RHEL End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all RHEL versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
RHEL 10 is supported until May 31, 2035, its end-of-support date. Active support for RHEL 10 ends on May 31, 2030; security fixes continue until that end-of-life date. The next RHEL version to reach end of life is 8, on May 31, 2029. 4 of 7 tracked RHEL versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 7, did so on June 30, 2024. The full RHEL 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 | Extended Support | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4.9 | Feb 15, 2005 | Feb 29, 2012 | Mar 31, 2017 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) (ended) |
5320 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5 LTS | 5.11 | Mar 15, 2007 | Mar 31, 2017 | Nov 30, 2020 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) (ended) |
3463 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6 LTS | 6.10 | Nov 10, 2010 | Nov 30, 2020 | Jun 30, 2024 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) (ended) |
2123 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7 LTS | 7.9 | Jun 10, 2014 | Jun 30, 2024 | May 31, 2029 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) |
815 days past EOL | EOL |
| 8 LTS | 8.10 | May 7, 2019 | May 31, 2029 | May 31, 2033 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) |
981 days remaining | Active |
| 9 LTS | 9.8 | May 18, 2022 | May 31, 2032 | May 31, 2036 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) |
2077 days remaining | Active |
| 10 LTS | 10.2 | May 20, 2025 | May 31, 2035 | May 31, 2039 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) |
3172 days remaining | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/rhel)
RHEL release and support pattern
Across the 7 release lines with a published release date, RHEL has shipped a new line roughly every 3.3 years (median interval). A line typically stays in standard support for about 10 years from its release to its standard-support end date. 6 of the 7 tracked lines are designated long-term support, which is where the longer windows sit.
Of the 7 release lines tracked, 4 are past end of life and 3 are still within support. The newest line, 10, was released May 20, 2025. The next scheduled end of life is 8 on May 31, 2029 — 980 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is 10, to May 31, 2035. Upstream also publishes an extended-support phase for 7 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.
RHEL security intelligence
CISA KEV history: RHEL is named in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog 4 times, most recently on 2026-08-26, including use in ransomware campaigns. Derived from CISA's live catalog at every build.
What does RHEL end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of RHEL 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 RHEL 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 RHEL 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.
For the full decision flow on this product, see our detailed guide: RHEL: upgrade, Red Hat ELS, or third-party?
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, extended support vendors provide continued security patches for EOL RHEL versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
RHEL has 4 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 RHEL 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."