diff --git a/pyodide-build/pyodide_build/__init__.py b/pyodide-build/pyodide_build/__init__.py
index 38fe9bee6..d3a61b7a7 100644
--- a/pyodide-build/pyodide_build/__init__.py
+++ b/pyodide-build/pyodide_build/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.26.0.dev0"
+__version__ = "0.26.0a2"
diff --git a/src/core/pre.js b/src/core/pre.js
index 344c808ae..db55939b7 100644
--- a/src/core/pre.js
+++ b/src/core/pre.js
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ const API = Module.API;
 const Hiwire = {};
 const Tests = {};
 API.tests = Tests;
-API.version = "0.26.0.dev0";
+API.version = "0.26.0a2";
 Module.hiwire = Hiwire;
 
 function getTypeTag(x) {
diff --git a/src/js/package-lock.json b/src/js/package-lock.json
index 15f58b34c..72d5ebed4 100644
--- a/src/js/package-lock.json
+++ b/src/js/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "pyodide",
-  "version": "0.26.0-dev.0",
+  "version": "0.26.0-alpha.2",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "pyodide",
-      "version": "0.26.0-dev.0",
+      "version": "0.26.0-alpha.2",
       "license": "Apache-2.0",
       "dependencies": {
         "base-64": "^1.0.0",
diff --git a/src/js/package.json b/src/js/package.json
index aa1902ea2..c1662d56d 100644
--- a/src/js/package.json
+++ b/src/js/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "pyodide",
-  "version": "0.26.0-dev.0",
+  "version": "0.26.0-alpha.2",
   "description": "The Pyodide JavaScript package",
   "keywords": [
     "python",
diff --git a/src/js/version.ts b/src/js/version.ts
index b64b6dab8..fcdcab26e 100644
--- a/src/js/version.ts
+++ b/src/js/version.ts
@@ -6,4 +6,4 @@
  * from the version in ``package.json`` which follows the node package manager
  * version convention.
  */
-export const version: string = "0.26.0.dev0";
+export const version: string = "0.26.0a2";
diff --git a/src/py/pyodide/__init__.py b/src/py/pyodide/__init__.py
index 9450c3e52..669444e8e 100644
--- a/src/py/pyodide/__init__.py
+++ b/src/py/pyodide/__init__.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 # This package is imported by the test suite as well, and currently we don't use
 # pytest mocks for js or pyodide_js, so make sure to test "if IN_BROWSER" before
 # importing from these.
-__version__ = "0.26.0.dev0"
+__version__ = "0.26.0a2"
 
 __all__ = ["__version__", "console", "code", "ffi", "http", "webloop"]
 
diff --git a/src/py/pyproject.toml b/src/py/pyproject.toml
index 08ec5474e..0e7a6d93c 100644
--- a/src/py/pyproject.toml
+++ b/src/py/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "pyodide-py"
-version = "0.26.0.dev0"
+version = "0.26.0a2"
 authors = [{name = "Pyodide developers"}]
 description = "A Python package providing core interpreter functionality for Pyodide"
 classifiers = [