Oracle AI Database 26ai to be released on Linux x86-64 platform in January 2026

 Dear All,

In this post i am going share about oracle database 26ai and older version release dates, OS versions supported different database versions, and more information about.

The most recent changes will be highlighted with a "New" or "Updated" icon to help you quickly identify the modifications. (For a history of modifications, see the Change Record Table at the bottom of the document.)

• Oracle AI Database 26ai to be released on Linux x86-64 platform in January 2026
• Oracle Database 23ai replaced by Oracle AI Database 26ai

Oracle Database Release Roadmap

Oracle Database releases fall under one of the following: Long Term Support Release or Innovation Release.

• Long Term Support Release:

Oracle Database Long Term Support Releases are ideal for use cases that benefit from less frequent upgrades to newer releases. Long Term Support Releases offer the highest level of stability and the longest length of error correction support. These releases have at least 5 years of Premier Support followed by 3 years of Extended Support. As necessary, Oracle may extend the Premier Support period or waive the Extended Support fee. When combined with Extended Support, customers typically have 4 or more years to upgrade from one Long Term Support Release to the next Long Term Support Release.

• Innovation Release:

In between Oracle Database Long Term Support Releases, Oracle delivers Oracle Database Innovation Releases that include many enhancements and new capabilities which will also be included in the next Long Term Support Release. Innovation releases are designed to enable customers to continuously use leading-edge technologies to rapidly develop or deploy new applications or augment existing applications. Support for Innovation releases includes at least 2 years of Premier Support and there will be no Extended Support or exceptions. Production workloads can be deployed on Innovation releases if upgrading to the next database release within one year after the next database release ships is factored into the deployment plan.

To help you plan ahead, below is a visual roadmap that captures Oracle Database Releases from 11.2 onward, showing the lifetime support stages (Premier, Extended, etc.) and the Error Correction windows for each release. Note, not all releases are eligible for Extended Support (i.e. 12.2.0.1, 18c, 21c).

 

Figure 1 - Database Release Roadmap

• Oracle has a adopted a cloud-first, developer-first strategy for Oracle Database releases. (PNEWS1470)
• For details on the Database Suite Lifetime Support Policy (incl. Premier, Extended, Sustaining), see Lifetime Support Policy - Oracle Technology Products.
• For details on the Database Suite Error Correction Policy (incl. Patching end dates and grace periods), see KB65129.
• For details on Global Database Extended Support (ES) Fee Waivers, and Limited Error Correction, see Oracle Software Technical Support Policies Section 3 "Lifetime Support" subtitle "Exceptions".

 

