Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) versions. Dates read at the vendor's own lifecycle pages (cisco.com). Updated at every deploy.
Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) Catalyst 3650 is supported until October 31, 2026, its end-of-support date. The End-of-Sale date for Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) Catalyst 3650 is October 31, 2021. It is also the next Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) version to reach end of life. 1 of 7 tracked Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) versions is past end of life; the most recent to reach it, Catalyst 3850, did so on October 31, 2025. The full Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
Running an EOL version? Get matched with support options — free ↓| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalyst 3850 | Catalyst 3850 | — | Oct 31, 2025 | 351 days past EOL | EOL |
| Catalyst 3650 | Catalyst 3650 | — | Oct 31, 2026 | 14 days remaining | Warning |
| Catalyst 2960-X | Catalyst 2960-X | — | Oct 31, 2027 | 379 days remaining | Active |
| Catalyst 2960-X WS-C2960X-24PSQ-L | Catalyst 2960-X WS-C2960X-24PSQ-L | — | Apr 30, 2028 | 561 days remaining | Active |
| Catalyst 9500-40X | Catalyst 9500-40X | — | Apr 30, 2029 | 926 days remaining | Active |
| Catalyst 9500-24Q | Catalyst 9500-24Q | — | Apr 30, 2029 | 926 days remaining | Active |
| Catalyst 9500-12Q | Catalyst 9500-12Q | — | Apr 30, 2029 | 926 days remaining | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/cisco-catalyst-switches)
Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) lifecycle status — the real story
Cisco Catalyst switches are Cisco's campus and access switching hardware under Cisco IOS and IOS XE. This page lists the Catalyst lines with a hardware End-of-Sale bulletin read so far: the Catalyst 2960-X (including the Russia-market 2960RX part numbers and the fanless 24PSQ-L), the Catalyst 3650 and 3850, and the select Catalyst 9500-12Q, 9500-24Q and 9500-40X models. Cycles are switch families or models with every retired part number listed. Every date comes from Cisco's own End-of-Sale and End-of-Life bulletins on cisco.com (public, no login), one bulletin per family, each cited on its cycles. Each bulletin was read twice on 2026-10-16: the bulletin HTML fetched with a browser header set and the same bulletin in the built-in browser; every milestone identical (tools/cisco-hardware-bulletins.mjs refuses to write on any difference). Cycles are models; each lists the chassis part numbers Table 2 of its bulletin retires (base, spare and bundle forms). A model gets a cycle only when its own chassis part number is in Table 2; where Cisco titles a bulletin select, the cycles are the exact part numbers it retires. Current models without a bulletin are not listed; their absence is not a statement that they are supported indefinitely.
Field mapping, the Cisco hardware convention of the Cisco ASA 5500-X and Cisco RV pages: support is Cisco's End-of-Sale Date ('The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms'); eol is Cisco's Last Date of Support ('The last date to receive applicable service and support for the product as entitled by active service contracts or by warranty terms and conditions. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete'). The other Table 1 milestones (End-of-Life Announcement, Last Ship, End of SW Maintenance Releases, End of Vulnerability/Security Support, End of Routine Failure Analysis, End of New Service Attachment, End of Service Contract Renewal) are carried under their own names where the bulletin prints them; a milestone the bulletin does not print is empty. Cisco bulletins print no launch date, so releaseDate is empty.
WS-C2960X-24PSQL++ (TAA) appears in the 2960-X bulletin while WS-C2960X-24PSQ-L has its own later fanless bulletin; NIST names both as one model, so the TAA part number is not served rather than given two sets of dates. Catalyst 3850 bulletins that retire only licences (EOL14973, EOL14994) are not used. The Catalyst 9200 and 9300 have no hardware bulletin.
Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) release and support pattern
Of the 7 release lines tracked, 1 is past end of life and 6 are still within support. The next scheduled end of life is Catalyst 3650 on October 31, 2026 — 13 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is Catalyst 9500-40X, to April 30, 2029.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
What does Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches. Vulnerabilities discovered after this date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database, exploit code appears on GitHub, and your systems remain permanently exposed.
The CVE blind spot: A CVE-based scan does not show the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no vendor patch is coming. This is one of the most dangerous gaps in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) should treat it as a vulnerability class in their risk register, apply compensating controls (network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, access restriction), and prioritize migration to a supported version.
Your options when Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) reaches end of life
There are four realistic paths. Which one is right depends far more on how long the system needs to keep running than on the version you are on today.
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Move to a supported version | The system will outlive the current version's support window and you can schedule the work | Budget for compatibility testing, not just the upgrade itself — that is where the real cost sits |
| Replace the component | The project is unmaintained, or a better-supported alternative exists | The replacement has its own lifecycle and its own end-of-life date — you are changing vendors, not escaping the problem |
| Buy extended support | Migration is genuinely underway but cannot finish before the deadline, or the workload is frozen by certification or a third-party application | A bridge, not a destination — every year purchased is a year the migration still has to happen |
| Document accepted risk | The system is isolated, short-lived, or scheduled for retirement | Only defensible with real compensating controls and a written decision — auditors treat undocumented end-of-life software as a finding |
How to choose, in one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support purchased repeatedly costs more than doing the project once, and the project only gets harder as the version ages. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next migration before it surprises you.
Worth saying plainly, because vendors selling extended support rarely will: extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon. It is the right answer when a deadline is genuinely unreachable, not as a default. Compare the annual fee against the one-time cost of migrating before committing to either.
Formalizing decisions like this across your estate? Our free EOL policy template is a ready-to-adopt policy with risk tiers, remediation SLAs, and audit mapping — no signup, free to use and share.
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, extended support vendors provide continued security patches for EOL Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) has 1 version past end of life — security patches have stopped, but CVE disclosures haven't. Extended support past the official date exists for many products in this position — whether it exists for Cisco Catalyst switches (hardware) is exactly what we check. Tell us where to reach you and we'll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest "no vendor covers this."