NixOS End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all NixOS versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
NixOS 26.05 is supported until December 31, 2026, its end-of-support date. It is also the next NixOS version to reach end of life. 24 of 25 tracked NixOS versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 25.11, did so on June 30, 2026. The full NixOS 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.10 | — | Oct 31, 2013 | May 31, 2014 | 4498 days past EOL | EOL |
| 14.04 | — | Apr 30, 2014 | Jan 31, 2015 | 4253 days past EOL | EOL |
| 14.12 | — | Dec 30, 2014 | Sep 30, 2015 | 4011 days past EOL | EOL |
| 15.09 | — | Sep 30, 2015 | Apr 30, 2016 | 3798 days past EOL | EOL |
| 16.03 | — | Mar 31, 2016 | Oct 30, 2016 | 3615 days past EOL | EOL |
| 16.09 | — | Sep 30, 2016 | Apr 30, 2017 | 3433 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.03 | — | Mar 31, 2017 | Oct 30, 2017 | 3250 days past EOL | EOL |
| 17.09 | — | Sep 29, 2017 | Apr 30, 2018 | 3068 days past EOL | EOL |
| 18.03 | — | Apr 4, 2018 | Oct 30, 2018 | 2885 days past EOL | EOL |
| 18.09 | — | Oct 5, 2018 | Apr 30, 2019 | 2703 days past EOL | EOL |
| 19.03 | — | Apr 11, 2019 | Oct 30, 2019 | 2520 days past EOL | EOL |
| 19.09 | — | Oct 9, 2019 | Apr 30, 2020 | 2337 days past EOL | EOL |
| 20.03 | — | Apr 20, 2020 | Oct 30, 2020 | 2154 days past EOL | EOL |
| 20.09 | — | Oct 27, 2020 | Jun 30, 2021 | 1911 days past EOL | EOL |
| 21.05 | — | May 31, 2021 | Dec 31, 2021 | 1727 days past EOL | EOL |
| 21.11 | — | Nov 30, 2021 | Jun 30, 2022 | 1546 days past EOL | EOL |
| 22.05 | — | May 30, 2022 | Dec 31, 2022 | 1362 days past EOL | EOL |
| 22.11 | — | Nov 30, 2022 | Jun 30, 2023 | 1181 days past EOL | EOL |
| 23.05 | — | May 31, 2023 | Dec 31, 2023 | 997 days past EOL | EOL |
| 23.11 | — | Nov 29, 2023 | Jun 30, 2024 | 815 days past EOL | EOL |
| 24.05 | — | May 31, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | 631 days past EOL | EOL |
| 24.11 | — | Nov 30, 2024 | Jun 30, 2025 | 450 days past EOL | EOL |
| 25.05 | — | May 23, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | 266 days past EOL | EOL |
| 25.11 | — | Nov 30, 2025 | Jun 30, 2026 | 85 days past EOL | EOL |
| 26.05 | — | May 30, 2026 | Dec 31, 2026 | 99 days remaining | Warning |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/nixos)
NixOS lifecycle status — the real story
NixOS's release schedule is set by RFC 0080: releases occur six months apart under a YY.05 and YY.11 naming convention. The project supports the previous release only briefly after a new one ships — the table above shows each release's window closing roughly a month after its successor — so staying on a supported NixOS means upgrading twice a year.
There is no long-term-support release; the end-of-life dates above are the end of each release's channel support.
Verified against the vendor's lifecycle documentation on August 22, 2026.
NixOS release and support pattern
Across the 25 release lines with a published release date, NixOS has shipped a new line roughly every 6 months (median interval). A line typically stays supported for about 7 months from its release to its end-of-life date.
Of the 25 release lines tracked, 24 are past end of life and 1 is still within support. The newest line, 26.05, was released May 30, 2026. The next scheduled end of life is 26.05 on December 31, 2026 — 99 days from this build.
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 NixOS end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of NixOS 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 NixOS 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 NixOS 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 NixOS versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
NixOS has 24 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 NixOS 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."