Cisco IOS XE End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all Cisco IOS XE versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
Cisco IOS XE 17.18 is supported until August 8, 2029, its end-of-support date. Active support for Cisco IOS XE 17.18 ends on February 8, 2028; security fixes continue until that end-of-life date. The next Cisco IOS XE version to reach end of life is 17.9, on September 30, 2026. 15 of 19 tracked Cisco IOS XE versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 17.17, did so on March 31, 2026. The full Cisco IOS XE 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16.12 LTS | — | Jul 31, 2019 | Aug 18, 2022 | 1497 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.1 | — | Nov 21, 2019 | Dec 30, 2020 | 2093 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.2 | — | Mar 30, 2020 | Jul 15, 2021 | 1896 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.3 LTS | — | Jul 31, 2020 | Sep 30, 2023 | 1089 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.4 | — | Nov 30, 2020 | Jan 28, 2022 | 1699 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.5 | — | Mar 31, 2021 | May 30, 2022 | 1577 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.6 LTS | — | Jul 30, 2021 | Sep 30, 2024 | 723 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.7 | — | Nov 30, 2021 | Jan 30, 2023 | 1332 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.8 | — | Apr 11, 2022 | May 30, 2023 | 1212 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.9 LTS | — | Jul 29, 2022 | Sep 30, 2026 | 7 days remaining | Warning |
| 17.10 | — | Nov 30, 2022 | Jan 3, 2024 | 994 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.11 | — | Mar 28, 2023 | May 14, 2024 | 862 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.12 LTS | — | Jul 28, 2023 | Sep 30, 2027 | 372 days remaining | Active |
| 17.13 | — | Nov 30, 2023 | Dec 31, 2024 | 631 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.14 | — | Apr 13, 2024 | May 31, 2025 | 480 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.15 LTS | — | Aug 9, 2024 | Sep 30, 2028 | 738 days remaining | Active |
| 17.16 | — | Dec 11, 2024 | Jan 13, 2026 | 253 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.17 | — | Mar 31, 2025 | Mar 31, 2026 | 176 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.18 LTS | — | Aug 8, 2025 | Aug 8, 2029 | 1050 days remaining | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/cisco-ios-xe)
Cisco IOS XE release and support pattern
Across the 19 release lines with a published release date, Cisco IOS XE has shipped a new line roughly every 4 months (median interval). A line typically stays supported for about 1.2 years from its release to its end-of-life date. 7 of the 19 tracked lines are designated long-term support, which is where the longer windows sit.
Of the 19 release lines tracked, 15 are past end of life and 4 are still within support. The newest line, 17.18, was released August 8, 2025. The next scheduled end of life is 17.9 on September 30, 2026 — 6 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is 17.18, to August 8, 2029.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
Cisco IOS XE security intelligence
CISA KEV history: Cisco IOS XE is named in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog 28 times, most recently on 2025-09-29. Derived from CISA's live catalog at every build.
Patch behavior after end of life: Has backported to EOL lines. Cisco backports fixes across release trains and points customers at its Software Checker rather than declaring any train fix-less. In the entire KEV catalog we could not find an IOS XE entry where Cisco stated an affected train would receive no fix. (Observed behavior from our primary-source verification sweep, checked 2026-08-07 — never a guarantee of future fixes.)
What does Cisco IOS XE end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of Cisco IOS XE 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 IOS XE 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 IOS XE 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 IOS XE versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
Cisco IOS XE has 15 versions 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 IOS XE 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."