SAP keeps each product release in up to three maintenance phases. In mainstream maintenance, the release receives corrections, support packages, legal changes, and technology updates. Extended maintenance is a paid prolongation with a similar scope that SAP offers only for selected products and releases. In customer-specific maintenance, the release is still supported, but it gets no new support packages, no new legal changes, and no guarantee of kernel updates for new database and operating system versions.
As of October 2026, these are the dates that matter most. SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC) with no enhancement package or with EHP1 through EHP5 left mainstream maintenance on December 31, 2025. ECC with EHP6, EHP7, or EHP8 has mainstream maintenance until December 31, 2027, and optional extended maintenance until December 31, 2030. SAP S/4HANA 2023 has mainstream maintenance until December 31, 2030, S/4HANA 2021 leaves it at the end of 2026, and S/4HANA 2022 at the end of 2027. No system is switched off on those dates: what changes is what SAP keeps delivering for that release.
What are SAP's maintenance phases, and how does a release move between them?
A maintenance phase and a support offering are two different things. The phase belongs to the product release and says what SAP still delivers for it. The support offering, such as SAP Standard Support or SAP Enterprise Support, belongs to the contract and says which services the customer bought. Buying a richer offering does not put a release back into mainstream maintenance, and SAP requires an active support contract in every phase.
Mainstream maintenance starts when the release is shipped to customers and ends on the date SAP publishes for it. Extended maintenance exists only for products and releases SAP selects: as of October 2026, it is planned for SAP Business Suite 7 core applications, from January 1, 2028, to December 31, 2030. Customer-specific maintenance is the phase a release enters by default when the previous phase ends, and it is covered by the support contract the customer already has, with no additional contract and no additional fee.
SAP's strategy document also describes priority-one support, an offering for selected releases in the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, which is not a fourth phase for ECC or S/4HANA. For the difference between the ERP, its editions, and the cloud offerings, see What Is SAP S/4HANA?, and for the private cloud contract, see RISE with SAP.
What each maintenance phase delivers and what it stops delivering
The matrix compares the three phases according to SAP's customer-specific maintenance document, July 2025 edition. The detail behind each restriction is in SAP Note 52505, which requires a login.
| Deliverable | Mainstream maintenance | Extended maintenance | Customer-specific maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem resolution | Full scope, with corrections distributed to all customers | Similar; technical limitations may require an upgrade of the application, EHP, or add-on | Known solutions and workarounds only; new problems are charged on a time-and-material basis |
| Support packages | Delivered | Delivered within the scope of the extension | No new ones |
| Legal changes | Delivered | Delivered within the scope of the extension | Not delivered |
| Security notes | Published for the release; being in the phase does not apply any note to the system | Check by product and component | High-priority notes only, and only in the first 12 months of the phase (Note 3053725) |
| Kernel, database, and operating system | New combinations depend on release in the Product Availability Matrix | Technical restrictions possible | No new kernel for new database or operating system versions and no new Java or front-end patches |
| New interfaces | Per product | Per extension | Not supported; they can be developed at extra cost |
| SAP Enterprise Support SLA | Applies | Applies | No longer delivered for initial reaction (priorities 1 and 2) and corrective action (priority 1) |
| Additional cost | None beyond the support contract | For Business Suite 7, two percentage points on the maintenance base | No fee for the phase; new problems may be charged |
SAP itself sums up the risks of customer-specific maintenance in four points: less flexibility to change databases and operating systems, the risk of falling out of legal compliance when the installation includes HR or finance and logistics, the risk of extra charges for new problems, and the risk of getting no resolution when a third-party product is no longer maintained by its vendor.
SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC) and SAP Business Suite 7 maintenance end dates
ECC does not have a single deadline: the date depends on the enhancement package installed. The table lists the dates SAP has published as of October 2026. In the last column, "date published by SAP" means an open document or page; in the other cases, SAP provides the detail in the Product Availability Matrix (PAM) or in an SAP Note, both of which require a login.
| Product and level | End of mainstream maintenance | Extended maintenance | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP ERP 6.0 with no EHP or with EHP1, EHP2, EHP3, EHP4, or EHP5 | December 31, 2025 | None; in customer-specific maintenance since the start of 2026 | Date published by SAP on SAP Help |
| SAP ERP 6.0 with EHP6, EHP7, or EHP8 | December 31, 2027 | Optional, January 1, 2028, to December 31, 2030 | Date published by SAP on SAP Help and in its October 7, 2026, announcement |
| SAP CRM 7.0, SAP SRM 7.0, and SAP SCM 7.0 with EHP2, EHP3, or EHP4 | December 31, 2027 | Optional, until December 31, 2030 | Date published by SAP |
| SAP CRM, SRM, and SCM 7.0 with no EHP or with EHP1 | The 2027 date does not apply to these levels | Check the PAM | SAP provides the date in the PAM, which requires a login |
| SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA | Same as the application and EHP installed | Same as the application and EHP installed | Rule published by SAP |
The policy covers the latest three enhancement packages of each core application. That is why an ECC system on EHP5 and one on EHP6 are in different phases today, and why running ECC on the SAP HANA database changes none of the dates. The ways out of ECC are covered in SAP S/4HANA migration: greenfield, brownfield, and the other paths.
SAP NetWeaver 7.x: why AS ABAP and AS Java end on different dates
The SAP NetWeaver date depends on the version, the stack (AS ABAP or AS Java), and the use, either as the foundation of Business Suite or as a standalone system. The table uses the SAP NetWeaver 7.5 maintenance strategy page and SAP Note 1648480, with data as of October 2026. SAP publishes the years; the exact day for each row is in the PAM and in the note, both of which require a login.
| Version | AS ABAP | AS Java | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.00, 7.01, and 7.02 | Mainstream until the end of 2025; no extended maintenance | Ended | SAP Note 1648480, which requires a login |
| 7.10, 7.11, 7.20, and 7.30 | Ended at the end of 2020 | Ended at the end of 2020 | SAP Note 1648480, which requires a login |
| 7.03, 7.31, and 7.40 | Mainstream until the end of 2027 and extended until the end of 2030, as the foundation of Business Suite 7 | Ended | Horizon published by SAP; day in the PAM |
| 7.50 | Mainstream until the end of 2027; extended until the end of 2030 | Same dates; customer-specific maintenance from 2031, with no follow-on release | Dates published by SAP on its strategy page and in the October 7, 2026, announcement |
The 2020 end date for SAP NetWeaver 7.4 applies to AS Java and to standalone SAP BW, and does not apply to the AS ABAP 7.40 underneath an ECC system. For a dual-stack system, the date has to be read in SAP Note 1648480, because the two stacks run on different calendars.
SAP S/4HANA on-premise maintenance end dates by release
The table lists the end of mainstream maintenance for each on-premise release, which is the same software as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, with data as of October 2026. SAP provides the exact day in the PAM. Outside it, the day appears in open documents for some releases only; for the others, the timeline chart in SAP's maintenance strategy shows the year. The latest release is SAP S/4HANA 2025, whose official guide records FPS02 on October 7, 2026.
| Release | End of mainstream maintenance | Status in October 2026 | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1511 | December 31, 2020 | Ended | Date published by SAP in an SAP Community blog post |
| 1610 | December 2021 | Ended | Month published on SAP Help; SAP provides the day in the PAM |
| 1709 | End of 2022 | Ended; extended maintenance ended December 31, 2025 | Year in SAP's strategy chart; end of extended maintenance published by SAP |
| 1809 | December 31, 2023 | Ended; extended maintenance ended December 31, 2025 | Date published by SAP in an SAP Community blog post |
| 1909 | December 31, 2024 | Ended; extended maintenance ended December 31, 2025 | Date published by SAP in an upgrade guide |
| 2020 | End of 2025 | In customer-specific maintenance | Year in SAP's strategy chart; SAP provides the day in the PAM, which requires a login |
| 2021 | End of 2026 | In mainstream maintenance; ends in less than three months | Year in SAP's strategy chart; SAP provides the day in the PAM, which requires a login |
| 2022 | End of 2027 | In mainstream maintenance | Year in SAP's strategy chart; SAP provides the day in the PAM, which requires a login |
| 2023 | December 31, 2030 | In mainstream maintenance | Date published by SAP in an official guide |
| 2025 | End of 2032 | In mainstream maintenance | Year in SAP's strategy chart; SAP provides the day in the PAM, which requires a login |
SAP has not announced extended maintenance for release 2020 or later.
