What's New in EF Core 10: A Map

EF Core 10 shipped in November 2025 as a Long Term Support release, and the "What's new" page lists dozens of items across providers, modeling, querying and security. This concept is a map, not a tutorial: it groups the headline changes, says in a few lines what each one does, and points to the concept in this track that goes deep. Items that have no deep concept yet are only described here.

After reading it you should know which changes can affect an upgrade, which ones are optional features, and where to read next.

• Planning the move from EF Core 8 or 9 to 10 and deciding what to test first.
• Reviewing a pull request that uses a new API such as a named query filter.
• Explaining to a team which new features need SQL Server 2025 or Azure SQL and which work on any provider.
• Finding the right deep concept without reading the whole release page.

Release basics

The official page states that EF Core 10 requires the .NET 10 SDK to build and the .NET 10 runtime to run, and that it will not run on earlier .NET versions or on .NET Framework. It is an LTS release supported until November 10, 2028. The support model and how to choose a target is in dotnet-support-lifecycle-and-choosing-a-target.

Modeling: complex types and JSON

Complex types gained the most. They now support optional values (the type needs at least one required property), mapping to a JSON column with ToJson, and .NET structs (collections of structs are not supported yet). The page explains why complex types are a better choice than owned entities for table splitting and JSON: value semantics, comparison by content, assignment that copies. Existing owned-type mappings are advised to move over.

On SQL Server 2025 and Azure SQL the native json type becomes the default when you configure UseAzureSql or compatibility level 170 or higher. Existing nvarchar JSON columns change to json in the next migration unless you opt out. Read json-columns-and-complex-types for the details, and mapping-the-domain-with-ef-core for value objects in general.

Updates: ExecuteUpdate

Two changes touch ExecuteUpdateAsync. It can reference JSON columns and the properties inside them, but only when the types are mapped as complex types. And it now accepts a regular lambda instead of an expression tree, so a conditional SetProperty is an ordinary if. The JSON side lives in json-columns-and-complex-types, the set-based update in general in query-translation-and-performance and ef-core-crud-operations-and-seeding.

Querying

• Named query filters. HasQueryFilter takes a name, and IgnoreQueryFilters can disable only some filters per query. Soft delete and tenant filters can now coexist on one entity. See global-and-named-query-filters.
• Parameterized collections. The new default sends each element as its own scalar parameter and pads the list to limit distinct SQL texts. You can switch strategy globally with UseParameterizedCollectionMode or per query with EF.Constant. This is described on the page; the closest deep concept is query-translation-and-performance.
• LeftJoin and RightJoin. The .NET 10 LINQ operators are recognized by EF Core and translated to LEFT JOIN and RIGHT JOIN. Query syntax cannot express them yet. Also covered by query-translation-and-performance.
• Split queries. Ordering is now consistent between the queries of an AsSplitQuery call. See loading-related-data-and-n-plus-one.
• Smaller items include new translations such as DateOnly.ToDateTime() and simpler parameter names (@city instead of @__city_0).

Security

Constants inlined into SQL, for example through EF.Constant, are redacted from logs as ? unless sensitive data logging is on. An analyzer warns when you concatenate strings inside FromSqlRaw. Logging is in ef-core-logging-query-tags-and-diagnostics, raw SQL in query-translation-and-performance.

SQL Server and Azure SQL

Besides the json type, EF Core 10 supports the vector type through SqlVector<float> and the VectorDistance function, available on Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025. HasDefaultValueSql accepts a constraint name, and UseNamedDefaultConstraints names all of them; with existing migrations the next one renames every default constraint. There is no deep concept for vector search in this track yet.

Cosmos DB

Full-text search (EnableFullTextSearch, IsFullTextIndex, FullTextContains and related functions), hybrid search through Rrf, vector search leaving preview with IsVectorProperty and IsVectorIndex, and required properties that materialize a default when an old document lacks them. Choosing between relational and document stores is in ef-core-ado-net-dapper-and-nosql.

Migrations and other items

EF Core 10 stops wrapping all pending migrations in one transaction, reverting a change from EF Core 9. See applying-migrations-in-production and ef-core-migrations-workflow. SQLite also lets you disable AUTOINCREMENT.

• A map is not a guide. Each summary omits caveats the deep concept covers, such as JSON mapping limits. Follow the link before adopting a feature.
• Defaults changed silently. The json column type, parameter padding and per-migration transactions can alter behavior without a code edit. Check the breaking changes page and run your migrations on a copy.
• Several features are provider specific. Vector, native json and Cosmos search do not exist on every database, so code using them is less portable.
• Choose complex types for new value objects. Owned entities still work, but the page steers JSON and table splitting to complex types, and ExecuteUpdate over JSON needs them.
• Named filters add rules to remember. More filters means more places a query can be silently narrower than you expect.