Table 1 - Patching End Dates for Roadmap

Release	KB65129	Notes and Exceptions
26ai Long Term Support Release	Premier Support - December 31, 2031 Extended Support - TBD	We are replacing Oracle Database 23ai with Oracle AI Database 26ai starting with Release Update (RU) 23.26.0 (shipped in October 2025). Applying RU 23.26.0 to an Oracle Database 23ai instance will make the instance become Oracle AI Database 26ai. There is no database upgrade or application re-certification required. Now available in cloud, Oracle Exadata and Oracle Database Appliance. Will be available for Linux x86-64 on-premises platforms in the January 2026 Release Update (23.26.1). See details in the Oracle Database Schedule table below. Premier Support ends December 31, 2031 Error Correction / Patching with Extended Support fees or ULA - end date is TBD
21c Innovation Release	July 31, 2027	Error Correction / Patching is available until July 31, 2027 21c is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) Only quarterly Release Updates (RUs) are provided for 21c. 21c is not available with Exadata Database Service
19c Long Term Support Release	December 31, 2029 with Premier Support December 31, 2032 with ES/ULA	Premier Support (PS) ends December 31, 2029. Extended Support (ES) will be Jan 01, 2030 through December 31, 2032 Error Correction / Patching is available through December 31, 2032 with paid ES. Without paid ES, patching is only available until December 31, 2029 Beginning with the October 2022 patching cycle, 19c RURs will no longer be provided for 19.17.0 and above. No additional RURs will be delivered on any platform after the delivery of Oracle Database 19c RUR 19.16.2 in January 2023. (Refer to Sunsetting of 19c RURs and FAQ (Doc ID 2898381.1) for further details.) To provide customers more frequent access to recommended and well-tested collections of patches, Oracle is pleased to introduce Monthly Recommended Patches (MRPs) starting Nov 2022. MRPs are supported only on the Linux x86-64 platform. (Refer to Introducing Monthly Recommended Patches (MRPs) and FAQ (Doc ID 2898740.1) for further details.)
18c Innovation Release	Jun 30, 2021	Error Correction / Patching was available until Jun 30, 2021. 18c is now in Sustaining Support. 18c is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) 18c is not supported on Exadata Database Service, Base Database Service or Exadata Cloud@Customer
12.2.0.1	Mar 31, 2022 Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) Jan 1, 2024- Dec 31, 2026 - Contact CSS for details	Error Correction / Patching has ended for this release. 12.2.0.1 is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) (aka MDS) required to provision and/or run 12.2.0.1 on Exadata Database Service, Base Database Service or Exadata Cloud@Customer
12.1.0.2 Terminal Release	Jul 31, 2022 with paid ES, ULA, or EBS waiver Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) through Dec 31, 2026 - Contact CSS for details	Error Correction / Patching has ended for this release. Premier Support (PS) ended Jul 31, 2018 and one year of free Extended Support (ES) was in effect until July 31, 2019. ES fees or a ULA was required beginning 01-Aug-2019 through 31-Jul-2022. Without paid ES or ULA, patching ended 31-Jul-2019. A global ES uplift fee waiver was in place for E-Business customers. For details and dates of expiration see: Extended Support Fee Waiver for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle E-Business Suite (Doc ID 2522948.1) or Technical Support Policy Document. Apple Macintosh platform patching end date (Error Correction end date) was July 31, 2021. Microsoft Windows: Regardless of the version used to run the 12.1.0.2 Database, Oracle built the 12.1.0.2 Database on Microsoft Windows 2008. This platform reached end-of-life support on January 14, 2020. Oracle made reasonable efforts to deliver patches for the Database 12.1.0.2 on Windows until July 2022 but that support has expired. Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) (aka MDS) is required to provision and/or run 12.1.0.2 on Exadata Database Service, Base Database Service or Exadata Cloud@Customer
12.1.0.1	Aug 31, 2016	Error Correction / Patching has ended for this release. 12.1.0.1 is not eligible for Extended Support (ES) 12.1.0.1 was the last release of Standard Edition (SE) and Standard Edition One (SE1)
11.2.0.4 Terminal Release for 11.2	Dec 31, 2020 (with paid Extended Support or ULA Extended Support or EBS Waiver) Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) through Dec 31, 2026  Contact CSS for details Dec 31, 2021 for OpenVMS platform	Premier Support (PS) ended 31-Jan-2015 and one year of free Extended Support (ES) was in effect until Dec 31, 2018. ES fees or a ULA was required beginning Jan 1, 2019 through Dec 31, 2020. A global Extended Support Uplift Fee waiver was in place for E-Business customers. For details and dates of expiration see: Extended Support Fee Waiver for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle E-Business Suite (Doc ID 2522948.1) or Technical Support Policy Document. Gen 1 and Gen 2 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, OCI DBCS,OCI ExaCS and ODA had 3 additional months of Extended Support. The end of Extended Support for 11.2.0.4 databases on these platforms was: 31-March 2021. New instances could be created up until the end of extended support; however, Oracle made no commitment that any 11.2.0.4 DBCS instances will continue to run after the end of Support. Market Driven Support was only available for the following Database Cloud Services: Gen 1 and Gen 2 ExaCC, OCC DBCS, OCI DBCS (non-PSM), OCI ExaCS. New instances could be created up until the end of Market Driven Support. Oracle made no commitment that any 11.2.0.4 DBCS instances would continue to run after the end of MDS support. Market Driven Support was not available for PSM-based OCI DBCS, OCI-C DBCS and OCI-C ExaCS. Upgrade Support (Restricted Availability) (aka MDS) required to provision and/or run 11.2.0.4 on Exadata Database Service, Base Database Service or Exadata Cloud@Customer 11.2.0.4 is the terminal release on OpenVMS. During calendar year 2021, customers received Severity 1 Fixes and Security Updates for no additional charge beyond standard Premier Support costs. Coverage did not extend to new certifications, third-party products, or any Java/JDK functionality including Java components embedded in the database. Coverage also excluded any updates related to cryptography and network encryption. This offering did not include standard Security Patch Updates (SPUs).

