End of Support for Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019: T-12 Months

On October 14, 2025, one year from today, Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 reach end of support.

After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support for problems that may occur with Exchange 2016 or Exchange 2019 including:

• Technical support for problems that may occur.
• Bug fixes for issues that are discovered and that may impact the stability and usability of the server.
• Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered and that may make the server vulnerable to security breaches; and
• Time zone updates.

Customer installations of Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019 will of course continue to run after October 14, 2025; however, due to the upcoming end of support date and potential future security risks, we strongly recommend customers act now.

Our recommendation is for customers to migrate to Exchange Online or prepare their organizations to upgrade to Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE) when it becomes available in early H2 of CY2025.

Migrate to Exchange Online or Microsoft 365

We strongly believe that you get the best value and user experience by migrating fully to Exchange Online or Microsoft 365. Migrating to the cloud is the best and simplest option to help you retire your Exchange Server deployment. When you migrate to the Microsoft cloud, you make a single hop away from an on-premises deployment, and benefit from new features and technologies, including advanced generative AI technologies that are available in the cloud but not on-premises.

If you're migrating to the cloud, you might be eligible to use our Microsoft FastTrack service. FastTrack shares best practices and provides tools and resources to make your migration as seamless as possible. Best of all, you'll have a support engineer helping you from planning and designing to migrating your last mailbox. For more information about FastTrack, see Microsoft FastTrack.

Prepare to upgrade to Exchange Server SE

Earlier this year, we provided an update to the Exchange Server roadmap, and details on how upgrade to Exchange Server SE if you intend to continue to run Exchange Server on-premises.

If you are running Exchange 2019, we recommend that you keep your Exchange servers up-to-date and you can upgrade in-place to Exchange Server SE when available.

If you are running Exchange 2016, we recommend that you perform a legacy upgrade to Exchange 2019 now and then perform an in-place upgrade to Exchange Server SE when available. You do have the option of a legacy upgrade from Exchange 2016 to Exchange Server SE RTM, skipping Exchange 2019 completely. But since there are less than 4 months between the release of Exchange Server SE and the end of support for Exchange 2016, that might not be enough time, depending on the size of your deployment and other factors (in-place upgrade from Exchange 2016 to Exchange SE will not be available). This is why we recommend that you upgrade to Exchange Server 2019 now, decommission your Exchange 2016 servers, and do an in-place upgrade to Exchange Server SE when it is available.

If you still have Exchange Server 2013 or earlier in your organization, you must first remove it before you can install Exchange Server 2019 CU15 or upgrade to Exchange Server SE.

Exchange Server Technology Adoption Program

If your organization is running Exchange 2019 today and you want to test and evaluate pre-release builds of Exchange Server 2019 CU15 and later Exchange Server SE, you can apply to join the Exchange Server Technology Adoption Program (TAP).

Joining the Exchange Server TAP has several advantages, such as the ability to provide input and feedback on future updates, develop a close relationship with the Exchange Server engineering team, receive pre-release information about Exchange Server, and more. TAP members also get support at no additional charge from Microsoft for issues related to the TAP.

All nominations are reviewed and screened prior to acceptance. No customers are allowed access to any prerelease downloads or information until all legal paperwork is properly executed. Nomination does not mean acceptance, as not all nominees will be chosen for the TAP. If you are preliminarily accepted, we will contact you to get the required paperwork started.

Please note that even if you do not join the TAP program, you will still be able to test the code equivalent of Exchange SE in your organizations by installing Exchange 2019 CU15 (when available), as per our announcement.

Related Microsoft Products Reaching End of Support on October 14, 2025

In addition to Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019, several other products (some of which are often used with Exchange Server) also reach end of support or retirement on October 14, 2025, including Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft Office 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, Skype for Business 2016, Skype for Business 2019, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019, and more.

You can search product and services lifecycle information to get detailed information for your Microsoft products and services.

Additional Announcements

For information on other end of support announcements, see the following blog posts:

• Prepare now for key end of support moments in 2025
• Microsoft Office 2016/2019 End of Support
• Skype for Business Server 2016/2019 End of Support
• Microsoft Project 2016/2019 End of Support
• Microsoft Visio 2016/2019 End of Support

Exchange Server Engineering Team