diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index 4260b0666..50ab76791 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 	"features": {
 		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:2": {},
 		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/go:1": {
-			"version": "1.25.8"
+			"version": "1.26.0"
 		}
 	},
 
diff --git a/.github/actions/install-go/action.yml b/.github/actions/install-go/action.yml
index 3e626bbfc..6e1e9a596 100644
--- a/.github/actions/install-go/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/install-go/action.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ description: "Reusable action to install Go, so there is one place to bump Go ve
 inputs:
   go-version:
     required: true
-    default: "1.25.8"
+    default: "1.26.0"
     description: "Go version to install"
 
 runs:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/api-release.yml b/.github/workflows/api-release.yml
index 6ac4377db..2617a461b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/api-release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/api-release.yml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ on:
 name: API Release
 
 env:
-  GO_VERSION: "1.25.8"
+  GO_VERSION: "1.26.0"
 
 permissions: # added using https://github.com/step-security/secure-workflows
   contents: read
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index a54005bba..ef352ad61 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest, ubuntu-24.04-arm, macos-latest, windows-latest]
-        go-version: ["1.25.8", "1.26.1"]
+        go-version: ["1.26.0", "1.26.1"] # 1.25 is not supported due to k8s 1.36 requiring 1.26
         exclude:
           - os: ${{ github.event.repository.private && 'ubuntu-24.04-arm' || '' }}
     steps:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile b/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
index 22594fe1d..16c729c30 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
+++ b/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 ARG UBUNTU_VERSION=22.04
 ARG BASE_IMAGE=ubuntu:${UBUNTU_VERSION}
-ARG GO_VERSION=1.25.8
+ARG GO_VERSION=1.26.0
 ARG GO_IMAGE=golang:${GO_VERSION}
 FROM --platform=$BUILDPLATFORM $GO_IMAGE AS go
 FROM --platform=$BUILDPLATFORM tonistiigi/xx:1.6.1@sha256:923441d7c25f1e2eb5789f82d987693c47b8ed987c4ab3b075d6ed2b5d6779a3 AS xx
diff --git a/BUILDING.md b/BUILDING.md
index 2318ce1a0..b1e967305 100644
--- a/BUILDING.md
+++ b/BUILDING.md
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ A codespace will open in a web-based version of Visual Studio Code. The [dev con
 
 To build the `containerd` daemon, and the `ctr` simple test client, the following build system dependencies are required:
 
-* Go compiler (download from https://go.dev/dl/). The two most recent major Go versions are supported. For example, if Go 1.25 is the latest, then 1.25 and 1.24 are supported.
+* Go compiler (download from https://go.dev/dl/). At least one of the two most recent major Go versions are supported. For example, if Go 1.26 is the latest, either 1.26 or 1.25 are supported. It is not uncommon to find issues in early days of the latest go version. The support of the non-latest version is dependant on dependencies supported versions.
 * Btrfs headers and libraries for your distribution. Note that building the btrfs driver can be disabled via the build tag `no_btrfs`, removing this dependency.
 
 > *Note*: On macOS, you need a third party runtime to run containers on containerd
diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 3502f8228..0aa8f9b74 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ EOF
   config.vm.provision "install-golang", type: "shell", run: "once" do |sh|
     sh.upload_path = "/tmp/vagrant-install-golang"
     sh.env = {
-        'GO_VERSION': ENV['GO_VERSION'] || "1.25.8",
+        'GO_VERSION': ENV['GO_VERSION'] || "1.26.0",
     }
     sh.inline = <<~SHELL
         #!/usr/bin/env bash
diff --git a/contrib/Dockerfile.test b/contrib/Dockerfile.test
index 222fe7304..624f7c6e5 100644
--- a/contrib/Dockerfile.test
+++ b/contrib/Dockerfile.test
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 #   docker run --privileged --group-add keep-groups -v ./critest_exit_code.txt:/tmp/critest_exit_code.txt containerd-test
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-ARG GOLANG_VERSION=1.25.8
+ARG GOLANG_VERSION=1.26.0
 ARG GOLANG_IMAGE=golang
 
 FROM ${GOLANG_IMAGE}:${GOLANG_VERSION} AS golang
diff --git a/contrib/fuzz/oss_fuzz_build.sh b/contrib/fuzz/oss_fuzz_build.sh
index 691e0594a..2acbf6385 100755
--- a/contrib/fuzz/oss_fuzz_build.sh
+++ b/contrib/fuzz/oss_fuzz_build.sh
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ compile_fuzzers() {
 
 apt-get update && apt-get install -y wget
 cd $SRC
-wget --quiet https://go.dev/dl/go1.25.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
+wget --quiet https://go.dev/dl/go1.26.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
 
 mkdir temp-go
 rm -rf /root/.go/*
-tar -C temp-go/ -xzf go1.25.8.linux-amd64.tar.gz
+tar -C temp-go/ -xzf go1.26.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
 mv temp-go/go/* /root/.go/
 cd $SRC/containerd
 
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 9ba134f8a..850d844c4 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/containerd/containerd/v2
 
-go 1.25.0
+go 1.26.0
 
 require (
 	dario.cat/mergo v1.0.2
diff --git a/integration/client/container_checkpoint_test.go b/integration/client/container_checkpoint_test.go
index c6fc9b924..24191fab5 100644
--- a/integration/client/container_checkpoint_test.go
+++ b/integration/client/container_checkpoint_test.go
@@ -388,7 +388,7 @@ func TestCheckpointLeaveRunning(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	if status.Status != Running {
-		t.Fatalf("expected status %q but received %q", Running, status)
+		t.Fatalf("expected status %q but received %q", Running, status.Status)
 	}
 
 	if err := task.Kill(ctx, syscall.SIGKILL); err != nil {
diff --git a/script/setup/prepare_env_windows.ps1 b/script/setup/prepare_env_windows.ps1
index ecb373acc..240fb44ed 100644
--- a/script/setup/prepare_env_windows.ps1
+++ b/script/setup/prepare_env_windows.ps1
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # lived test environment.
 Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring:$true
 
-$PACKAGES= @{ mingw = "10.2.0"; git = ""; golang = "1.25.8"; make = ""; nssm = "" }
+$PACKAGES= @{ mingw = "10.2.0"; git = ""; golang = "1.26.0"; make = ""; nssm = "" }
 
 Write-Host "Downloading chocolatey package"
 curl.exe -L "https://packages.chocolatey.org/chocolatey.0.10.15.nupkg" -o 'c:\choco.zip'