IBM Power End of Life Dates: Every Server, IBM i, and AIX Release
What are the IBM Power end of life dates?
Three deadlines land inside fourteen months. Power9 scale-out servers left IBM standard support on January 31, 2026. Most Power10 models were withdrawn from marketing on July 31, 2026, so they can no longer be ordered new. IBM i 7.4 leaves standard support on September 30, 2026. Behind those, Power8 finished dying between October 2023 and July 2025, the Power9 E980 runs to December 31, 2027, and no Power10 or Power11 machine has an announced end of service date. On the software side, IBM i 7.5 and 7.6 have no announced end date, and neither does AIX 7.2 or 7.3. The date that decides your options is usually not the one you were looking for: it is the hardware ceiling, because Power8 cannot run past IBM i 7.4 and Power9 cannot run IBM i 7.6.
At a glance
Key takeaways
Power8 shops face a forced hardware decision
Power8 cannot run past IBM i 7.4, and IBM i 7.4 leaves standard support on September 30, 2026. There is no software upgrade that fixes this. The options are new hardware, a paid Service Extension, or cloud.
Your Power9 may or may not be dead
IBM's end of support letter names the 2018 machine types only. The 2020 refresh models, the G and S variants, and the E950 have no announced date. Same badge on the front, years apart on the calendar.
Power10 quietly stopped being orderable
Eight Power10 models were withdrawn from marketing on July 31, 2026. Anyone planning to just buy another Power10 in Q4 will find the answer is Power11 or the entry-level S1012.
AIX has no announced end of life
IBM has published no end of support date for AIX 7.2 or 7.3, and is still shipping fixes for 7.2. AIX shops are usually constrained by technology level dates and by hardware, not by a release deadline.
Power Server End of Support Dates
Dates below come from IBM’s product lifecycle database and the announcement letters behind it. End of standard service is the date IBM stops providing fixes, machine code updates and preventive service. Withdrawn from marketing only means you can no longer buy it new. IBM revises these, so re-check any date before it goes into a board paper.
| Option | Machine types | Withdrawn from marketing | End of standard service | Status in August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power7 (710 to 780) | 2012 to 2013 | September 30, 2019 | Unsupported for nearly seven years | Cannot run IBM i 7.4 or AIX 7.3. Any estate here is carrying both a hardware and an OS problem. |
| Power7+ and 795 | 2015 | December 31, 2020 | Unsupported | Same ceiling as Power7: IBM i 7.3 and AIX 7.2 are as far as this hardware goes. |
| Power8 E850 (8408-E8E) | July 14, 2017 | October 31, 2023 | Unsupported | Died a year before the E850C. IBM's own Power8 summary page omits this model, so check by machine type. |
| Power8 S822, S824 (8284-22A, 8286-42A) | February 28, 2019 | March 31, 2024 | Unsupported | Caps at IBM i 7.4, the release leaving support in September 2026. The squeeze point for most IBM i shops. |
| Power8 S814 (8286-41A) | May 31, 2019 | May 31, 2024 | Unsupported | As above. A very common small-shop machine and a very common surprise. |
| Power8 E870, E880, E870C, E880C, E850C | 2017 to 2019 | October 31, 2024 | Unsupported | Enterprise Power8. Same IBM i 7.4 ceiling as the scale-out models. |
| Power8 S812 (8284-21A) | August 31, 2020 | July 31, 2025 | Unsupported, most recent Power8 to go | The last Power8 standing, and missing from IBM's Power8 summary page entirely. |
| Power9 scale-out (9009-41A, 22A, 42A, 9223-22H, 42H, 9008-22L) | January 29, 2021 | January 31, 2026 | Unsupported since January | The 2018 machine types only. IBM gave notice in September 2024 and did not extend the date. |
| Power9 refresh (9009-41G, 22G, 42G, 9223-22S, 42S) and E950 | 2023 | Not announced | Still supported, no published end date | Not covered by the Power9 end of support letter. Check your machine type before assuming either way. |
| Power9 E980 (9080-M9S) | October 31, 2022 | December 31, 2027 | Supported, roughly 17 months left | The longest-lived Power9. Runs IBM i up to 7.5, so it does not reach 7.6 without new hardware. |
| Power10 E1080, E1050, S1014, S1022, S1022s, S1024, L1022, L1024 | July 31, 2026 | Not announced | Supported, but no longer orderable | Withdrawn eleven days before this page was published. China and South Korea have until July 30, 2027. |
| Power10 S1012 (9028-21B) | Not withdrawn | Not announced | Current, still orderable | The one Power10 left on the price list, and the entry-level option alongside Power11. |
| Power11 (E1180, E1150, S1122, S1124, L1122, L1124, S1112) | Not announced | Not announced | Current generation | Launched July 2025, with the entry-tier S1112 following in July 2026. |
The Machine Type Trap on Power9
This is the single most common way a Power estate gets misjudged, and it costs money in both directions.