The rule since S/4HANA 2023: a two-year cycle and seven years per release
On September 15, 2022, SAP announced that, starting with S/4HANA 2023, the product would ship one release every two years with seven years of mainstream maintenance per release, up from five. In the first two years of a release, feature packs are planned every six months; after that, the release receives support package stacks only. The rule explains the horizon but does not replace the published date: for S/4HANA 2023, the end is December 31, 2030, and not the anniversary of the launch.
SAP maintains its commitment that, until 2040, there will always be at least one S/4HANA release in maintenance. The commitment is to the product family, and benefiting from it requires upgrades along the sequence: no release installed today is maintained until 2040.
Extended maintenance for 1709, 1809, and 1909 ended in 2025
In the same announcement, SAP offered extended maintenance for releases 1709, 1809, and 1909, from 2023 to 2025, renewable quarterly. On-premise customers paid four percent of their core SAP S/4HANA maintenance base; customers with a RISE with SAP subscription or a legacy subscription model received it at no additional fee. The offer ended on December 31, 2025 (SAP Note 3246630).
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Safekeeper and the conflicting published terms
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Safekeeper is a service for RISE with SAP customers whose older S/4HANA release has entered customer-specific maintenance: it includes upgrade services and infrastructure optimization and keeps updates and patches coming for a limited time. SAP's January 30, 2024, announcement spoke of two more years. SAP's public page for Latin America speaks of a subscription of at most 27 months, and up to 48 months for releases 1503 and 1605. On July 21, 2026, an SAP blog post announced Safekeeper 2022 and pointed to SAP Note 3424346.
Two years and 27 months are not the same term, and neither one turns into an end date by arithmetic: the subscription, the release, and the service specification in the contract decide. Safekeeper is also not extended maintenance for an on-premise installation.
SAP HANA maintenance by version and SPS
Maintenance of the SAP HANA database is counted per Support Package Stack (SPS), on its own calendar, and cannot be derived from the ERP running on it. The table uses SAP's release and maintenance strategy as of October 2026. The full calendar is in SAP Note 2378962, which requires a login.
| Version | End of maintenance | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|
| SAP HANA 1.0, through SPS12 | End of June 2021; customer-specific maintenance since July 1, 2021 | Date published by SAP; the detail per SPS is in an SAP Note, behind a login |
| SAP HANA 2.0 SPS00 to SPS03 and SPS06 | Ended | SAP provides the dates in SAP Note 2378962, which requires a login |
| SAP HANA 2.0 SPS04 | End of June 2021 | Month published by SAP in a blog post |
| SAP HANA 2.0 SPS05 | December 2025 | Month published by SAP; day in SAP Note 2378962 |
| SAP HANA 2.0 SPS07 | April 2028 | Month published by SAP; day in SAP Note 2378962 |
| SAP HANA 2.0 SPS08 | In maintenance | SAP provides the date in SAP Note 2378962, which requires a login |
Older texts still circulate with superseded dates, such as June 2025 for SPS05. The current version of the note is the one that counts.
SAP BW, SAP BW/4HANA, SAP Solution Manager, and SAP Cloud ALM
The table lists the dates SAP has published as of October 2026 for its analytics and application lifecycle products. SAP BW embedded in an ERP system follows the host application (SAP Note 2952947), and not this table.
| Product and version | End of mainstream maintenance | Extended maintenance | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP BW 7.4 and earlier, standalone | December 31, 2020 | No offer published | Date published by SAP |
| SAP BW 7.5 | December 31, 2027 | Optional, until December 31, 2030 | Date published by SAP |
| SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 | December 31, 2021 | No offer published | Date published by SAP in a blog post |
| SAP BW/4HANA 2.0 | December 31, 2025 | No offer published | Date published by SAP |
| SAP BW/4HANA 2021 | December 31, 2027 | No offer published | Date published by SAP |
| SAP BW/4HANA 2023 | December 31, 2030 | No offer published | Date published by SAP |
| SAP Solution Manager 7.2 | December 31, 2027 | Until the end of 2030, for selected functionality only | Date published by SAP |
| SAP Cloud ALM | No end date published | Not applicable | Cloud service, outside the on-premise calendar |
Extended maintenance for SAP Solution Manager 7.2 covers requirements, project, and process management, test suite, change control management, ITSM, and landscape management, at no additional cost for customers who choose extended maintenance for Business Suite 7. SAP Cloud ALM, the successor platform, is included in SAP Enterprise Support, Product Support for Large Enterprises, and Enterprise Support, cloud editions, and not in SAP Standard Support alone. SAP states that there is no functional parity between the two.
