Top 20 Programming Languages of March 2026: See What’s Trending Now!

Python Remains at the Top

As of March 2026, Python continues to lead the TIOBE index with a 21.25% popularity share, despite a yearly decrease of 2.59%. Following a historic popularity peak in July 2025 (26.98%), the language continues its slow decline as more specialized languages gain traction, continuing the trend seen in previous months. Like in February, C and C++ round out the top three, with respective shares of 11.55% (up 2.02%) and 8.18% (down 2.9%).

In a month characterized by stability, Paul Jansen, the CEO of TIOBE Software, takes the opportunity to address a common query regarding the index’s methodology (described at the end of this article). Should LLMs now be included in the index calculation, or even replace search engines? His answer is definitive: no. LLMs are trained on web pages indexed by search engines, thus the sources remain the same.

The TIOBE index measures the number of existing internet pages for a specific programming language. Ultimately, LLMs rely on the same sources: they are trained and analyze these same web pages. Thus, there is no substantial real difference.

Paul Jansen

CEO, TIOBE Software

Top 20 Programming Languages in March 2026

This month, the top 10 rankings show little movement. The most notable shift is between SQL and R, switching places. SQL now ranks eighth and R ninth, up 0.94%. Further down the list, Swift makes a notable return to the top 20 by climbing six spots to number 20, pushing Kotlin out of the top 20 to the 22nd position. Perl remains stable at 11th place, following a dramatic climb from 24th over the past year.

Here are the top 20 programming languages most popular with developers in March 2026:

1. Python (= same position as March 2025)
2. C (+2)
3. C++ (-1)
4. Java (-1)
5. C# (=)
6. JavaScript (=)
7. Visual Basic (+2)
8. SQL (=)
9. R (+7)
10. Delphi/Object Pascal (=)
11. Perl (+13)
12. Scratch (=)
13. Fortran (-2)
14. Rust (=)
15. MATLAB (=)
16. Go (-9)
17. Assembly language (=)
18. PHP (-5)
19. Ada (+1)
20. Swift (+6)

View the full ranking

Ranking Criteria of the TIOBE Index

Updated monthly since 2002, the TIOBE index gauges the popularity of programming languages based on the volume of searches conducted across about twenty platforms, including Google, Bing, Amazon, and Wikipedia. As Paul Jansen reminds us this month, this approach remains relevant in the era of LLMs: they train on these same web pages, so they do not represent a fundamentally different data source. It’s important to note that the index does not seek to determine the best language, nor does it measure actual usage in businesses, but rather reflects the interest they garner among the developer community.