SQL Server SQL 2016 End of Support: Release Dates and ESU Costs

On the same day, the second year of the SQL ESU program Server 2014 came to an end. This version still has a third and final year of ESU, which runs through July 2027.

What the End of Support for SQL Server 2016 End of Support Brings

End of support does not disable anything: the engine starts up, the databases respond, and the applications connect just as they did the day before. Only the flow of patches and access to support are discontinued.

Without an ESU subscription, a customer running SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016 can no longer open a support ticket, even if they have a separate support contract. Microsoft states that this lack of support can create security and compliance issues and exposes the company’s applications and business operations to serious security risks.

Microsoft states that a third-party application control tool is not a substitute for product security patches. Restricting access to the instance reduces exposure; only a product patch restores security coverage.

That’s also what makes it difficult to resolve the issue internally. The administrator knows we need to migrate, while the person in charge of the budget sees a system that’s working; the decision hinges on information that no one has on hand: the list of affected applications, their criticality, and the exact SQL statement Server running on each one.

What ESUs Cover—and What They Don't Cover

The subscription protects the instance for up to three years after the end of the support cycle. For SQL Server 2016, this means July 17, 2029.

Microsoft releases a patch only when a vulnerability is discovered and classified as "Critical" by the Microsoft Security Response Center. Therefore, there is no set release schedule: Microsoft distributes these patches as and when they become available.

The subscription does not provide any new features, functional improvements, or fixes requested by a customer. A non-security-related bug will not be fixed. Nor does it grant access to product support: it entitles the subscriber to open a support ticket regarding the updates themselves, their deployment, installation, or activation, or regarding any regression that an update may have introduced.

Requirements for Purchasing ESUs

The edition matters, and it excludes certain instances: only Enterprise and Standard are eligible for a subscription. Express and Web cannot be covered, nor can Developer by its own subscription—but a customer who holds ESUs for its production workloads can apply these updates to its Developer instances, for development and testing purposes only. This is the first thing to check, because an instance deployed by a line-of-business application could very well be an Express instance: for those, there is no paid extension available.

The most recent Service Pack is required. Microsoft only releases updates for the latest Service Pack, which means Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2016. An instance that is still on SP2 must therefore be updated before a single ESU can be applied.

The instance must be hosted on Azure Arc. For anything running on-premises, at a hosting provider, or in a cloud non-Azure), the subscription requires this association, and Microsoft states that without it, the offer does not apply. The association itself is free. For a machine that cannot be connected, Microsoft directs users to purchase a volume license through the account team, followed by manual registration of the instance in the Azure—the web-based service management console Azure.

You must have Software Assurance or agree to pay on a pay-as-you-go basis. Software Assurance must be included in an Enterprise Agreement, an Enterprise Agreement Subscription, or a Server and Cloud Enrollment, or an Enrollment for Education Solutions; Microsoft specifies that it does not need to be listed on the same enrollment. In the absence of Software Assurance, linking to Azure Arc triggers pay-as-you-go billing, which grants the same entitlement. In both cases, Software Assurance alone is not sufficient: the ESU subscription must be activated separately. A Developer instance is not covered by this offering on its own, but a customer who holds ESUs for production workloads can apply the same updates to their Developer instances, for development and testing purposes only.

The cost. Microsoft does not publish a price: the page to which its documentation links for ESU pricing shows neither a price nor a currency, and no Swiss page lists their prices. The only numerical reference in its documentation is that ESUs represent approximately 75% of the on-premises license price per year—the word “approximately” comes from Microsoft, whose documentation does not mention any changes to this rate from one ESU year to the next. Billing is based on usage, by the hour. It is based on virtual cores when the instance runs in a virtual machine, with a minimum of four cores per virtual machine, and on the host’s physical cores when SQL Server is installed directly on the host, without a virtual machine. For SQL Server 2016, it began at midnight UTC on July 15, 2026, and a subscription purchased after that date is billed retroactively to the first day of the term.

What has changed in the 2016 version: porting the machine as-is to a virtual machine Azure no longer provides ESUs for free. This was the case for SQL Server 2014, but it is no longer the case for SQL Server 2016, on a virtual machine Azure or Azure VMware Solution and on Azure Stack. This migration covers the hosting costs; the ESU subscription fee is still due.

The subscription can be canceled at any time, and it automatically terminates as soon as the instance is migrated to Azure or upgraded to a supported version. Billing stops immediately at that point.

The four releases documented by Microsoft

For an instance that has reached the end of support, Microsoft lists four options: upgrade to a current version of SQL Server, migrate the workload to Azure SQL Managed Instance, migrate to a virtual machine Azure, or subscribe to ESU.

Upgrade to a supported version of SQL Server

This release does not change the architecture. The upgrade from SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 3 to SQL Server 2025 is a supported upgrade path, with no intermediate versions—just as it is from 2017, 2019, and 2022.