IBM’s Power9 end of support letter lists machine types, not marketing names. It covers the original 2018 models: 9009-41A, 9009-22A, 9009-42A, 9223-22H, 9223-42H and 9008-22L. Those left standard support on January 31, 2026. In 2020 IBM shipped refreshed versions of the same servers, badged identically on the front, under different machine types: 9009-41G, 9009-22G, 9009-42G, 9223-22S and 9223-42S. Those refresh models, and the E950, have no announced end of support date anywhere in IBM’s lifecycle database.
So two servers that both say S924 can be in completely different positions. One is out of support and needs a decision this quarter. The other has no published deadline at all. We have seen both mistakes: shops paying for an extension they did not need, and shops confident they were fine while running an unsupported box.
Check before you plan anything. The machine type and model are on the front bezel label, in the HMC properties, and in the output of lscfg -vp | grep -i machine on AIX or the DSPSYSVAL QMODEL and QSRLNBR values on IBM i. Record the full string, for example 9009-42A, for every frame you own. The marketing name alone is not enough to answer the question.
Use caution
Ask for machine types on every quote and every renewal
Maintenance renewals, third-party maintenance quotes and cloud migration scopes are all priced off what IBM supports. A quote built from marketing names rather than machine types can be wrong by years. Send your vendor the machine type list, not a description of the room.
IBM i Release Dates
IBM calls the end of standard support a change in service level. After that date the release is still usable and still fixable, but only if you buy a Service Extension, and only until the extension window closes. Once the extension window ends, no support is purchasable at any price.
| Option | Generally available | End of standard support | Service Extension runs to | Status in August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM i 7.1 | April 23, 2010 | April 30, 2018 | April 30, 2024 (closed) | End of life. No support purchasable at any price. |
| IBM i 7.2 | May 2, 2014 | April 30, 2021 | April 30, 2026 (closed) | End of life as of this April. The runway is genuinely gone. |
| IBM i 7.3 | April 15, 2016 | September 30, 2023 | September 30, 2028 | On extension. Rolls into the more expensive extended tier on October 1, 2026. |
| IBM i 7.4 | June 21, 2019 | September 30, 2026 | September 30, 2029 | Seven weeks from end of standard support. The deadline driving most Power8 decisions. |
| IBM i 7.5 | May 10, 2022 | Not announced | n/a | Fully supported. Runs on Power9 and later, not Power8. |
| IBM i 7.6 | April 18, 2025 | Not announced | n/a | Current release. Requires Power10 or Power11. |
IBM commits to at least twelve months of notice before changing a service level, so 7.5 and 7.6 are safe for at least a year from any announcement that has not happened yet.
One easily missed item alongside the 7.4 deadline: Db2 Web Query for i is withdrawn from service on December 31, 2026 across all editions. A fair number of 7.4 shops use it for reporting and have not connected it to their upgrade plan.
