diff --git a/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix b/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
index abe14e72f668a..eedff36b5640e 100644
--- a/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
+++ b/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
@@ -25956,6 +25956,11 @@
     githubId = 91203390;
     name = "Felix Kimmel";
   };
+  thesn = {
+    github = "thesn10";
+    githubId = 38666407;
+    name = "TheSN";
+  };
   thesola10 = {
     email = "me@thesola.io";
     github = "Thesola10";
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/gp/gpac/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/gp/gpac/package.nix
index 44da242fca324..5603ae754edf2 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/gp/gpac/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/gp/gpac/package.nix
@@ -2,38 +2,131 @@
   lib,
   stdenv,
   fetchFromGitHub,
+  gitUpdater,
+  unstableGitUpdater,
   cctools,
   pkg-config,
   zlib,
-}:
+  ffmpeg-headless,
+  freetype,
+  libjpeg_turbo,
+  libpng,
+  libmad,
+  faad2,
+  libogg,
+  libvorbis,
+  libtheora,
+  a52dec,
+  nghttp2,
+  openjpeg,
+  libcaca,
+  mesa,
+  mesa_glu,
+  xvidcore,
+  openssl,
+  jack2,
+  alsa-lib,
+  pulseaudio,
+  SDL2,
+  curl,
+  xorg,
 
-stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  pname = "gpac";
-  version = "2.4.0";
+  withFullDeps ? false,
+  withFfmpeg ? withFullDeps,
+  releaseChannel ? "stable",
+}:
 
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner = "gpac";
-    repo = "gpac";
-    rev = "v${version}";
-    hash = "sha256-RADDqc5RxNV2EfRTzJP/yz66p0riyn81zvwU3r9xncM=";
+let
+  stable = rec {
+    version = "2.4.0"; # See below TODO.
+    src = fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "gpac";
+      repo = "gpac";
+      rev = "v${version}";
+      hash = "sha256-RADDqc5RxNV2EfRTzJP/yz66p0riyn81zvwU3r9xncM=";
+    };
+    updateScript = gitUpdater {
+      odd-unstable = true;
+      rev-prefix = "v";
+      ignoredVersions = "^(abi|test)";
+    };
+  }
+  // {
+    # ffmpeg 7.0.2 works, but 7.1.1 (which is packaged in nixpkgs) doesn't
+    # because v2.4.0 of this package relies on internal private ffmpeg fields.
+    # TODO: remove this, and switch to simply using ffmpeg-headless,
+    #       when updating stable to 2.6
+    ffmpeg-headless = ffmpeg-headless.override {
+      version = "7.0.2";
+      hash = "sha256-6bcTxMt0rH/Nso3X7zhrFNkkmWYtxsbUqVQKh25R1Fs=";
+    };
+  };
+  unstable = {
+    version = "2.4-unstable-2025-10-26";
+    src = fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "gpac";
+      repo = "gpac";
+      rev = "e1a54e81b3befba2b0bffd1d4c1cf50da516c5f3";
+      hash = "sha256-jSMBPuWPmTDCebImdmAcCZl0hEQpJK4QMNGcEXgs3A4=";
+    };
+    updateScript = unstableGitUpdater {
+      tagFormat = "v*";
+      tagPrefix = "v";
+    };
+    inherit ffmpeg-headless;
   };
+  channelToUse = if releaseChannel == "unstable" then unstable else stable;
+in
+stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
+  pname = "gpac";
+  inherit (channelToUse) version src;
 
-  # this is the bare minimum configuration, as I'm only interested in MP4Box
-  # For most other functionality, this should probably be extended
   nativeBuildInputs = [
     pkg-config
   ]
   ++ lib.optionals stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin [
     cctools
+  ]
+  ++ lib.optionals withFfmpeg [
+    channelToUse.ffmpeg-headless
   ];
 
+  # ref: https://wiki.gpac.io/Build/build/GPAC-Build-Guide-for-Linux/#gpac-easy-build-recommended-for-most-users
   buildInputs = [
     zlib
+  ]
+  ++ lib.optionals withFullDeps [
+    freetype
+    libjpeg_turbo
+    libpng
+    libmad
+    faad2
+    libogg
+    libvorbis
+    libtheora
+    a52dec
+    nghttp2
+    openjpeg
+    libcaca
+    xorg.libX11
+    xorg.libXv
+    xorg.xorgproto
+    mesa
+    mesa_glu
+    xvidcore
+    openssl
+    jack2
+    alsa-lib
+    pulseaudio
+    SDL2
+    curl
   ];
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  meta = with lib; {
+  passthru.updateScript = channelToUse.updateScript;
+
+  meta = {
     description = "Open Source multimedia framework for research and academic purposes";
     longDescription = ''
       GPAC is an Open Source multimedia framework for research and academic purposes.
@@ -48,10 +141,11 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
       And some server tools included in MP4Box and MP42TS applications.
     '';
     homepage = "https://gpac.wp.imt.fr";
-    license = licenses.lgpl21;
-    maintainers = with maintainers; [
+    license = lib.licenses.lgpl21;
+    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [
       mgdelacroix
+      thesn
     ];
-    platforms = platforms.unix;
+    platforms = lib.platforms.unix;
   };
-}
+})
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index dcd95dbaf55d5..1f983ac7f56a9 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -14539,4 +14539,8 @@ with pkgs;
   davis = callPackage ../by-name/da/davis/package.nix {
     php = php83; # https://github.com/tchapi/davis/issues/195
   };
+
+  gpac-unstable = callPackage ../by-name/gp/gpac/package.nix {
+    releaseChannel = "unstable";
+  };
 }