diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index f923932aee6c5421d0c70ca153e18c5707772773..c0fcc94f47e0d9a2ffeca486acab3641212d3b42 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed --long-version" will return the full string
-2.4b
+2.4.0