AIX Release Dates
AIX is in a genuinely different position from IBM i, and most of what circulates online about it is wrong. IBM has published no end of support date for the releases people actually run.
| Option | Generally available | End of support | Service Extension runs to | Status in August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIX 5.3 | July 13, 2004 | April 30, 2012 | April 30, 2015 (closed) | End of life. |
| AIX 6.1 | November 9, 2007 | April 30, 2017 | April 30, 2020 (closed) | End of life. No extension available. |
| AIX 7.1 | September 10, 2010 | April 30, 2023 | April 30, 2027 | The only real deadline in the AIX family. Roughly twenty months of runway. |
| AIX 7.2 | December 4, 2015 | Not announced | n/a | Still serviced. A further service pack for TL5 is targeted for December 4, 2026. |
| AIX 7.3 | December 10, 2021 | Not announced | n/a | Current. Technology level dates run to December 31, 2028 for TL4. |
Use caution
Where the fake AIX 7.2 date comes from
Several third-party lifecycle sites publish an AIX 7.2 end of support date in mid-2027. IBM's lifecycle record for AIX Standard Edition 7.2 has that field empty. The quoted dates appear to come from AIX Enterprise Edition, a separate bundle with its own fast-moving version numbers and its own real end dates. The operating system and the bundle are different products. If a vendor quotes you an AIX 7.2 deadline, ask for the IBM announcement letter number.
What does bind AIX shops is the technology level clock, which runs underneath the release. AIX 7.3 TL2 stops receiving fixes on November 30, 2026, TL3 on December 31, 2027, and TL4 on December 31, 2028. Our AIX end of life guide works through the full technology level table and how to read your oslevel -s output against it.
The Compatibility Ceiling That Decides Everything
This is the table to look at before any other. Your Power generation sets a hard ceiling on which operating system release you can run, and that ceiling, not the calendar, is what decides whether your deadline is a software project or a capital purchase.
| Option | Highest IBM i release | Highest AIX release | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power7 and Power7+ | IBM i 7.3 | AIX 7.2 | Both ceilings are already past end of support. Hardware and OS have to move together. |
| Power8 | IBM i 7.4 | AIX 7.3 (confirm your TL) | The critical case. IBM i 7.4 ends September 30, 2026 and Power8 cannot go higher, so no software upgrade solves it. |
| Power9 | IBM i 7.5 | AIX 7.3 | IBM i 7.5 has no announced end date, so a Power9 shop on 7.5 has breathing room. Reaching 7.6 needs new hardware. |
| Power10 | IBM i 7.6 | AIX 7.3 | Reaches the current release of both. AIX 7.2 runs only at TL4 and TL5 here. |
| Power11 | IBM i 7.6 | AIX 7.3 (TL2 or later) | Current generation. Will not boot AIX 7.1 at all, and AIX 7.2 only at TL5 SP10 or later. |
Read that Power8 row carefully, because it is the whole game for IBM i shops. IBM i 7.5 dropped Power8 support entirely. So a Power8 machine running IBM i 7.4 hits September 30, 2026 with no upgrade path on that hardware. The choices narrow to buying a Service Extension, buying Power10 or Power11, or moving the workload to a hosted Power platform where somebody else owns the hardware generation problem.
AIX shops are in a materially better position. AIX 7.3 spans Power8 through Power11, so an AIX workload can usually move to newer hardware without an operating system project attached, and can sit still on supported hardware without one either.
One more layer worth knowing before you order: the newest hardware needs minimum technology refresh levels on older IBM i releases. Power11 runs IBM i 7.4 only at TR12, and the entry-level S1112 needs 7.4 TR12 plus a specific PTF, or 7.5 TR8, or 7.6 TR2. Anyone telling you “Power11 supports 7.4” without naming the TR is telling you half the story.
What IBM’s Four Different Labels Mean
Most confusion about IBM Power deadlines is a vocabulary problem. IBM uses four labels that buyers routinely merge into “end of life,” and they have very different consequences.
Withdrawn from marketing. You can no longer buy it new from IBM. Nothing about support changes. Power10 sits here today: fully supported, simply not orderable.
End of standard support, which IBM also calls a change in service level. IBM stops providing fixes, machine code updates, security patches and preventive service under standard terms. The system keeps running. This is the date most people mean.
Service Extension. A separately purchased paid add-on that buys you defined extra years past end of standard support. For software it sits on top of active Software Maintenance, which has to stay in place as a prerequisite.
End of life. No extension is available at any price. Today that applies to IBM i 7.1 and 7.2, AIX 5.3 and 6.1, PowerVM VIOS 2.2 and PowerHA 7.1 for AIX. This is the only one of the four where the option to pay your way out has genuinely closed.