 

 

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Recommended Upgrade Path

Oracle recommends the following upgrade options:

• For product longevity and patching, Oracle strongly recommends upgrading to 19c which is the current on-premises Long Term Support release with a support end date of December 31, 2032 (or December 31, 2029 if you choose not to pay Extended Support fees or purchase a ULA).
• If you are currently running 11.2.x/12.1.x you will need to upgrade to the terminal release (i.e. 11.2.0.4/12.1.0.2) for the DB Release you are running and then continue the upgrade process to 19c.
• 11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.2 and 12.2 are in Sustaining Support with Upgrade Support available for limited platforms. Contact CSS for details. Note: ACS has been renamed to Customer Success Services.
• If you are currently running 18c, you should upgrade to 19c without delay. 18c is in Sustaining Support.
• The next Long Term Support Release is 26ai. To upgrade to 26ai, you must be on 19c or later.

For questions related to certification combinations and Lifetime Support agreements with other Oracle products like Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Oracle Siebel, please contact your Oracle Account Representative.

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Oracle Database Release Schedule

These are server releases unless otherwise specified. Server releases always include the native word size client (e.g. 64-bit). Where the platform supports it, a 32-bit and 64-bit client is also part of the release.

Table 2 - Database Release Schedule

Platform	26ai * Long Term Support Release	21c Innovation Release	19c Long Term Support Release	18c	12.2.0.1	12.1.0.2	12.1.0.1	11.2.0.4
*Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai Oracle Public Cloud Releases
Exadata Express Cloud Service	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not Planned	18-Sep-2016	N/A
Base Database Service1 (Previously known as: Database Cloud Service)	19-Sep-2023	08-Dec-2020 available on VM (RAC or single-instance) and Bare Metal (single-instance)	OCI DB System - VM: Jul-2019 OCI DB System - Bare Metal: April 2020	1-Mar-2018	4-Nov-2016	Sep-2014	N/A	Sep-2014
Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure1 (Previously known as: Exadata Cloud Service)	2-May-2024	N/A	19-Jun-2019	Jun-2018	4-Nov-2016	Oct-2015	N/A	Oct-2015
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer1 (Previously known as: Exadata Cloud at Customer)	N/A	N/A	17-Sep-2019	May-2018	2-May-2017	Dec-2016	N/A
Exadata Database Service on Cloud at Customer 1	2-May-2024	N/A	17-Sep-2019	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure 2	31-May-2024	N/A	26-Jun-2019	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Autonomous Database on Exadata Cloud at Customer 2	31-May-2024	N/A	08-Jul-2020	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Autonomous Database on Shared Exadata Infrastructure	28-Jun-2024	N/A	15-Mar-2020	18-Mar-2018	N/A	N/A	N/A
Compute Cloud at Customer	22-Jul-2024	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
On-Premises Engineered Systems (Same software as released for other platforms but tested on Engineered Systems)
Oracle Database Appliance	22-Jul-2024	16-Sep-2021	16-Oct-2019	7-Mar-2018	17-Nov-2017	Apr 2014	N/A	Oct 2013
Exadata	22-Jul-2024	13-Aug-2021	13-Feb-2019	16-Feb-2018	10-Feb-2017	Oct 2014	Mar 2013	Nov 2013
Supercluster	N/A	N/A	26-Apr-2019	12-Mar-2018	10-Feb-2017	Nov 2014	Apr 2014	Dec 2013
Private Cloud Appliance 3	22-Jul-2024	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
On-Premises Server Releases (includes client) (Download here)
Linux x86	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not planned	Not planned	Not planned	Not planned	Not planned	28-Aug-2013
Linux x86-64	January 2026 Release Update (23.26.1) (Instant Client and Full Client are available today)	13-Aug-2021	25-Apr-2019	23-Jul-2018	1-Mar-2017	22-Jul-2014	25-Jun-2013	27-Aug-2013
