Windows 10, year two: $122 a machine, and the bill is cumulative
Paid security updates for Windows 10 doubled in price on 14 October 2026. The pricing is built to make waiting expensive.
Year two of Extended Security Updates costs $122 per device and runs to 12 October 2027. If you skipped year one you must pay for it as well, which makes $183. Year three is $244 and is the last.
12 Oct 2027: Windows 10 ESU year two ends
Windows 10 left support on 14 October 2025. Since then a Windows 10 PC only receives security fixes if it is enrolled in Extended Security Updates, which is a polite name for paying Microsoft to keep patching something it would rather you stopped using. A lot of offices bought the first year because the alternative was replacing hardware in a quarter when the money was already spoken for. That was a reasonable call.
The first year ended on 13 October 2026. Year two began the next morning at double the price.
The numbers
The commercial list price is $61 per device for year one, $122 for year two and $244 for year three. Year three ends in October 2028 and there is nothing after it.
The detail that matters is that the years stack. You cannot sit out a year and join later at the current rate. An organization enrolling for the first time now pays for year one as well, so the entry price today is $183 a machine, part of it for twelve months that have already gone by. Ride the program to the end and each PC costs $427.
What that looks like in an office
Take 25 machines that were enrolled last year. Year two costs 25 times $122, which is $3,050. Stay through year three and add another $6,100. For the full three years the total is $10,675, and at the end of it you own the same old computers and still have to replace them.
We are not saying never pay it. There are good reasons to keep a Windows 10 machine alive. A lathe controller that only talks to one version of one program. A lab instrument with a certified configuration. A department in the middle of a project that should not be interrupted. For those, $122 is cheap insurance.
What we would push back on is paying it for the reception PC because nobody got around to the upgrade.
How to decide
Make a list of every machine still on Windows 10. Next to each, write whether it can run Windows 11 as it stands. Many can and simply have not been upgraded, and for those the answer is a free afternoon. For the ones that cannot, write the real reason the machine is still in use. If the reason is a specific piece of software or equipment, keep it and pay. If the reason is habit, replace it.
One more thing worth checking. Windows 10 running as a cloud desktop in Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop receives these updates at no additional cost, so do not pay twice for those.
Where X-Axis fits
Device inventories and Windows 11 moves are part of our Microsoft 365 work. If you want a second opinion on a list like the one above, send it to us.
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Sources
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