SAP Fiori front-end server and SAP GUI for Windows
The front end runs on its own calendar. The table uses SAP blog posts and documents as of October 2026. The reference for SAP Fiori front-end server (FES) is SAP Note 2217489.
| Product and version | End of maintenance or support | Where SAP publishes the date |
|---|---|---|
| FES 6.0 | December 31, 2027 | Date published by SAP in a blog post |
| FES 2020 | SAP publishes two dates: December 31, 2023, in a blog post and December 31, 2025, for the components in KBA 3686451 | Check version, support package, and SAP Note 2217489 |
| FES 2021 and FES 2022 | End of 2026 and end of 2027 | Year published by SAP in a blog post; day in the PAM |
| FES 2.0 to 5.0, 2023, and 2025 | They do not automatically follow the S/4HANA date | SAP provides the date in the PAM, which requires a login |
| SAP GUI for Windows 7.40 to 7.70 | Ended; support for 7.70 ended April 9, 2024 | Date published by SAP in KBA 3282959 |
| SAP GUI for Windows 8.00 | Full support until January 12, 2027; restricted support until July 31, 2027 | Dates published by SAP |
| SAP GUI for Windows 8.10 | June 30, 2029 | Date published by SAP in a blog post |
SAP Fiori front-end server, the SAP_UI component, the SAPUI5 version, and Fiori apps each have their own dates. In the restricted phase of SAP GUI 8.00, the fix for a problem may be an upgrade to 8.10, and support also depends on the workstation's operating system.
What expires in the next 36 months, from October 2026 to October 2029
The agenda puts the milestones from the tables above in order within the 36-month window counted from October 10, 2026. The December 31, 2030, and end-of-2032 dates fall outside it.
| When | What expires | Precision of the date |
|---|---|---|
| End of 2026 | Mainstream maintenance for SAP S/4HANA 2021; FES 2021 | Year published by SAP; day in the PAM |
| January 12, 2027 | Full support for SAP GUI for Windows 8.00 | Date published by SAP |
| July 31, 2027 | Restricted support for SAP GUI for Windows 8.00 | Date published by SAP |
| December 31, 2027 | Mainstream maintenance for SAP ERP 6.0 with EHP6 to EHP8, SAP CRM, SRM, and SCM 7.0 with EHP2 to EHP4, SAP BW 7.5, SAP BW/4HANA 2021, and SAP Solution Manager 7.2; FES 6.0 | Date published by SAP |
| End of 2027 | Mainstream maintenance for SAP S/4HANA 2022, SAP NetWeaver 7.5, and AS ABAP 7.31 and 7.40 under Business Suite; FES 2022 | Year published by SAP; day in the PAM |
| April 2028 | SAP HANA 2.0 SPS07 | Month published by SAP; day in SAP Note 2378962 |
| June 30, 2029 | SAP GUI for Windows 8.10 | Date published by SAP |
SAP HANA 2.0 SPS08 is left out of the agenda because SAP provides its end date in SAP Note 2378962, which requires a login.
ECC after 2027: extended maintenance, customer-specific maintenance, and the 2031 to 2033 option
Extended maintenance from 2028 to 2030
Extended maintenance for Business Suite 7 is optional and lasts three years, from the beginning of 2028 to the end of 2030. The published price is a premium of two percentage points on the maintenance base, for all support offerings. That means two points added to the contract percentage, and not 2% more on the invoice or 2% of the cost of a migration project. The conditions are in SAP Note 2881788. Customers who do not opt in enter customer-specific maintenance in 2028; those who do, in 2031.
SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, 2031 to 2033
SAP ERP, private edition, transition option is a time-bound cloud subscription centered on ECC that SAP announced in February 2025 for its largest and most complex customers. It can be purchased starting in 2028 and used from 2031 to 2033, it covers legal changes, security, and software corrections, and SAP states that it is not a prolongation of SAP ERP maintenance. The conditions published as of October 2026 are these:
- systems must be on SAP ERP, private edition on SAP HANA before December 31, 2030, with SAP HANA as the only supported database and a minimum size of 2 TB;
- the option is only available in combination with the max success plan, charged separately;
- eligible products are listed in SAP Note 3591251, and Java-dependent capabilities are excluded;
- customers who sign up for SAP ERP, private edition in 2026 get a standard 20 percent uplift when they move to the option in 2031; for 2027 and later, SAP has not disclosed the percentage.
The October 7, 2026, announcement on third-party databases and Java
On October 7, 2026, SAP published an announcement signed by its CTO, Philipp Herzig, addressed to Business Suite 7 and SAP NetWeaver customers that use third-party databases or Java. The December 31, 2027, and December 31, 2030, dates have not changed. What changes is the period after 2030, and only for that group:
- SAP's reseller and support agreements with the database vendors end in 2030, and SAP stops routing database tickets to the vendor;
- customer-specific maintenance no longer includes kernel patches and kernel security patches for those databases, and SAP may stop providing the administration, backup, upgrade, and migration tools;
- conversion of a Business Suite 7 system on a third-party database to SAP S/4HANA or SAP Cloud ERP is only available before those agreements end; after that, the announcement points to new implementation only;
- SAP NetWeaver AS Java 7.5, with all its add-ons, moves to customer-specific maintenance from 2031, with no follow-on release;
- moving the on-premise system to SAP HANA before the end of 2030 removes the third-party database dependency but does not prolong maintenance.
The scope is exact: the conversion restriction applies to systems on third-party databases, and not to every ECC system on any database. The announcement lists SAP Notes 1648480, 3464370, 3591251, 3768400, and 3832186.
How support works in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and Private Edition
In the cloud editions, the question becomes who decides the upgrade and what happens to a customer that falls behind. The full comparison is in SAP Cloud ERP public vs. private.
Public Edition. SAP delivers two major upgrades each year, in February and August, and applies them on a published schedule, with a test window before development and production. SAP's material does not describe a way to stay on an older release. That schedule is operational: the rights of each subscription are in the contract.
Private Edition. The rule is in section 4.5 of the SAP Cloud ERP Private Supplemental Terms and Conditions, version v.10-2026, current as of October 2026:
- the customer must only use a release whose maintenance is current, meaning covered by mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or as otherwise identified in the Order Form;
- technical installation of the upgrade is performed by SAP on request, and having the upgrade installed in time is the customer's responsibility;
- SAP is not responsible for the reliability, performance, availability, or security of a release that is not current;
- if the upgrade cannot happen for lack of customer cooperation, support may be limited and the availability service levels stop applying;
- customers also subscribed to SAP extended services for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition must upgrade to the current version every two contract years.
In the Roles and Responsibilities catalog, v.07.2026, rehearsals and functional regression testing sit outside the standard upgrade service. On the way in, a lift and shift requires an SAP S/4HANA system with at least nine months of mainstream maintenance remaining. For a system that does not meet that condition, the RISE with SAP Limited Maintenance Policy, v.11-2021, provides for a coordinated move and upgrade, with production on the discontinued release for no more than two weeks.
Standard Support, Enterprise Support, PSLE, and the success plans announced in 2026
The table describes the support offerings according to SAP's public pages and contracts as of October 2026.