Key decision
Hardware Service Extension freezes your firmware
IBM's hardware extension keeps remote support and onsite break/fix, and parts remain subject to availability. But in IBM's own words, machines on it no longer receive new machine code updates, patches or fixes, including those addressing security. The box stays fixable and stops being patchable. Contracts can auto-renew into it at end of term, so check whether you are already paying for it without having chosen it.
What a Service Extension Actually Costs
IBM publishes the pricing formula for IBM i Service Extension as a multiple of your base Software Maintenance. It is per core, and it escalates every year by design.
| Option | Cost of the extension | Total you pay, including base SWMA | At $1,000 per core base SWMA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extension year 1 | 1.5x base SWMA | 2.5x base SWMA | $2,500 per core per year |
| Extension year 2 | 2x base SWMA | 3x base SWMA | $3,000 per core per year |
| Extension year 3 | 2.5x base SWMA | 3.5x base SWMA | $3,500 per core per year |
| Extended period (years 4 and 5) | 3x base SWMA | 4x base SWMA | $4,000 per core per year |
By year three you are paying three and a half times what standard support cost, for a service that is deliberately narrower. Within the extension, a long list of licensed programs drops to usage and known defect only, meaning no new fixes at all for those components. Inside the base operating system, DHCP, RADIUS and the DNS server fall into that category.
That escalation is the point. The extension is designed as a bridge with an increasingly uncomfortable price, not a place to live. Used deliberately, to land a migration in a chosen quarter rather than a forced one, it is good value. Used as avoidance, it quietly outgrows the cost of the refresh it was deferring.
Third-party maintenance is the other bridge, typically 50 to 70 percent below IBM renewal pricing for hardware break/fix. The honest limit: no third party can supply IBM firmware, microcode or security patches, because those require an active IBM contract. TPM answers “will it get fixed,” not “is it patchable.” For a regulated shop, the firmware freeze is usually the deciding factor. Our third-party maintenance guide works through where that trade is smart and where it is a trap.
Next steps
What to Do, by Where You Are
Power8 running IBM i 7.4
The hardest case and the most common. September 30, 2026 is seven weeks away and no software upgrade exists on this hardware. Decide now between Service Extension as a deliberate bridge, Power10 S1012 or Power11, and hosted Power. Waiting turns the choice into whichever one can be delivered fastest.
Power9 scale-out, 2018 machine types
Out of standard support since January 31, 2026. Confirm the machine type first, because the 2020 refresh models are not covered by that date. If it is a 9009-42A rather than a 9009-42G, you are running unsupported today and every month adds risk with no saving.
Power9 refresh models or E950
No announced end of support date. You have time, and the useful move is to use it: IBM i 7.5 is your ceiling here, so plan the 7.6 hardware step deliberately rather than under a deadline.
Power9 E980
Supported to December 31, 2027, which is roughly seventeen months. Enterprise-class replacement is a project rather than a swap, so scope it in this budget cycle to install comfortably before the date.
Power10, any model
Nothing urgent: no end of service date is announced. The live issue is procurement, not support. Most models stopped being orderable on July 31, 2026, so buy expansion capacity and spares deliberately, or plan on Power11 filling the gaps.
AIX, any supported release
Your constraint is technology level dates and hardware, not a release deadline. Run oslevel -s across every LPAR and check the results against the technology level table. AIX 7.1 shops have until April 30, 2027 and should treat that as real.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
When does IBM Power hardware go end of support?
It depends on the generation. Power7 and Power7+ ended September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2020. Power8 ended in waves between October 31, 2023 and July 31, 2025, with the E850 first and the S812 last. Power9 scale-out models, the S914, S922, S924, H922, H924 and L922, ended January 31, 2026. The Power9 E980 runs to December 31, 2027. No Power10 or Power11 model has an announced end of service date, though most Power10 models were withdrawn from marketing on July 31, 2026 and can no longer be ordered new.
Is my Power9 server still supported?
