Microsoft support for the Office 2021 family, and for Office LTSC 2021, runs out on 13 October 2026. Nothing switches off that morning. Word still opens, Excel still calculates, Outlook still collects mail. What stops is the maintenance behind them: no more security patches, no more bug fixes, no more support line.
The same date covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote, Project, Visio and Publisher, in both the retail 2021 and the LTSC 2021 builds. It is also the last supported day for Windows 11 version 24H2 on Home and Pro.
Publisher is a different case
For Publisher, this is not the end of one edition. Microsoft is retiring the program itself in October 2026, and says on its own product page that it will keep Publisher available, accessible and secure up to that point. Anyone sitting on a folder of .pub files should move them into a format that will still open afterwards.
Check what you are running
Open any of the apps, go to File, then Account, and read the build under About. A year in the name means the clock applies to you. A Microsoft 365 subscription carries no year because it updates itself, so it is outside this.
Three ways out
Move to the subscription, which renews its own support. Buy the 2024 family, which starts a fresh support window of its own. Or stay where you are, knowing what that means in practice: a program that opens documents arriving by email, and a hole found after the cut-off that nobody will close.
The risk is not the date. It is the months after it, when every new flaw is permanent.
Photograph: an open laptop on a home desk. Photo by Kari Shea, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Microsoft, “Products ending support in 2026” lifecycle page, and the Microsoft 365 Publisher product page.
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