diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index da8f070d..b0d2d114 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Unreleased
+# Release 4.16.0rc1 (June 24, 2026)
 
 - Make `typing_extensions.TypeAliasType`'s `__module__` attribute writable.
   Backport of CPython PR
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index b024621d..3b871421 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ build-backend = "flit_core.buildapi"
 # Project metadata
 [project]
 name = "typing_extensions"
-version = "4.15.0"
+version = "4.16.0rc1"
 description = "Backported and Experimental Type Hints for Python 3.9+"
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.9"