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# What’s new in Gutenberg 23.9? (2 September)

**[Make WordPress Core](https://daily.dev/sources/wordpresscore)** · 20 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Gutenberg 23.9 ships quality-of-life editing improvements: an inserter now accessible directly from the block toolbar so editors don't need to hunt for it, and a new dot indicator plus filter in Global Styles to spot blocks with custom style overrides. Other highlights include axial block gap for Group blocks (independent horizontal/vertical spacing in flex and grid layouts), styling label elements via theme.json, expanded Global Styles support for citations, inputs, and selects, and the ability to add custom duotone colors in Global Styles. The release also includes a large set of enhancements, bug fixes, accessibility improvements, experiments, and code quality changes across components, block library, post editor, and site editor.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/09/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-23-9-2-september>

## Questions this post answers

### What's new in Gutenberg 23.9 for the WordPress block editor?

Gutenberg 23.9 adds the ability to insert new blocks directly from the block toolbar instead of searching for the inserter, and introduces a dot indicator in Global Styles showing which blocks have custom style overrides, with a filter to view only customized blocks. It also adds axial block gap spacing for Group blocks in flex and grid layouts, theme.json styling for label elements, and custom duotone colors in Global Styles.

_Track WordPress block editor updates like these on daily.dev as Gutenberg evolves release by release._

### How do I add independent horizontal and vertical spacing to a Group block in Gutenberg?

Gutenberg 23.9 enables axial block gap spacing for the Group block, letting flex and grid layouts set horizontal and vertical gaps independently instead of a single uniform value. This change is tracked under pull request 81476 and gives finer control over spacing in complex layout designs.

_Developers fine-tuning block layouts follow Gutenberg release notes like this on daily.dev._

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