Ubuntu End of Life: Every Version's Dates — 22.04, 24.04, 20.04 and the Three Support Clocks

By Scott Bissett  ·  Published August 28, 2026  ·  Dates verified against Canonical's release-cycle page and re-checked at every site build

Ubuntu's end-of-life story is really three stories, running on three different clocks — and most of the confusion (and most of the surprise outages) come from mixing them up. Standard support is what you get for free: five years on an LTS release, nine months on an interim one. Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM), delivered through Ubuntu Pro, adds roughly five more paid years. And on the newest LTS releases Canonical now sells a Legacy add-on stretching coverage further still. The same Ubuntu version can be simultaneously "end of life" on one clock and "supported until the 2030s" on another.

Key Dates at a Glance

• ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Raccoon): standard support ends 2031-05-29; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2036-05-31
• ubuntu 25.10 (Questing Quokka): standard support ends 2026-07-01
• ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin): standard support ends 2026-01-17
• ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular Oriole): standard support ends 2025-07-10
• ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat): standard support ends 2029-05-31; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2034-05-31
• ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish): standard support ends 2027-05-31; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2032-05-31
• ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa): standard support ends 2025-05-31; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2030-05-31
• ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver): standard support ends 2023-05-31; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2028-05-31

Every Ubuntu Release: Standard Support and ESM Dates

Live per-version risk sits on the Ubuntu lifecycle page — 75 is 20.04's current EOL Risk Score™, recalculated at every build from EOL recency, attack surface, CISA KEV exposure, and extended-support availability.

The Three Clocks: Standard Support, ESM, and the Legacy Add-On

Standard support is the free tier: five years of security updates for an LTS release, nine months for an interim release. This is the date most "is it EOL?" questions are really asking about, and the date our tables call "standard support ends."

Expanded Security Maintenance is Canonical's paid extension, delivered through an Ubuntu Pro subscription: roughly five additional years of security patches, covering packages in both the main and universe repositories. Pro is free for personal use on up to five machines, paid for commercial fleets. This is why a "dead" 20.04 box can still be receiving patches — if, and only if, someone attached a Pro subscription to it.

The Legacy add-on is the newest wrinkle: on 24.04 LTS and later, Canonical sells an optional extension beyond ESM — for 24.04 that means coverage purchasable into 2039, a fifteen-year total lifecycle. It exists precisely because enterprises kept asking for RHEL-length lifecycles on Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) — Standard Support Ends May 31, 2027

The most-asked Ubuntu lifecycle question right now, so here it is plainly: Ubuntu 22.04 is still supported, with standard support until May 31, 2027 and ESM available to May 31, 2032. That said, 22.04 is past its midpoint: the final point release, 22.04.5, shipped back in 2024, and a fleet still standardized on Jammy should have its 24.04 (or 26.04) migration planned for 2026–27, not started in 2027's final months.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) — Supported Until May 31, 2029

Ubuntu 24.04 is in full standard support until May 31, 2029, with ESM to May 31, 2034 and the Legacy add-on available beyond that (to 2039). It is a safe multi-year landing zone for anything coming off 20.04 or 22.04 — with one planning note: 26.04 LTS is already out, so greenfield deployments choosing today should weigh starting on the newer line.

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) — Standard Support Ended; ESM Until April 2, 2030

This is the release most often running unpatched without its owners realizing. Standard support for 20.04 ended on May 31, 2025. Since then, security updates flow only through ESM — meaning only to machines attached to Ubuntu Pro. A 20.04 server without Pro has received no security patches for over a year, and every CVE disclosed in that window is live on it. The check takes one command: pro status. If ESM shows disabled, that box's honest status is "unpatched since May 2025," whatever the uptime says. Coverage under Pro runs to May 31, 2030; the upgrade path is 20.04 → 22.04 → 24.04, one LTS hop at a time.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS — The Current LTS

Released April 23, 2026, Ubuntu 26.04 is the newest long-term support line: standard support to May 29, 2031, ESM to May 31, 2036. Note that LTS-to-LTS upgrades from 24.04 traditionally open with the first point release (26.04.1) — early movers can force it, but fleets usually wait.

Interim Releases (25.10, 25.04, 24.10…) — Nine Months, No Safety Net

Non-LTS Ubuntu releases get nine months of support, full stop — no ESM, no paid extension. Ubuntu 25.10 died on July 1, 2026; 25.04 on January 17, 2026. Interim releases exist to preview what the next LTS will contain; anything in production on one is on a treadmill with a nine-month belt. If you're on a dead interim release, do-release-upgrade forward — or rebuild on an LTS.

Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04 and 14.04 — The ESM Long Tail, and Where It Ends

Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) left standard support on May 31, 2023 but remains patchable under ESM until May 31, 2028 — a legitimate, if pricey, holding pattern for legacy workloads.

Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) is the cautionary tale: its ESM window closed on April 2, 2026. As of this year there is no tier at any price on which 16.04 receives Canonical patches — it has joined 14.04 (ESM ended April 2, 2024) in the fully-end-of-life column. Every ESM clock eventually runs out too; 18.04's does in 2028, and 20.04's in 2030.

How to Check Your Ubuntu Version and Support Status

Version: lsb_release -a or cat /etc/os-release. Support status, including whether ESM is actually attached and active on this machine: pro status. The distinction matters — knowing you're "on 20.04" tells you nothing about whether the ESM clock or the unpatched clock is the one ticking.

What Happens When an Ubuntu Release Reaches End of Life

When standard support ends without ESM, security updates simply stop — the machine keeps running, apt keeps working against a frozen archive, and nothing announces the change. Some time after a release is fully retired, its repositories move to old-releases.ubuntu.com and a stock apt update starts failing — often the first visible symptom, years after patches actually stopped. The risk accrues in the silent interval: every kernel, OpenSSL, and glibc CVE disclosed after your date, unpatched on an internet-connected box.

Your Options at Each Deadline

1. Upgrade LTS-to-LTS — do-release-upgrade moves one LTS step at a time (20.04 → 22.04 → 24.04 → 26.04). Free, well-trodden, and for most fleets the right answer.
2. Attach Ubuntu Pro for ESM — buys years, not a future. Right for legacy applications pinned to an old userland while their replacement is built. Free for up to five personal machines.
3. Third-party extended support — independent vendors also patch EOL Ubuntu; the form above matches vetted options against your version.
4. Rebuild — for cattle-not-pets infrastructure, redeploying on the current LTS is often cheaper than in-place upgrading twice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Ubuntu end-of-life dates and risk scores — the live lifecycle page, per version
• Debian End of Life — the upstream distribution's three support tiers
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux End of Life — the enterprise-Linux lifecycle this one is usually compared against
• The Exploited & Unpatchable feed — KEV-listed CVEs whose only fix is leaving the version you run