Cisco IOS XR End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all Cisco IOS XR versions. Dates read at the vendor's own lifecycle pages (cisco.com). Updated at every deploy.
Cisco IOS XR 7.8 is supported until November 30, 2026, its end-of-support date. Active support for Cisco IOS XR 7.8 ended on November 30, 2025; security fixes continue until that end-of-life date. It is also the next Cisco IOS XR version to reach end of life. 32 of 45 tracked Cisco IOS XR versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 7.7, did so on July 29, 2026. The full Cisco IOS XR lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.3 | 3.3 | — | Dec 31, 2011 | 5415 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.4 | 3.4 | — | Dec 31, 2011 | 5415 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.5 | 3.5 | — | May 11, 2012 | 5283 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.6 | 3.6 | — | Jun 30, 2012 | 5233 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.8 | 3.8 | — | Dec 28, 2013 | 4687 days past EOL | EOL |
| 3.9 | 3.9 | — | Apr 9, 2012 | 5315 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.0 | 4.0 | — | Oct 1, 2014 | 4410 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.1 | 4.1 | — | Mar 19, 2016 | 3875 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.2 | 4.2 | — | Feb 15, 2016 | 3908 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4.3 | 4.3 | — | Oct 10, 2017 | 3305 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.0 | 5.0 | — | Mar 15, 2018 | 3149 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.1 | 5.1 | — | Apr 1, 2018 | 3132 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.2 | 5.2 | — | Jan 29, 2019 | 2829 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5.3 | 5.3 | — | Aug 11, 2019 | 2635 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.0 | 6.0 | — | May 11, 2019 | 2727 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.1 | 6.1 | — | Sep 20, 2020 | 2229 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.2 | 6.2 | — | Mar 21, 2021 | 2047 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.3 | 6.3 | — | Sep 18, 2021 | 1866 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.4 | 6.4 | — | Mar 29, 2022 | 1674 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.5 | 6.5 | — | Aug 10, 2022 | 1540 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.6 | 6.6 | — | Dec 21, 2022 | 1407 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.7 | 6.7 | — | Jan 30, 2024 | 1002 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.8 | 6.8 | — | Aug 6, 2025 | 448 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6.9 | 6.9 | — | Jul 29, 2026 | 91 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.0 | 7.0 | — | Aug 31, 2023 | 1154 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.1 | 7.1 | — | Jan 30, 2024 | 1002 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.2 | 7.2 | — | Sep 14, 2024 | 774 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.3 | 7.3 | — | Feb 28, 2025 | 607 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.4 | 7.4 | — | Aug 6, 2025 | 448 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.5 | 7.5 | — | May 31, 2026 | 150 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.6 | 7.6 | — | Mar 31, 2026 | 211 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.7 | 7.7 | — | Jul 29, 2026 | 91 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7.8 | 7.8 | — | Nov 30, 2026 | 33 days remaining | Warning |
| 7.9 | 7.9 | — | Mar 28, 2027 | 151 days remaining | Warning |
| 7.10 | 7.10 | — | Aug 16, 2027 | 292 days remaining | Active |
| 7.11 | 7.11 | — | Dec 9, 2027 | 407 days remaining | Active |
| 24.1 | 24.1 | — | Mar 16, 2028 | 505 days remaining | Active |
| 24.2 | 24.2 | — | Jun 15, 2028 | 596 days remaining | Active |
| 24.3 | 24.3 | — | Sep 3, 2028 | 676 days remaining | Active |
| 24.4 | 24.4 | — | Dec 18, 2028 | 782 days remaining | Active |
| 25.1 | 25.1 | — | Mar 31, 2029 | 885 days remaining | Active |
| 25.2 | 25.2 | — | Jun 18, 2029 | 964 days remaining | Active |
| 25.3 | 25.3 | — | Sep 17, 2029 | 1055 days remaining | Active |
| 25.4 | 25.4 | — | TBD | Supported | Active |
| 26.1 | 26.1 | — | TBD | Supported | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/cisco-ios-xr)
Cisco IOS XR lifecycle status — the real story
Cisco IOS XR, the carrier and core routing OS on the ASR 9000, NCS 540/560/5500/6000, Cisco 8000, XRv 9000 and XRd platforms, modelled per software release train from Cisco's own per-release End-of-Sale/End-of-Life bulletins (42 bulletins from the IOS XR EoS/EoL notice listing, read 2026-09-09; the 2006 bulletin for 3.2 has no readable milestone table and is left out). Milestone mapping: support = the last day Cisco ships any software maintenance for the release train, which is the End of Extended SW Maintenance Releases date wherever the bulletin prints one (every bulletin from 6.7 to 25.3, plus 4.2, 4.3, 5.0, 5.1, 5.3, 6.0, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6, where Cisco says the milestone applies to the Extended Maintenance Release (EMR) rebuild; 3.3 to 3.6 and 3.8 print the same later date as End of SW Maintenance Releases through or via migration), otherwise the bulletin's single End of SW Maintenance Releases date (3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2). Cisco's lifecycle statement makes the last maintenance release of every train its EMR, so a train keeps receiving maintenance until that date; the bulletin's earlier End of SW Maintenance Releases date applies only to the feature release (X.Y.1) and any standard maintenance release, and devices still on those builds must move to the train's EMR to keep getting fixes. The 7.7 bulletin footnotes 12 more months of extended maintenance (to July 29, 2026) for NCS5500, NCS5700 and NCS500 platforms only; the row keeps the all-platform date. eol = End of Vulnerability/Security Support, extendedSupport = Last Date of Support; End-of-Sale and the announcement date are carried as extra fields. Bulletins for 3.9 and 6.0 publish no separate security-support milestone; for those eol mirrors support.
Release dates are not stated in the bulletins and Cisco's release-notes index is undated, so releaseDate is null on every line rather than estimated. Releases 25.4 and 26.1 have release notes but no EoL bulletin yet and are listed as current with no dates. Cisco's Software Lifecycle Support Statement (product_bulletin_c25-478699, updated September 28, 2023, applicable from 7.8.1) says end of software maintenance occurs 6 months (standard) or 18 months (extended) after End of Sale, end of vulnerability support 30 months and Last Day of Support 36 months after End of Sale, which is what the 7.x and later bulletins print; a sentence earlier in the same statement says 12 and 24 months from End of Sale, which no bulletin matches.
KEV context (CISA catalog 2026.09.08): CISA files IOS XR entries under Cisco's 'IOS XR' product string (CVE-2022-20821 among them); the join is by display name and no version scoping is asserted here. Classic IOS and IOS XE are separate products (IOS XE is tracked on its own page).
Verification: cisco.com is bot-blocked for plain fetches (Akamai), so this file is a frozen manual read; each line links its own bulletin and the notice listing is the index to re-read.
Cisco IOS XR release and support pattern
Of the 45 release lines tracked, 32 are past end of life and 13 are still within support. The next scheduled end of life is 7.8 on November 30, 2026 — 33 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is 25.3, to September 17, 2029. Upstream also publishes an extended-support phase for 43 lines, shown in the table above.
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 XR security intelligence
CISA KEV history: Cisco IOS XR is named in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog 9 times, most recently on 2023-05-19. Derived from CISA's live catalog at every build.
What does Cisco IOS XR end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of Cisco IOS XR 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 XR 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 XR 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 |
| Commercial extended support | Not available for Cisco IOS XR from the original maintainer | Third-party vendors patch some end-of-life software on a custom basis; availability depends on the specific version and source access |
| 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.
Upload requirements.txt, package.json, or Gemfile — full EOL report instantly.
Open Stack Scanner →