MySQL
DatabaseMySQL 9.7 is the newest actively maintained release, currently at patch 9.7.2. 2 of 16 tracked cycles remain supported. The next cycle scheduled to reach end-of-life is 8.4, on April 30, 2032.
Support pattern
How MySQL has behaved across the cycles tracked here, rather than what its policy documents state. Useful for judging how much runway a version is likely to have before you commit to it.
Support windows are getting shorter: the most recent cycles run about 93 months less than the earlier ones.
Computed from release and end-of-life dates tracked for MySQL. Medians are used rather than averages so one unusually short or long release does not skew the figure. Cycles with no recorded end-of-life date are excluded from the support window.
How MySQL versioning, EOL & security support work
MySQL's numbering is major.minor.patch, but its meaning changed with the Innovation and LTS release model, formalized starting with MySQL 8.4. Each release line is either a Long-Term Support (LTS) release, which stays feature-frozen and only gets bug and security fixes, or an Innovation release, a faster-moving but still production-quality line that carries new features forward until the next LTS lands. Underneath that model, MySQL's support tiers follow Oracle's company-wide Lifetime Support Policy.
MySQL security fixes are tracked with CVE identifiers and, for Oracle's commercial products including MySQL, published on Oracle's regular quarterly Critical Patch Update schedule. Community edition users get equivalent fixes folded into the next Innovation or LTS release. Because MySQL explicitly stops producing new security alerts once a release is past Extended Support, an EOL install can accumulate unpatched, publicly known CVEs indefinitely.
Sources: Oracle Lifetime Support Policy, MySQL Product Support EOL Announcements
Release lifecycle
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