diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 13bdde031..526ec89c6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,20 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 2.44.0-rc.0 / 2023-04-22
+
+* [CHANGE] remote-write: raise default samples per send to 2,000. #12203
+* [FEATURE] remote-read: handle native histograms. #12085, #12192
+* [FEATURE] promtool: health and readiness check of prometheus server in CLI. #12096
+* [FEATURE] promql engine: add query_samples_total metric, the total number of samples loaded by all queries. #12251
+* [ENHANCEMENT] scraping: reduce memory allocations on Target labels. #12084
+* [ENHANCEMENT] promql: use faster heap method for topk/bottomk. #12190
+* [ENHANCEMENT] rules API: Allow filtering by rule name. #12270
+* [ENHANCEMENT] native histograms: various fixes and improvements. #11687, #12264, #12272
+* [ENHANCEMENT] ui: search of "Scrape Pools" is now case-insensitive. #12207
+* [ENHANCEMENT] tsdb: add an affirmative log message for successful WAL repair. #12135
+* [BUGFIX] tsdb: block compaction failed when shutting down. #12179
+* [BUGFIX] tsdb: out-of-order chunks could be ignored if the write-behind log was deleted. #12127
+
 ## 2.43.0 / 2023-03-21
 
 We are working on some performance improvements in Prometheus, which are only
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 5b9cd9afd..a4494d974 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.43.0
+2.44.0-rc.0
diff --git a/web/ui/module/codemirror-promql/package.json b/web/ui/module/codemirror-promql/package.json
index f20a63468..6521c8729 100644
--- a/web/ui/module/codemirror-promql/package.json
+++ b/web/ui/module/codemirror-promql/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql",
-  "version": "0.43.0",
+  "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
   "description": "a CodeMirror mode for the PromQL language",
   "types": "dist/esm/index.d.ts",
   "module": "dist/esm/index.js",
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
   },
   "homepage": "https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/blob/main/web/ui/module/codemirror-promql/README.md",
   "dependencies": {
-    "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.43.0",
+    "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
     "lru-cache": "^6.0.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
diff --git a/web/ui/module/lezer-promql/package.json b/web/ui/module/lezer-promql/package.json
index 411251e56..be92ac46f 100644
--- a/web/ui/module/lezer-promql/package.json
+++ b/web/ui/module/lezer-promql/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql",
-  "version": "0.43.0",
+  "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
   "description": "lezer-based PromQL grammar",
   "main": "dist/index.cjs",
   "type": "module",
diff --git a/web/ui/package-lock.json b/web/ui/package-lock.json
index 2e334cf9e..09a4fd3fe 100644
--- a/web/ui/package-lock.json
+++ b/web/ui/package-lock.json
@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@
     },
     "module/codemirror-promql": {
       "name": "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql",
-      "version": "0.43.0",
+      "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
       "license": "Apache-2.0",
       "dependencies": {
-        "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.43.0",
+        "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
         "lru-cache": "^6.0.0"
       },
       "devDependencies": {
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@
     },
     "module/lezer-promql": {
       "name": "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql",
-      "version": "0.43.0",
+      "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
       "license": "Apache-2.0",
       "devDependencies": {
         "@lezer/generator": "^1.2.2",
@@ -20763,7 +20763,7 @@
     },
     "react-app": {
       "name": "@prometheus-io/app",
-      "version": "0.43.0",
+      "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
       "dependencies": {
         "@codemirror/autocomplete": "^6.4.0",
         "@codemirror/commands": "^6.2.0",
@@ -20781,7 +20781,7 @@
         "@lezer/lr": "^1.3.1",
         "@nexucis/fuzzy": "^0.4.1",
         "@nexucis/kvsearch": "^0.8.1",
-        "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.43.0",
+        "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
         "bootstrap": "^4.6.2",
         "css.escape": "^1.5.1",
         "downshift": "^7.2.0",
@@ -23417,7 +23417,7 @@
         "@lezer/lr": "^1.3.1",
         "@nexucis/fuzzy": "^0.4.1",
         "@nexucis/kvsearch": "^0.8.1",
-        "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.43.0",
+        "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
         "@testing-library/react-hooks": "^7.0.2",
         "@types/enzyme": "^3.10.12",
         "@types/flot": "0.0.32",
@@ -23468,7 +23468,7 @@
         "@lezer/common": "^1.0.2",
         "@lezer/highlight": "^1.1.3",
         "@lezer/lr": "^1.3.1",
-        "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.43.0",
+        "@prometheus-io/lezer-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
         "@types/lru-cache": "^5.1.1",
         "isomorphic-fetch": "^3.0.0",
         "lru-cache": "^6.0.0",
diff --git a/web/ui/react-app/package.json b/web/ui/react-app/package.json
index c8b115582..b4929d664 100644
--- a/web/ui/react-app/package.json
+++ b/web/ui/react-app/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@prometheus-io/app",
-  "version": "0.43.0",
+  "version": "0.44.0-rc.0",
   "private": true,
   "dependencies": {
     "@codemirror/autocomplete": "^6.4.0",
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
     "@lezer/common": "^1.0.2",
     "@nexucis/fuzzy": "^0.4.1",
     "@nexucis/kvsearch": "^0.8.1",
-    "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.43.0",
+    "@prometheus-io/codemirror-promql": "0.44.0-rc.0",
     "bootstrap": "^4.6.2",
     "css.escape": "^1.5.1",
     "downshift": "^7.2.0",