Python End-of-Life Dates —
Official EOL Schedule for Every Version

Python 3.8 reached end of life in October 2024. Python 3.9 followed in October 2025. Python 3.11 is approaching its EOL date in October 2026 — six months from now. And Python 2.7 has been dead since January 2020, yet it still runs in more production environments than anyone admits.

This is the single authoritative reference for Python end-of-life dates across every major version — with EOL Risk Scores™, migration notes, and plain-English guidance on what to do if you're running past end of support.

Complete Python EOL Schedule

Python releases a new minor version (3.x) roughly every October and supports each version for five years. The table below covers every Python 3.x version and its official end-of-life date as published by the Python Software Foundation.

Version	Released	End of Life	Status	EOL Risk Score™
Python 2.7	Jul 2010	Jan 1, 2020	EOL	98
Python 3.6	Dec 2016	Dec 23, 2021	EOL	95
Python 3.7	Jun 2018	Jun 27, 2023	EOL	92
Python 3.8	Oct 2019	Oct 31, 2024	EOL	88
Python 3.9	Oct 2020	Oct 31, 2025	EOL	82
Python 3.10	Oct 2021	Oct 31, 2026	EOL in 6 months	48
Python 3.11	Oct 2022	Oct 31, 2026	EOL in 6 months	44
Python 3.12	Oct 2023	Oct 31, 2028	Stable	22
Python 3.13	Oct 2024	Oct 31, 2029	Latest	15

Python 3.8 — End of Life October 31, 2024

Python 3.8 reached its official end-of-life date on October 31, 2024. It has been unsupported for over six months. No security patches, no bug fixes, no CVE remediation.

Python 3.8 was the version that introduced the walrus operator (:=), positional-only parameters, and significant performance improvements to the dict implementation. It became the default Python on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS — which means any server still running Ubuntu 20.04 is very likely running Python 3.8 as its system Python.

EOL Risk Score™

Python 3.8 — Score: 88 Critical

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Migrating from Python 3.8

• Target Python 3.12 — it's the current stable release and supported until 2028
• Run python -m py_compile on your codebase against 3.12 to catch syntax issues early
• Check distutils usage — it was deprecated in 3.10 and removed in 3.12
• Replace asyncio.get_event_loop() with asyncio.get_running_loop()
• Use pyupgrade --py312-plus to automatically modernize syntax

Python 3.9 — End of Life October 31, 2025

Python 3.9 reached end of life on October 31, 2025. It introduced built-in generic types (list[int] instead of List[int] from typing), the | merge operator for dicts, and became the default Python on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Python 3.9 had a long tail of adoption because Ubuntu 22.04 shipped it as the default. Many Docker base images still use python:3.9 as their foundation. If you're pulling from Docker Hub without pinning to a specific digest, you may be running 3.9 in containers without realising it.

EOL Risk Score™

Python 3.9 — Score: 82 Critical

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Check your Docker base images

Run docker inspect <image> | grep -i python on your production containers. If you see 3.9 or earlier, that's your migration target. Update your Dockerfiles to FROM python:3.12-slim and rebuild.

Python 3.10 — End of Life October 31, 2026

Python 3.10 reaches end of life on October 31, 2026 — approximately six months from now. It introduced structural pattern matching (match/case), better error messages, and parenthesized context managers.

If you adopted Python 3.10 specifically for pattern matching, the good news is that Python 3.12 fully supports it with further improvements. The migration path from 3.10 to 3.12 is straightforward for most codebases.

EOL Risk Score™

Python 3.10 — Score: 48 Medium · EOL Oct 31, 2026

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Python 3.11 — End of Life October 31, 2026

Python 3.11 reaches end of life on October 31, 2026. It was the fastest Python release in years — benchmarks showed 10–60% performance improvements over Python 3.10, driven by the Specializing Adaptive Interpreter. Many teams upgraded specifically for these gains.

The EOL date is six months away. That sounds comfortable. It isn't — especially for larger codebases with complex dependency trees. The average Python migration across a medium-sized application takes 4–8 weeks when you factor in dependency compatibility testing, CI pipeline updates, and staged rollouts.

EOL Risk Score™

Python 3.11 — Score: 44 Medium · EOL Oct 31, 2026

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Start your Python 3.11 migration now

• Run pip install -r requirements.txt against Python 3.12 in a fresh venv — most failures surface immediately
• Check setuptools and pkg_resources usage — both are deprecated in newer pip
• tomllib is now in stdlib — remove the tomli backport dependency
• Exception groups (ExceptionGroup) are available in 3.11+ and 3.12 — no migration needed
• Run your full test suite on 3.12 in CI before touching production

Python 3.12 — Current Stable, Supported Until 2028

Python 3.12 is the current stable release and the recommended migration target for teams on 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, or 3.11. It is supported until October 31, 2028 — giving you a two-year runway from today.

Python 3.12 brings further performance improvements, a new @override decorator for type checking, improved f-string parsing, and the removal of long-deprecated modules including distutils, aifc, cgi, and chunk. The removal of distutils is the most common migration blocker — check for it before upgrading.

EOL Risk Score™

Python 3.12 — Score: 22 Low · Supported until Oct 2028

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Python 3.13 — Latest Release

Python 3.13 is the latest release, available since October 2024 and supported until October 31, 2029. It introduces an experimental free-threaded mode (PEP 703 — removing the GIL), a new interactive interpreter (REPL), and continued performance work from the Faster CPython project.

For most production deployments, Python 3.12 is the right choice today. Python 3.13's free-threaded mode is experimental and not recommended for production. Adopt 3.13 when your key dependencies have confirmed compatibility.

What the EOL Risk Score™ Means for Python

Every Python version page on endoflife.ai carries an EOL Risk Score™ — a 0–100 score measuring the actual security and operational risk of running that version in production. Four factors drive the score:

• EOL Recency (40pts) — Python 2.7, six years past EOL, scores 98. Python 3.11, still supported, scores 44.
• Attack Surface (30pts) — Python runs web servers, processes data, executes arbitrary code. CVEs in EOL versions are never patched.
• CISA KEV Exposure (20pts) — whether known exploited vulnerabilities exist for this version in the CISA catalog.
• Extended Support Availability (10pts) — commercial extended support options for Python are limited, which increases urgency.

How to Migrate Safely

Step 1 — Test against the target version first

Create a fresh virtual environment with Python 3.12: python3.12 -m venv venv-test. Install your full requirements.txt. Note every failure — these are your migration tasks.

Step 2 — Check for removed modules

Python 3.12 removed distutils, aifc, cgi, cgitb, chunk, crypt, imghdr, mailcap, msilib, nis, nntplib, ossaudiodev, pipes, sndhdr, spwd, sunau, telnetlib, uu, and xdrlib. Run grep -r "import distutils\|from distutils" . to find usage in your codebase.

Step 3 — Use pyupgrade for automatic fixes

pip install pyupgrade then run pyupgrade --py312-plus **/*.py. It automatically updates old-style type hints, string formatting, and deprecated patterns. Safe to run on any codebase.

Step 4 — Update CI before production

Change your CI matrix to include Python 3.12. Run your full test suite. Fix failures. Only promote to production after a clean CI run. Use .python-version or pyproject.toml to pin the version explicitly.

Step 5 — Update your Docker base images

Change FROM python:3.11 to FROM python:3.12-slim in all Dockerfiles. Rebuild and test. The -slim variant reduces image size significantly and is appropriate for most production workloads.