Linux on Arm	TBA	Not Planned	28-June-2023 Client: May-2021 download	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not Planned	Not Planned
Oracle Solaris SPARC (64-bit)	TBA	See KB126264	26-Apr-2019	30-Jul-2018	1-Mar-2017	22-Jul-2014	25-Jun-2013	29-Aug-2013
Oracle Solaris x86-64 (64-bit)	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	07-Nov-2019 Terminal Release	6-Aug-2018	1-Mar-2017	22-Jul-2014	25-Jun-2013	29-Aug-2013
Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit)	2026 (Instant Client is available today)	08-Oct-2021	08-Jun-2019	21-Aug-2018	16-Mar-2017	25-Sep-2014	9-Jul-2013	25-Oct-2013
OpenVMS Itanium	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Terminal Release
HP-UX Itanium KB256877	TBA	28-Sept-2021	28-May-2019	20-Nov -2018	13-Apr-2017	14-Nov-2014	9-Jan-2014	10-Oct-2013
HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	Platform de-supported	2-Jan-2014
IBM AIX on POWER Systems	2026	See DOC ID 2766930.1	28-May-2019	20-Nov -2018	13-Apr-2017	14-Nov-2014	9-Jan-2014	10-Oct-2013
IBM Linux on System z	TBA	See DOC ID 2766930.1	06-June-2019	20-Nov -2018	6-Jun-2017	14-Nov-2014	9-Jan-2014	9-Jan-2014
Microsoft Windows (32-bit)	Not Planned	Client Only - Oct 2021	Client only - June 2019	Client Only	Client Only	Client Only	Not planned	25-Oct-2013
Platform	26ai *	21c	19c	18c	12.2.0.1	12.1.0.2	12.1.0.1	11.2.0.4
*Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai Instant Client-Only Releases
Apple macOS (Intel) download	Not planned		10-Sept-2019	Mar-2018	15-Jan-2018	2016	Not planned	20-Apr-2014 Download
Apple macOS ARM64	21-Jun-2024 Download
IBM Linux on POWER (Big Endian)						18-Dec-2015 (download)		4-Dec-2014
IBM Linux on POWER (Little Endian) download			Jul-2019 download	31-Oct-2018 (download)	7-Jun-2017 (download)	18-Dec-2015 (download)
1 Oracle Base Database Service (formerly Oracle Database Cloud Service) and Exadata Database Service (formerly Exadata Cloud Service and Exadata Cloud@Customer) follow the same support life and error correction schedule as on-premises dates unless otherwise noted in Table 1 above (for example, 11.2.0.4 MDS). Also, Extended Support is bundled with both the license-included and BYOL versions of these services and does not require additional fees. These services will not be covered under Sustaining Support and Oracle makes no commitment that any cloud service instances will continue to run after the end of their support life (Premier, extended, error correction, or MDS). We will not disable any installed databases upon the expiration of support, but the underlying infrastructure will continue to be updated. The infrastructure updates may render the unpatched databases inoperable. We make no commitment as to how long any unpatched databases will continue to run. 2 Oracle's current plan for Oracle Autonomous Database - Shared Exadata Infrastructure, Oracle Autonomous Database - Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure, Autonomous Database on Exadata Cloud@Customer services is to support Long Term Support Release versions for a similar period of time found for those major releases when deployed on-premises. The intent of this plan is to provide stability of service experience for the thousands of critical database deployments found in Oracle Cloud. Additionally, we will at times make available Innovation Releases as part of the Autonomous Database Cloud Services. Innovation Releases, when provided, will be supported for a shorter period of time as compared to a Long Term Support Release, similar to what is found for those releases when deployed on-premises. Oracle reserves the right to change this plan with changing business requirements. Any change will take into account that stability is of utmost importance to Oracle's many thousands of mission critical deployments. 3 Private Cloud Appliance (PCA) using 23ai is supported with PCA Software Version 3+. Due to PCA Software v3 Hardware requirement, it is thus supported on PCA Hardware X9-2 (and later) and Compute Cloud @ Customer X10 (and later) Thanks, Srini