After October 2026, will MS Publisher continue to work if it is accessed via MS Office Professional Plus 2021?

Question

It is understood that Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026. It appears that this is when MS Publisher is accessed via Microsoft 365. Will it continue to work, with no support or fixes, if accessed via Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021?

Answer 1

Hello office stanchfield,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum!

I understand that you have confusion when using Microsoft Publisher. That's very understandable and believe me you're not alone. I am here to help you out.

To answer for your question, yes — Publisher will likely continue to run after October 2026 if you are using Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021, but it will be completely unsupported, receive no security or bug fixes, and Microsoft provides no guarantees that it will keep working.

It has officially stated that Microsoft Publisher reaches end of support in October 2026. Check it here; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-publisher-will-no-longer-be-supported-after-october-2026-ee6302a2-4bc7-4841-babf-8e9be3acbfd7

From that point:

• Publisher is removed from Microsoft 365 subscriptions
• Microsoft 365 users will no longer be able to open or edit .pub files
• No technical support, bug fixes, or security updates will be provided
• All Publisher editions including perpetual versions are out of support

It explicitly confirms: “Support for the perpetual version of Publisher will end on October 1, 2026, when Office LTSC 2021 reaches end of support.” Office Professional Plus 2021 is a perpetual (one‑time purchase) edition, not Microsoft 365.

What this means for Office Professional Plus 2021? Will Publisher still launch after October 2026? Yes, most likely.

• Microsoft does not state that Publisher will be disabled or removed from Office 2021 installs
• Perpetual-license versions (Office 2021 / Publisher 2019) might still open after October 2026, but enter end-of-life status

There is no license enforcement cutoff for perpetual Office editions.

I hope this will help with your situation. Please feel free to reach back if you have further update or more questions.

Best Regards,

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Answer 2

Hi, yes if you have Publisher installed. Publisher no longer supported means there will be no more features added or bugs fixed etc. I still have a working Publisher 2003.