| Offering | What it covers and its limit |
|---|---|
| SAP Standard Support | Releases, support packages, legal changes within the supported scope, technology updates for third-party operating systems and databases, SAP Notes, incident handling, and remote services |
| SAP Enterprise Support | The above, plus preventive support, mission critical support, enablement, and an SLA that depends on the release being in mainstream or extended maintenance |
| Product Support for Large Enterprises (PSLE) | Fundamental support services, tools, and methodologies for customer-run operations, with commercial eligibility criteria |
| SAP ActiveAttention and SAP MaxAttention | Premium engagements with dedicated experts, as specified in the order; existing contracts continue through their terms |
| Enterprise Support, cloud editions, and SAP Preferred Success | Support for the cloud subscription; Preferred Success adds adoption guidance and shorter response targets |
| Foundational Success Plan | Onboarding, technical cloud operations, and preventive support; included with every SAP cloud solution at no additional cost |
| Advanced Success Plan | Foundational, plus specialized expertise, proactive guidance, and enhanced service level agreements; targets and price not published |
| Max Success Plan | Advanced, plus dedicated success plan managers and customer-specific prototypes; required for the transition option |
SAP announced the three success plans on March 3, 2026. No offering changes the maintenance phase of a release. These are the percentages SAP publishes, each with its own base:
- SAP Standard Support, 19% of the maintenance base, and PSLE, 17%, in SAP's list of prices and conditions for Austria, v.1-2023;
- SAP Enterprise Support, 22% at list price for new on-premise purchases, a percentage SAP committed to holding through 2025.
The effective percentage for each customer is the one in the contract.
Response and corrective action times by priority
The table shows the targets in SAP's public schedules, with version and country. They are 2022 documents, and the announcement of the 2026 plans gives no numeric targets.
| Offering and document | Priority 1 | Priority 2 | Priorities 3 and 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP Standard Support, v.8-2022 (Thailand) | Processing starts within 24 hours, 7 days a week | No numeric target | No numeric target |
| SAP Enterprise Support, v.8-2022 (Singapore) | Response within 1 hour, around the clock; corrective action within 4 hours | Response within 4 hours during SAP's local office time | No numeric target |
| Enterprise Support, cloud editions, v.10-2022 | Response within 1 hour; corrective action within 4 hours | Response within 4 hours | Response within 1 business day and 2 business days |
| SAP Preferred Success, v.10-2022 | Response within 1 hour; corrective action within 4 hours | Response within 2 hours; corrective action within 3 business days | Response within 4 business hours and 1 business day |
Initial response, corrective action, and a permanent fix are three different measures. A corrective action is a solution, a workaround, or an action plan, and the clock does not count the time the case is waiting on the customer. The channels are those in SAP for Me: cases, Expert Chat for new medium or high priority issues, and Schedule an Expert, a one-on-one 30-minute call for low or medium priority questions. No channel extends a product's maintenance date.
The 2027 support fee adjustment
SAP has published that, effective January 1, 2027, it will adjust the annual fee for existing SAP Standard Support, SAP Enterprise Support, and PSLE contracts based on the local Consumer Price Index, capped at 5.0%. The statement says the adjustment is not an increase in list prices; the 2026 statement carried the same cap. The adjustment applies to the annual fee, while the two percentage points for extended maintenance apply to the maintenance base.
What the end of maintenance means in practice
The system keeps running
The end of mainstream maintenance does not switch the system off or end support. SAP states that support continues in customer-specific maintenance, under the existing contract, until the customer upgrades. A perpetual license does not expire with the phase either: SAP says so explicitly for SAP Solution Manager, which can stay in use after 2027 and 2030.
What stops arriving
Support packages and legal changes stop arriving. When a law changes a process in HR, finance, or logistics, the release does not get the adaptation. Problems SAP does not yet know about no longer get a correction distributed to all customers and are handled case by case.
Security and compatibility risk
SAP considers a release for high-priority security notes only in the first 12 months of customer-specific maintenance. That does not mean no correction ever ships afterward, and it does not guarantee a fix for any given vulnerability. On the technology side, there is no new kernel for new database and operating system combinations. Changing the database or operating system version comes down to what was already released in the PAM, and SAP does not guarantee solutions for third-party products the vendor has stopped maintaining.
What turns into cost
Extended maintenance for Business Suite 7 costs two percentage points more on the base. In customer-specific maintenance there is no fee for the phase, but new problems are charged on a time-and-material basis, and an interface to functionality in a new release may have to be developed separately. The transition option is a new subscription, with the max success plan charged separately.
Audit and operations
In SAP Enterprise Support, the SLA is no longer delivered for a release outside mainstream or extended maintenance. In Private Edition, the Supplemental Terms relieve SAP of responsibility for a release that is not current. Three records support an answer to an IT audit: the release's phase in the PAM, the contracted entitlement in the Support Entitlements tab of SAP for Me, and the record of security notes applied. The date in the PAM does not prove the extension was purchased, and a control that depends on applying vendor corrections loses its regular input once the release enters customer-specific maintenance.
