Windows 10 ESU Year 2: What It Costs Canadian Organizations

Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Year 1 coverage ends on October 13, 2026. From October 14, any Windows 10 device your organization still runs either moves into ESU Year 2 or stops receiving security updates. For most IT and finance teams, the useful questions now are how many devices are in each group, what Year 2 will cost for them, and which ones can leave Windows 10 instead.

This post walks through the cost using Microsoft's published prices, explains how billing works for Canadian organizations, and gives you a short way to work out your own number. The goal is simple: know your exposure and your exit plan before the next ESU year bills.

What Microsoft Publishes for Commercial ESU

According to Microsoft's Windows 10 ESU documentation, the lifecycle FAQ and the Partner Center ESU page:

• Year 1 is US$61 per device and covers October 15, 2025 to October 13, 2026.
• Year 2 doubles to US$122 per device (Microsoft states the price doubles each year) and covers October 14, 2026 to October 12, 2027.
• Year 3 doubles again to US$244 per device and ends October 10, 2028. There is no Year 4.
• ESU is cumulative. A device that joins in Year 2 must also be licensed for Year 1, so a late start costs US$183 per device.
• It's sold by the year. Partial periods can't be bought, and the minimum purchase is one licence.
• Eligibility: devices must run Windows 10, version 22H2. Enterprise, Education and Pro editions in commercial use qualify.

ESU delivers critical and important security updates only. It doesn't add features or restore general technical support.

What This Means for Canadian Organizations

Microsoft publishes the ESU price in US dollars. Canadian organizations normally buy it through a volume licensing agreement or a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner, and that purchase is billed in Canadian dollars at the price in your agreement or your partner's price list. Microsoft's Partner Center guidance notes that partners are charged the amount posted at the time of purchase, so the CA$ figure you budget should come from your licensing partner, not from a currency conversion.

Two practical points follow:

• Ask for the Year 2 CA$ price per device now, for devices already in Year 1 and for any device joining late, since the late-join price includes Year 1.
• Check how your agreement handles timing. Through CSP, Windows 10 ESU is bought as a perpetual licence for each year. Microsoft's Partner Center guidance is that once Year 2 coverage is current, partners buy Year 1 and Year 2 together for a customer joining late.

A Worked Example (Simple Arithmetic at Microsoft's US$ List Prices)

To show how the numbers move, here is an organization with 50 Windows 10 devices that can't move before October 14. These figures are plain arithmetic using Microsoft's US$ list prices only. They are not a quote, and your CA$ price will depend on your agreement.

• Already enrolled in Year 1: 50 devices × US$122 = US$6,100 for Year 2.
• Not enrolled in Year 1: 50 devices × US$183 (Year 1 + Year 2) = US$9,150 to cover the same year.
• Still on Windows 10 for Year 3: another 50 × US$244 = US$12,200 on top.

The per-device cost of keeping one machine on Windows 10 through all three years is US$427. That's why the cheapest ESU device is usually the one that leaves Windows 10 before the next bill.

Where ESU Is Included at No Extra Cost

Microsoft includes ESU at no additional cost for Windows 10 virtual machines in Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure virtual machines, Azure Dedicated Host, Azure VMware Solution, Nutanix Cloud Clusters on Azure, Azure Local, Azure Stack Hub and Azure Stack Edge. Windows 10 devices that connect to Windows 365 Cloud PCs are also entitled to ESU with an active Windows 365 subscription.

For a group of users tied to a legacy application, a cloud desktop can cost less than buying ESU device by device. Our comparison of Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 covers how the two options differ.

Work Out Your Own Number in Four Steps

1. Count what's left. List every device still on Windows 10 and note whether it's enrolled in Year 1.
2. Sort each device. Upgrade in place, replace the hardware, move the workload to a cloud desktop, or keep it on ESU for a defined period.
3. Price only the last group. Multiply the devices that truly stay on Windows 10 by your CA$ Year 2 price, using the late-join price for any device not enrolled in Year 1.
4. Give every ESU device an exit date. ESU buys time, not a destination. A device without an exit date is the one that ends up in Year 3.

If you also still run Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2, note that its final ESU year ends on the same day, October 13, 2026.

Our earlier guide, Windows 10 Support Has Ended: What to Do Before ESU Costs Double, covers the migration side in more detail. For an example of a migration finished before the original deadline, see our Windows 11 migration story.

Before the Year 2 Bill

Most organizations don't need a big program to get this under control. They need an accurate device count, a decision for each device, and a CA$ price for the few that genuinely have to stay on Windows 10 a while longer.

Check your Windows 10 exposure with one of our senior engineers. We'll help you count what's left, price what has to stay, and set an exit date for each device.