Check the machine type, not the marketing name. IBM's end of support letter covers only the original 2018 models: 9009-41A, 9009-22A, 9009-42A, 9223-22H, 9223-42H and 9008-22L. Those ended January 31, 2026. The 2020 refresh models, 9009-41G, 9009-22G, 9009-42G, 9223-22S and 9223-42S, plus the E950, have no announced end of support date at all in IBM's lifecycle database. Two servers both badged S924 can be years apart. The machine type is on the front bezel label and in the output of lscfg or the HMC.
What is the IBM i end of support schedule?
IBM i 7.1 ended April 30, 2018 and 7.2 ended April 30, 2021, and both are now past the last day any paid extension could be bought. IBM i 7.3 ended standard support September 30, 2023 and is on a Service Extension that runs to September 30, 2028. IBM i 7.4 leaves standard support September 30, 2026, with a Service Extension available to September 30, 2029. IBM i 7.5 and 7.6 have no announced end date, and IBM commits to at least twelve months of notice before changing a service level.
Can I upgrade IBM i without buying new hardware?
Only if your Power generation supports the release you want. Power8 caps at IBM i 7.4, which is exactly the release leaving support in September 2026, so a Power8 shop cannot solve the deadline with a software upgrade. Power9 caps at IBM i 7.5. IBM i 7.6 requires Power10 or Power11. This is the single most expensive thing people discover late, because it turns what looked like an operating system project into a hardware purchase.
What does IBM Service Extension cost?
IBM publishes the formula. For IBM i, the extension is priced as a multiple of your base Software Maintenance, which must stay active as a prerequisite. Year one of the extension costs 1.5 times base SWMA, so you pay 2.5 times base in total. Year two is 3 times base in total, year three is 3.5 times, and the extended period that follows reaches 4 times base. IBM's own worked example: at $1,000 per core per year of base SWMA, year one costs $2,500 per core. It is priced per core and escalates by design, which is what makes a hardware refresh look cheap by year three.
What is the difference between withdrawn from marketing and end of support?
Withdrawn from marketing means you can no longer buy it new from IBM. The machine or release keeps full support, often for years. End of support, which IBM also calls a change in service level, means IBM stops providing fixes, machine code updates and preventive service. End of life is stricter again: no paid extension is available at any price. That currently applies to IBM i 7.1 and 7.2, AIX 6.1, PowerVM VIOS 2.2 and PowerHA 7.1 for AIX.
Is AIX going end of life?
No. IBM has published no end of support date for either AIX 7.2 or AIX 7.3, and IBM is still shipping fixes for AIX 7.2 TL5 with a service pack targeted for December 4, 2026. The only true end of life date in the AIX family belongs to AIX 7.1, whose paid extension completes April 30, 2027. Third-party sites that quote an AIX 7.2 end of support date are usually citing an AIX Enterprise Edition bundle version, which is a different product from the operating system.
Sources
Sources
- IBM product lifecycle database (full machine-type and release dataset)
- IBM i Release life cycle (document 668157)
- IBM Support: System to IBM i mapping (document 6023368)
- IBM Support: System to AIX maps (document 6020074)
- IBM Support: AIX support lifecycle information (document 670775, modified July 18, 2026)
- IBM i Platform Support Details, minimum TR levels (document 1137490)
- IBM announcement AD25-0134: Power9 withdrawal from service (January 28, 2025)
- IBM announcement AD26-0012: Power10 hardware withdrawal (January 13, 2026)
- IBM announcement AD25-0894: IBM i 7.4 withdrawal and change in service level
- IBM announcement AD26-0634: E980 service level change to December 31, 2027
- IBM i and licensed programs Service Extension detail, including pricing multiples
- Re-verify all dates against IBM's lifecycle pages before committing them to a plan; IBM revises them
Related pages
- Power9 End of Support Has Arrived: Your 4 Options in 2026
- IBM i 7.4 End of Support: Upgrade to 7.5, 7.6, or the Service Extension?
- AIX End of Life: The Real 7.2 and 7.3 Support Timeline
- Third-Party Maintenance for IBM Power: Smart or a Trap?
- Power10 vs. Power11 for IBM i Shops in 2026
- Power Hardware Refresh vs. Cloud
Not Sure Which Deadline Applies to Your Machines?
Send us your machine types and OS levels. We will map every frame and LPAR to its real end of support date, flag the ones with no upgrade path on current hardware, and price the options side by side.