACI document, the transition audit:

• can be combined with a surveillance or recertification audit, or run as a separate special audit;
• reviews at least the changed requirements, changes to the organisation's context and the need for any other changes to the management system;
• can be carried out remotely, if the certification body can demonstrate that the audit objectives are met;
• may need additional audit time, which the certification body assesses and justifies based on the degree of change to your system and on the type of audit. Additional time may not be needed for a full system audit.

If you decide not to transition

The certification body can keep auditing you against the 2015 edition, but it has to tell you that your certification will expire at the end of the transition. If your current three-year cycle runs past 30 September 2029, the certificate will not stay valid for the whole cycle.

What to do now if you hold a 2015 certificate

With surveillance and recertification audits spread over the cycle, three years give you only a few audit dates to work with. Placing the transition on an audit already in the calendar is usually simpler than adding a special audit. A sequence that works:

1. Get the 2026 text from ISO or your national standards body and, where one is offered, a redline version that shows the changes against the previous edition.
2. Run a targeted gap analysis on the changed clauses: 5.1.1, 5.2.1, 6.1, 6.3, 7.3, 9.3.2, terms and documented information.
3. Restructure risks and opportunities along the three sub-clauses of 6.1, with dedicated actions for opportunities.
4. Collect evidence on quality culture and ethics: training, internal communication, how concerns are handled, how top management behaves.
5. Update your change procedure with effectiveness monitoring, communication and review of results.
6. Update the management review record so it includes every required input, interested party changes included.
7. Run an internal audit against the 2026 edition before the transition audit. It is the cheapest way to find the gaps.
8. Agree the plan with your certification body: which audit, whether extra time is needed, and from when it can issue accredited 2026 certificates.

If you are getting certified now

Until 31 March 2028 an accredited certification body can still issue an initial certificate against the 2015 edition, but that certificate will need a transition audit before 30 September 2029. Global ACI asks certification bodies to plan stage 1 and stage 2 audits with this cut-off in mind. If you are starting from scratch, building the system directly on the 2026 requirements and checking with the certification body when it can certify against them avoids doing the work twice. Our ISO 9001 page describes how we run these projects.

One audit cycle, several standards

Many organisations run ISO 9001 alongside an information security or business continuity system. ISO 9001:2015, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO 22301:2019 all appear in the list of standards that received the same climate change amendment in 2024, and all three follow the harmonised structure. The 2026 changes to leadership, risks and opportunities, change planning and management review therefore touch clauses you may already manage jointly. If that is your case, review the transition together with your ISO 27001 or ISO 22301 programme rather than in isolation.

In summary

ISO 9001:2015 is the edition most certified organisations hold today. ISO 9001:2026, published on 16 September 2026, keeps its structure and adds quality culture and ethics, separates risks from opportunities, strengthens change planning and makes management review inputs mandatory. Global ACI gives three years: new certifications only to the 2026 edition from 31 March 2028, 2015 certificates valid until 30 September 2029.

If you want to understand how much work the transition means for your quality system, or set up a first certification directly on the new edition, get in touch.