What SAP customers in the United States can and cannot conclude
The dates on this page are global. What is specific to the U.S. market is thinner, and it comes from ASUG, the Americas' SAP Users' Group, and from the way SAP publishes its contract terms.
- Most surveyed ASUG members are already on the move. ASUG's 2026 SAP S/4HANA research, published October 6, 2026, reports that 68% of 194 member respondents are running S/4HANA or migrating from ECC. That is a sample of members, and not a census of U.S. companies, and it counts live and in-progress projects together.
- Interest in RISE with SAP brings release obligations with it. In ASUG's Pulse of the SAP Customer 2025, fielded in November 2024 with 787 members, 45% were considering RISE with SAP for the future, up from 39% in the prior comparison. A private edition contract ties support to a covered release, so the upgrade stops being optional.
- "Private cloud" in a survey is not Private Edition. The Pulse report separates on-premise, hybrid, private cloud, third-party public cloud, and partner-managed environments. Those are hosting categories. Moving ECC to a hyperscaler changes where the system runs, and not the maintenance phase of its release.
- Fees follow the local index and the contract. The 2027 adjustment is based on the local Consumer Price Index, capped at 5.0%, and the public schedules cited on this page are regional versions from other countries. The Order Form and the schedule attached to a U.S. contract are what govern.
Where to check the dates for a specific system: PAM, Maintenance Planner, and SAP for Me
The date that applies to a specific system is in SAP's tools, all of which require a login.
- Identify the product version, enhancement package, support package, and components in the system.
- Look up the product version in the Product Availability Matrix (PAM), which shows end of maintenance, released platforms, and upgrade paths.
- In SAP for Me, under Reporting, open the Maintenance tab, with the status of on-premise and Private systems and upcoming deadlines, and the Support Entitlements tab, with contracts and coverage per installation.
- Read the contracted phase, the financial base, and the SLA in the contract and its schedules.
- Plan the upgrade, update, or conversion in Maintenance Planner.
The notes below are cited in SAP's public documents. The body of each one requires a login to SAP for Me.
| SAP Note | Title or subject |
|---|---|
| 2881788 | End of SAP Business Suite 7 mainstream maintenance |
| 1648480 | Maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 Software including SAP NetWeaver |
| 52505 | Support after end of mainstream maintenance or extended maintenance |
| 3053725 | Security corrections in customer-specific maintenance |
| 2900388 | SAP S/4HANA maintenance commitment until 2040 |
| 3246630 | Extended maintenance for SAP S/4HANA 1709, SAP S/4HANA 1809, and SAP S/4HANA 1909 |
| 3424346 | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Safekeeper, Description of maintenance-related service elements |
| 2378962 | SAP HANA 2.0 Revision and Maintenance Strategy |
| 2217489 | Maintenance and Update Strategy for SAP Fiori Front-End Server |
| 3591251 | Product Coverage for the Transition Option |
| 3464370 | SAP NetWeaver AS Java End of Maintenance, Proposed Transitions |
| 3832186 | Third Party Database Maintenance, Limitations in Customer Specific Maintenance |
How to plan by scenario
ECC with no EHP or with EHP1 to EHP5
The system has been in customer-specific maintenance since the start of 2026. Three criteria carry the weight: a compliance obligation that depends on a legal change, a planned change of database or operating system, and process changes likely to produce new problems. The upgrade paths that existed are still available, although SAP does not create new ones: an EHP upgrade brings the system to the 2027 horizon, and the alternative is to move to S/4HANA along the paths in the migration guide.
ECC with EHP6, EHP7, or EHP8
The 2027 decision is whether to buy extended maintenance. The 2030 decision already belongs in the plan of anyone on a third-party database or Java: conversion of those systems has to finish before the agreements end, and the transition option requires SAP HANA and a move to the private edition before December 31, 2030. The contract behind that destination is covered in RISE with SAP.
S/4HANA 2020, 2021, and 2022
Release 2020 has already left mainstream maintenance, 2021 leaves at the end of 2026, and 2022 at the end of 2027, with no extended maintenance announced. In Private Edition, the contract asks for a covered release, and Safekeeper depends on the subscription. The destination with a day published by SAP is S/4HANA 2023, until December 31, 2030.