It depends on a factor that the organization overlooks: the compatibility of the business application that uses the database. A vendor that does not certify its solution beyond SQL Server 2016 turns a migration technical issue into a negotiation with a vendor.

Microsoft also points to cost and complexity. This approach requires a higher initial investment and ongoing operating costs than the others, since you’re responsible for both the hardware and software. And if the operating system is no longer supported, you’ll need to upgrade it as well: recent versions of SQL Server do not necessarily support older versions of Windows Server, which adds an additional risk. Microsoft notes that a migration side-by-side deployment may then be a more prudent—albeit more expensive—option than an in-place upgrade.

Migrate to Azure SQL Managed Instance

The service has no specific version: with the "Always-up-to-date" update policy, the instance is always running the latest version, and Microsoft states that the end of support does not apply to it. Patches and backups are handled by Microsoft, and the cost of the service includes storage and high availability.

Microsoft also documents the service's limitations. Differences in the Transact-SQL query language, which is specific to SQL Server, may affect existing processes; certain features are not supported; the combined storage capacity of all databases in an instance is capped at 32 TB; and the network requires a private connection to Azure — ExpressRoute or VPN gateway. The service may also be more expensive than a SQL Server on a virtual machine Azure.

Migrate to a virtual machine Azure

Two options, each with different implications for support. Upgrading the version during the migration ends the end-of-support issue. Moving the machine as-is leaves a 2016 instance in place: you must then subscribe to ESUs, without the free coverage that SQL Server 2014. The operating system and SQL Server still need to be managed.

Subscribe to ESU

Microsoft describes this release as maintaining the server and application in their current state for up to three years, and specifies the scenario in which this is justified: an application that must be recertified on a newer version of SQL Server. After three years, you must have upgraded or migrated.

How to Find Out in Three Questions Whether This Applies to You

1. Do you still have a SQL Server Server instance, and which edition is it? A line-of-business application, an asset management tool, or a backup solution may have installed an instance without anyone’s knowledge. The edition is determined along with the version, and it determines eligibility for the ESU: an Express edition is not eligible.
2. Which version, and which Service Pack? The product year is not the same as the installation year: a machine installed in 2019 may very well be running SQL Server 2016. The Service Pack is just as important, since SP3 is a prerequisite for both the ESU subscription and the direct upgrade to SQL Server 2025.
3. Which apps connect to it, and which one would stop running on Monday morning? That answer determines the urgency far more than the installed version.

A farm SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019 farm running on SQL Server 2016 includes two expiration dates—July 14, 2026, and SharePoint Server —which have no equivalent extensions: ESUs cover the database, not the application layer.

The actual effort

In practice, on an isolated server running a single application whose vendor tracks its versions, a version upgrade is prepared in a few days and rolled out over a weekend. This scenario does not require a project.

The nature of the effort changes in three situations, and it’s important to identify them early on: an application whose publisher has gone out of business or no longer certifies recent versions; legacy scheduled processes that no one on the team knows how to review anymore; and a database that feeds other systems via undocumented data flows. In these cases, the preliminary assessment ends up costing more than the migration inventory itself.

Our take. ESUs are justified when the release date has already been set and there are only a few months left—not as a default decision: three years later, the same trade-off arises. The deciding factor is not technical. On a Standard or Enterprise instance already covered by Software Assurance, the subscription is an open choice, and you must then ask the team whether the instance can be attached to Azure Arc. On an Express instance installed by a line-of-business application, no subscription extends support: you must upgrade the version, migrate the database to a managed service, or replace the application. This is the project that must be planned first, even if it seems more involved.

Here's what you need to do, in this order

1. List the SQL instances Server, including their version, edition, and service pack.
2. For each one, list the applications that connect to it and their criticality.
3. Ask each relevant publisher which versions of SQL Server it certifies.
4. Check whether the instance can be associated with Azure Arc, since this response enables or disables the ESU option.
5. Decide, on a per-application basis, whether to upgrade, maintain the base version, Azure and replacement.
6. Keep the ESUs only in cases where a release date has already been set.

The first two points do not require any decision or service provider, and they determine all the others.

On the same timeline, several other Microsoft deadlines are set for October 13, 2026, and the decision between hosting on-premises or in the cloud arises in the same context as for the rest of the infrastructure.

Terms and rates as of August 26, 2026, on the Microsoft pages listed below.

Microsoft Sources

• End of Support in 2026 — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SQL Server , and 2016 Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SQL Server , and 2014 Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• Extended Security Updates for SQL Server —Microsoft Learn
• Frequently Asked Questions About SQL ESUs Server — Microsoft Learn
• End-of-Support Options for SQL Server — Microsoft Learn
• Supported Upgrades to SQL Server 2025 — Microsoft Learn
• Extended Security Updates for Windows ,Server , and SQL Server — Microsoft