Office 2019 End of Life: Is Office 2019 Still Supported in 2026?

Reviewed 24 September 2026 by Justine, Technical Support Advisor at Nerdused. Dates are taken from Microsoft's product lifecycle pages.

Short answer: no. Microsoft support for Office 2019 ended on 14 October 2025. Every edition, including Professional Plus 2019, Home & Business 2019 and Home & Student 2019, stopped receiving security updates on that date. The software still opens, still saves your files and still activates with a valid key, but it is no longer patched. Below is what that means in practice, whether you need to do anything, and what your options are.

Office 2019 end-of-life dates

Milestone	Date	What changed
Release	24 September 2018	Office 2019 went on sale
End of mainstream support	10 October 2023	No more bug fixes or feature changes; security updates continued
End of extended support	14 October 2025	No more security updates. Office 2019 is end of life.

Office 2019 was the last version to get the old five-plus-two-year support model. Office 2021 and Office 2024 get five years with no extended phase, which is why their end dates are closer together:

Version	Support ends	Status today
Office 2016	14 October 2025	Ended
Office 2019	14 October 2025	Ended
Office 2021 / LTSC 2021	13 October 2026	Supported for a few more weeks
Office 2024 / LTSC 2024	9 October 2029	Supported

What "end of support" actually means

Nothing happens to your copy of Office 2019 on the day support ends. Specifically:

• It keeps working. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access and Publisher open and save files as before. There is no expiry date built into a perpetual licence.
• It still activates. A genuine Office 2019 key still activates on Microsoft's servers, so a reinstall on the same PC works. We continue to support customers who bought 2019 keys from us; the Office 2019 installation guide is still maintained.
• No security patches. This is the real change. When a vulnerability is found in Word or Excel, Microsoft fixes it in Office 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365, and publishes the details. Office 2019 gets no fix, so the published details become a recipe for attacking it.
• No bug fixes or compatibility updates. If a Windows update or a new file format breaks something, it stays broken.
• Microsoft 365 services are unsupported. Microsoft stopped supporting Office 2019's connection to Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business in October 2023. Outlook 2019 may still connect to a Microsoft 365 mailbox, but Microsoft will not fix it if it stops.
• No help from Microsoft. Microsoft support will not take Office 2019 cases.

How risky is it to keep using Office 2019?

It depends on what you open. Office files are one of the most common ways malware arrives, because a Word document or Excel workbook from an email attachment is something people open without thinking. Modern Office versions block that class of attack with patches that Office 2019 no longer receives. So:

• A home PC used for your own documents, with attachments never opened from unknown senders, is low risk.
• A work PC that receives invoices, CVs or purchase orders by email is a different matter. Most businesses' cyber-insurance and compliance frameworks (Cyber Essentials in the UK, for example) require supported software, and unsupported Office fails that test outright.
• If you also run Windows 10, note that it reached end of support on the same day, 14 October 2025. Office 2019 on Windows 10 means neither layer is patched.

Your options

1. Upgrade to Office 2024 (one-time purchase)

The like-for-like replacement. Office 2024 is a perpetual licence with security updates until 9 October 2029, the apps look and behave almost the same as 2019, and it opens every file 2019 created. Microsoft's retail price is $149.99 for Home 2024 and $249.99 for Home & Business 2024; a volume-licence Office Professional Plus 2024 key from Nerdused is $29.99 for one PC and comes with a 30-day refund promise. Two things to check before you buy: Office 2024 has no Publisher, and Access is only in Professional Plus. If you use Publisher, see option 2. Our Office 2024 editions guide compares Home, Home & Business, Standard and Professional Plus.

2. Upgrade to Office 2021 if you need Publisher

Office Professional Plus 2021 is the last perpetual version that includes Publisher. It is supported until 13 October 2026, so this is a one-year bridge rather than a long-term fix, but it buys time to move Publisher documents elsewhere.

3. Switch to Microsoft 365

A subscription ($99.99 a year for Personal, $129.99 for Family) is always on the newest version, adds 1 TB of OneDrive and Copilot, and covers up to five devices per person. It costs more over time than a perpetual licence; the lifetime licence vs Microsoft 365 comparison has the five-year numbers.

4. Keep Office 2019 and reduce the risk

If you are staying on 2019 for now: keep Windows and your antivirus fully updated, leave Protected View switched on (File > Options > Trust Center), never enable macros in a document you did not create, and do not use Outlook 2019 for a mailbox that receives attachments from the public. This is a stopgap, not a plan.

How to check which Office version you have

1. Open Word (or any Office app).
2. Click File, then Account.
3. Under Product Information you will see the edition name, for example "Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019". Click About Word for the exact build number.

If it says "Microsoft 365" you are on a subscription and already receive updates. If it says Office 2016 or 2019, you are out of support.

Moving from Office 2019 to Office 2024

Office 2024 will not install alongside Office 2019, so the order matters:

1. Note your Outlook account settings and, if you use POP, back up the .pst file (File > Account Settings > Data Files shows where it is).
2. Uninstall Office 2019 from Settings > Apps and restart.
3. Install Office 2024 and activate it. The Professional Plus 2024 install guide walks through the download, the checksum check and MAK activation, including phone activation if online activation fails.
4. Open Outlook and add your accounts again. Documents, templates and Excel files need no conversion; 2019 and 2024 share the same file formats.

The whole process takes about 20 minutes on a typical PC. If you bought your 2019 key from Nerdused and something goes wrong, our support advisors are on live chat around the clock.

FAQs

Is Office 2019 still supported in 2026?

No. Support ended on 14 October 2025. It has received no security updates since then.

Will Office 2019 stop working?

No. It continues to run and activate indefinitely. It simply is not patched.

Can I still buy and activate an Office 2019 key?

Yes. Keys still activate, and we still sell Office Professional Plus 2019 for people who need Publisher or Skype for Business on a budget, with the end-of-support status shown on the product page. For a new install we recommend Office 2024.

Does Office 2019 work on Windows 11?

Yes, it installs and runs on Windows 11, and a 2019 key activates there. No compatibility fixes will be made now that support has ended, so if a future Windows update breaks something in Office 2019 it will stay broken.

When does Office 2021 end of life happen?

13 October 2026. If you are choosing a new version today, Office 2024 gives you three more years of updates for the same money.

Is there an extended security update programme for Office 2019?

No. Unlike Windows 10, Microsoft offers no paid extended updates for Office 2019.