S/4HANA 2023 and 2025
The ERP is covered for years, and the calendar to watch is the one around it: SAP HANA 2.0 SPS07 in April 2028, SAP GUI for Windows 8.00 in January 2027, and the FES in use. With a release every two years, the upgrade becomes a standing planning item, as the SAP S/4HANA guide shows.
What the ERP end of maintenance changes for SAP PM and maintenance applications
SAP PM has no date of its own. Plant maintenance is a component of SAP ERP 6.0 and of SAP S/4HANA, and its maintenance date is that of the ERP release and enhancement package it runs on. What the end of maintenance reaches is the chain around the maintenance order: the ERP, the front end, the database, the kernel, and every integration that reads or writes notifications, orders, confirmations, and measurements. SAP does not publish a list of effects per component; the points below apply the general restrictions to the maintenance chain. The component itself is described in the SAP PM module.
- The planner's front end has a date: full support for SAP GUI for Windows 8.00 ends on January 12, 2027.
- A maintenance order consumes materials and services that pass through logistics and finance, areas SAP names among those affected by the absence of legal changes.
- In customer-specific maintenance, new interfaces are not supported, which matters for any integration that has to keep up with a new release.
- Integrations that depend on a component running on SAP NetWeaver AS Java need to be checked against SAP Note 3464370.
Every change of enhancement package, release, feature pack, or support package alters the system that maintenance applications run on and calls for regression testing of the notification, order, confirmation, and measurement flows. On ECC and on-premise S/4HANA, the customer sets that date; in Public Edition, SAP's calendar does, twice a year. How to keep track of those interfaces is covered in the SAP PM integration log.
PM RUN is the maintenance execution, mobility, and planning platform that runs on top of SAP PM without replacing SAP, and it works with SAP PM on ECC 6.0 or on S/4HANA, on-premise or in the cloud. Like any application connected to the ERP, its integration belongs in the interface inventory and in the regression test for every EHP or release change. What the platform covers is described in asset management in SAP.
Frequently asked questions
Does support for every SAP ECC system end in 2027?
No. SAP ERP 6.0 with no EHP or with EHP1 to EHP5 left mainstream maintenance on December 31, 2025. With EHP6, EHP7, or EHP8, mainstream maintenance runs until December 31, 2027, and optional extended maintenance until December 31, 2030, at a premium of two percentage points on the maintenance base. After that, the system keeps running in customer-specific maintenance.
Does SAP Enterprise Support extend a release's maintenance period?
No. The support offering defines the services in the contract, and the maintenance phase belongs to the release. The Enterprise Support SLA is no longer delivered once the release is outside mainstream or extended maintenance.
Is my installed S/4HANA release maintained until 2040?
No. SAP's commitment until 2040 is to the family: there will always be at least one release in maintenance. Each release has its own end date. S/4HANA 2023 runs until December 31, 2030, and release 2021 leaves mainstream maintenance at the end of 2026.
Does customer-specific maintenance include legal changes and security updates?
New legal changes, no. On security, SAP considers the release for high-priority notes only in the first 12 months of the phase, according to a public SAP page and Note 3053725.
Can I stay on an older release in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition?
SAP's material does not provide for it. Public Edition receives two major upgrades a year, in February and August, applied by SAP on a published schedule.
Is Safekeeper available for an on-premise installation?
SAP describes SAP S/4HANA Cloud Safekeeper as a service for RISE with SAP customers. SAP does not present the service for an on-premise installation outside a subscription, and coverage in each case depends on the contract.
Is the 2031 to 2033 transition option available to every ECC customer?
No. The transition option requires a move to SAP ERP, private edition on SAP HANA before December 31, 2030, a system of at least 2 TB, products on the list in Note 3591251, and the max success plan. Java-dependent capabilities are excluded.
Does a one-hour response mean a one-hour fix?
No. In the 2022 SAP Enterprise Support schedule, priority 1 has an initial response within 1 hour and corrective action within 4 hours, and the corrective action can be a solution, a workaround, or an action plan. No deadline for a permanent fix is published.
References
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