Microsoft will double the price of its Extended Security Updates (ESU) each year after Windows 10 reaches the end of support in 2025, signaling a desperate push to push updates to Windows 11.
Once support ends on October 14, 2025, organizations will have to pay $61 for the first year of updates, followed by an increase to $122 for the second year and $244 for the third year.
This annual doubling of prices will last a maximum of up to three years, Microsoft confirmed, although users who enter the program after 2025 will have to pay the prices of the years they did not reach.
This announcement marks a big margin from the previous ESU program. which, for Windows 7, costs customers $25 per device for the first year, $50 for the second, and $100 for the third.
So far, these annual pricing structures only apply to commercial organizations and business entities.
However, there are some caveats to this, including a 25% discount on ESU costs for users who operate cloud-based update management system solutions, such as Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch.
This brings the price down to $45 for first-year payments, as well as offering a slightly simpler upgrade process.
Microsoft laid out alternatives to the ESU program before going into details of the pricing structure, outlining a variety of ways for organizations to make the switch to Windows 11.
The firm stated that users should try to upgrade existing PCs to the new operating system where possible, purchase new Windows 11-compatible PCs, or migrate to the cloud and start operating Windows 11 through Windows 365.
ESUs, Microsoft said, are not intended to be a long-term solution but rather a “temporary bridge” for companies that are still moving away from Windows 10.
ESUs do not include new features, non-security fixes, design change requests, or expanded technical support, making the high price tag attached to them even less attractive to companies considering their options.
He made it clear that Windows 10 would soon become “legacy software” that would likely leave companies at risk of security breaches or compliance violations.
Microsoft tried the carrot; now he is testing the stick
Microsoft's recent decision highlights the long-standing problem the tech giant has had in encouraging users to use Windows 11. Statistics from Statcounter currently put Windows 11's market share at just under 27%, while Windows 10 still has around 69%.
The original announcement of the ESU program. made it clear that Microsoft was not willing to force Windows 10 users to abandon the operating system due to its enormous popularity.
Microsoft initially tried a more attractive method, looking to remedy lagging Windows 11 adoption rates with the promise of improved generative AI for Copilot on the updated OS, as well as new add-ons for OpenTable, Instacart, Shopify, Klarna, and Kayak.
Now, Microsoft is changing the incentive to a purely financial one, increasing ESU fees in a more coercive attempt to move users to Windows 11.
