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For most people, Windows 10 will stop receiving critical security updates on October 14, 2025, roughly a decade after its initial release. For people using computers that can’t upgrade to Windows 11 or organizations with dozens or hundreds of PCs to manage, Microsoft is making another three years of Extended Security Updates (ESUs) available, but only if you can pay for them. And the company is ready to start talking about pricing.
In a blog post published earlier this week, Microsoft’s Jason Leznek writes that the first year of ESUs will cost $61 per PC for businesses that want to keep their systems updated.
And as with the Windows 7 ESUs a few years ago, Microsoft says that the price will double each year—so the second year of ESUs will cost $122 per PC, and the third year will cost a whopping $244 per device. And Microsoft says this pricing is cumulative; if you decided to buy ESUs for year three after skipping the first two years, you’d also need to pay for the first two years retroactively. These slow price hikes seem intended to drive businesses to migrate to Windows 11 as quickly as they can while still giving them a way to keep using Windows 10 when absolutely necessary.
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