diff --git a/Doxyfile b/Doxyfile
index efc2f464e3..1a9e0b4e10 100644
--- a/Doxyfile
+++ b/Doxyfile
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ PROJECT_NAME           = ESPHome
 # could be handy for archiving the generated documentation or if some version
 # control system is used.
 
-PROJECT_NUMBER         = 2026.2.0-dev
+PROJECT_NUMBER         = 2026.3.0-dev
 
 # Using the PROJECT_BRIEF tag one can provide an optional one line description
 # for a project that appears at the top of each page and should give viewer a
diff --git a/esphome/const.py b/esphome/const.py
index 00d8013cc6..f72cbc8893 100644
--- a/esphome/const.py
+++ b/esphome/const.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from enum import Enum
 
 from esphome.enum import StrEnum
 
-__version__ = "2026.2.0-dev"
+__version__ = "2026.3.0-dev"
 
 ALLOWED_NAME_CHARS = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-_"
 VALID_SUBSTITUTIONS_CHARACTERS = (
diff --git a/tests/components/time/posix_tz_parser.cpp b/tests/components/time/posix_tz_parser.cpp
index 2f41b17239..301136175a 100644
--- a/tests/components/time/posix_tz_parser.cpp
+++ b/tests/components/time/posix_tz_parser.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // Tests for the POSIX TZ parser and ESPTime::strptime implementations
-// These custom parsers avoid pulling in scanf (~9.8KB on ESP32-IDF).
+// These custom parsers avoid pulling in the scanf family, saving ~9.8KB on ESP32-IDF.
 
 // Enable USE_TIME_TIMEZONE for tests
 #define USE_TIME_TIMEZONE