diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index c8dab3649ef..a84d05689b5 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use your contribution.  There's more information about this topic in the [DCO se
 
 ## Ways to Contribute
 
-**Please note:**  OpenSearch is a fork of [Elasticsearch 7.10.2](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch), and is currently in a pre-alpha state, so it's still very much a work in progress. If you do find references to Elasticsearch (outside of attributions and copyrights!) please [open an issue](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/issues)
+**Please note:**  OpenSearch is a fork of [Elasticsearch 7.10.2](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch), and is currently in an early beta state, so it's still very much a work in progress. If you do find references to Elasticsearch (outside of attributions and copyrights!) please [open an issue](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/issues)
 
 ### Bug Reports
 
diff --git a/DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md b/DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md
index cacc44e107e..d4104a4d611 100644
--- a/DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md
+++ b/DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 14m 50s
 2587 actionable tasks: 2450 executed, 137 up-to-date
 ```
 
-**Note: OpenSearch hasn't made any changes to the test suite yet, beyond fixing tests that broke after removing non-Apache licensed code and non-Apache licensed code checks. Also, while we're in pre-alpha, some tests may be failing until we finish the forking process. We should have an issue for all failing tests, but if you find one first, feel free to open one (and fix it :) ).**
+**Note: OpenSearch hasn't made any changes to the test suite yet, beyond fixing tests that broke after removing non-Apache licensed code and non-Apache licensed code checks. Also, while we're in an early beta stage, some tests may be failing until we finish the forking process. We should have an issue for all failing tests, but if you find one first, feel free to open one (and fix it :) ).**
 
 If the full test suite fails you may want to start with a smaller set.
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d9ad28c4d3e..806afef03ac 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Hello!
 
-OpenSearch is an open source search and analytics engine derived from Elasticsearch 7.10.2, and is currently in an alpha state. While we're still in the process of getting set up, we are excited to build the best distributed search engine on the planet with you.
+OpenSearch is an open source search and analytics engine derived from Elasticsearch 7.10.2. It is currently in an early beta state. While we're still in the process of getting set up, we are excited to build the best distributed search engine on the planet with you.
 
 We officially began work on the new fork on January 21st, 2021.  Since then, we've been removing non-Apache 2.0 compliant code and doing a full rename of the project.  Feel free to take a look around at what we've been up to, and then head over to look at the [open issues](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/issues).  Or you could jump right in and [start opening issues](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/issues/new/choose) or [contributing](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).