diff --git a/CHANGES/v2.9.md b/CHANGES/v2.9.md
index 1b920178eb..993dd5d0d1 100644
--- a/CHANGES/v2.9.md
+++ b/CHANGES/v2.9.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 @page CHANGES-2-9 Version 2.9
   
-## Version 2.9 (under development)
+## Version 2.9 beta (Mar 13, 2023)
 
 This page contains changes that will end up in 2.9
 
diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index 86521b4b4d..2d59abc3cb 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed info --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed info --long-version" will return the full string
-2.9.0-dev
+2.9b