Office 2021 Loses Security Updates on 13 October

Office 2021 keeps working after 13 October 2026, but Microsoft stops sending it security fixes that day, with no extension and no paid extra year. Staying supported means buying Office 2024, from $179.99 once and supported until October 2029, or subscribing to Microsoft 365, from $99.99 a year, at Microsoft’s US prices on 5 October 2026.

The date covers every home edition: Home & Student, Home & Business and Professional, on Windows and Mac, plus Office LTSC 2021, the business version.

What stops on 13 October

Microsoft’s support page lists it. After the date, Microsoft provides no “technical support, bug fixes, or security fixes for Office 2021 vulnerabilities”, no further software updates, and no phone or chat help, and it retires most of the online help content. It says plainly that “there will be no extension and no extended security updates”, which rules out the kind of paid year Microsoft sells for Windows 10, whose security updates now run to October 2027.

What does not stop is the software. Microsoft says “all of your Office 2021 apps may continue to function”. Your documents open, edit and save as before; what changes is that a flaw found next month stays unfixed. Microsoft’s FAQ says Office 2021 needs periodic internet access to stay activated, and none of its pages we read says activation ends with support.

Microsoft’s own pages differ by a day. The Lifecycle page gives a retirement date of 14 October 2026; the support page, Microsoft Learn’s upgrade guide and the Publisher notice all say 13 October. We use the 13th, the date on the page written for owners. It falls on the same day as the end of updates for Windows 11 24H2 on Home and Pro PCs.

Check which Office you have

1. Open Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
2. On Windows, choose File › Account. On a Mac, open the app’s menu, such as Word, and choose About.
3. The product name says which version and edition you own. Microsoft 365 updates itself and is not affected.

Your options, side by side

Prices are Microsoft’s US list prices, read from its store on 5 October 2026.

Option	Price	Apps	Supported until
Keep Office 2021	Nothing more	What you have now	13 October 2026
Office Home 2024	$179.99 once, 1 PC or Mac	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote	10 October 2029
Office Home & Business 2024	$249.99 once, 1 PC or Mac	Adds Outlook	10 October 2029
Microsoft 365 Personal	$99.99 a year, or $9.99 a month	Adds Access on PCs; 1 person, 5 devices at once, 1 TB storage	While you subscribe
Microsoft 365 Family	$129.99 a year, or $12.99 a month	As Personal, for up to 6 people	While you subscribe

Office 2024 is the like-for-like replacement. It is a one-time purchase for one computer, with a fixed set of apps that get security updates until 10 October 2029, according to Microsoft’s Lifecycle page. Microsoft’s FAQ is explicit that one-time purchases have no upgrade pricing, so an Office 2021 licence earns no discount.

Microsoft 365 suits more than one device or person. On those prices, Office Home & Business 2024 costs the same as two and a half years of Microsoft 365 Personal, and the subscription renews at the regular price unless cancelled. Whether a yearly charge suits you depends on what else you already pay for; our tally of the subscriptions a typical home runs is a place to start counting.

Professional owners: Publisher and Access

Office Professional 2021 is the edition with most to lose. Microsoft’s FAQ lists it as the one with Publisher and Access, on PC only.

Publisher has no successor. Microsoft says Publisher reaches its end of life in October 2026. It removed it from Microsoft 365 on 1 October 2026, and support for the one-time-purchase version ends with Office 2021 on 13 October. Office 2024 does not include it either: Microsoft’s store lists Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote for Home & Business 2024, and nothing else.

Publisher 2021 keeps running like the rest of the suite. Microsoft’s advice is to convert files while you can: File › Save as, with PDF as the file type, then open the PDF in Word if you need to edit it. It recommends Word or PowerPoint for flyers, calendars and cards, and gives a PowerShell script for converting folders of files at once.

Among Microsoft’s home options, Access is only in Microsoft 365. Microsoft’s comparison table marks Access (PC only) as included in every Microsoft 365 plan and not in Office Home 2024, so a database built in Access 2021 needs a subscription to stay on supported software at home.

Outlook and Microsoft’s online services

Microsoft keeps a separate list of Office versions supported for connecting to its online services, such as Exchange Online and OneDrive. It names Office LTSC 2021 until 13 October 2026 and Office LTSC 2024 until 9 October 2029, and does not list the home editions of Office 2021 at all.

For versions off that list, Microsoft says they “might still be able to connect” but that the connection is not supported, and that over time they may lose features or run into “unexpected performance or reliability issues”. That describes a gradual decline, not a switch-off date. If Outlook in Office 2021 handles your email and starts misbehaving after October, the unsupported version is one thing to rule out.

On a PC still running Windows 10, Microsoft 365 has a dated commitment too: its apps there get security updates until 10 October 2028, according to the Microsoft blog post cited in our Windows 10 explainer.

Questions people ask

Will Office 2021 stop working after October 2026?

Not on that date. Microsoft says all Office 2021 apps may continue to function after 13 October 2026. What stops is support: no security fixes, bug fixes or software updates, and no phone or chat help.

When does Office 2021 support end?

On 13 October 2026, according to Microsoft’s support page for Office 2021. Microsoft’s Lifecycle page lists 14 October. The date covers Home & Student, Home & Business, Professional and the Mac editions.

Is there extended support for Office 2021?

No. Microsoft’s support page says there will be no extension and no extended security updates for Office 2021, unlike the paid security updates it sells for Windows 10.

Is it safe to keep using Office 2021?

It keeps working, but Microsoft will not fix security flaws found in Office 2021 after 13 October 2026. Microsoft’s own wording is that you could expose yourself to serious and potentially harmful security risks, and it recommends moving to a supported version.

Should I buy Office 2024 or Microsoft 365?

Office 2024 suits one computer and the same apps until October 2029: $179.99 for Office Home 2024. Microsoft 365 Personal is $99.99 a year and adds more devices, 1 TB of storage and Access on PCs. On Microsoft’s US prices, Office Home & Business 2024 costs the same as two and a half years of Personal.

What happens to Publisher in Office 2021 Professional?

Support ends with Office 2021 on 13 October 2026, and there is no newer Publisher to move to: Microsoft removed it from Microsoft 365 on 1 October 2026, and Office 2024 does not include it. Microsoft suggests saving files as PDF.