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Node.js 26 Becomes LTS on 28 October; Node 24 Moves to Maintenance

Node.js 26 is promoted to Active LTS on 28 October 2026 and supported until April 2029. Node 24 enters maintenance on 20 October, Node 22 reaches end of life in April 2027, and Node 25 is already end-of-life. The dates, what LTS means, and how to plan your upgrade.

October is Node.js release-line season. Here's where every version stands, from the official Node.js release schedule.

The dates

Version Status Key date End of life
26 Current → Active LTS LTS on 28 October 2026 30 April 2029
24 Active LTS → Maintenance Maintenance from 20 October 2026 30 April 2028
22 Maintenance — 30 April 2027
25 End of life Ended June 2026 —

Node 26 was first released on 5 May 2026 as the "Current" line. Even-numbered releases become LTS in October; odd-numbered ones never do.

What LTS and maintenance mean

  • Active LTS: the recommended line for production. Gets bug fixes, security fixes and backported improvements for 12 months.
  • Maintenance: critical bug fixes and security patches only, for 18 months.
  • End of life: no fixes at all — including security. Don't run production on it.

What to do

On Node 24: you're fine until April 2028. Plan a move to 26 over the next year, not this week.

On Node 22: start planning now — it loses security support at the end of April 2027.

On Node 20 or older: you're past end of life. Upgrade. GitHub Actions also removed Node 20 for running actions in September. (GitHub Actions Removed Node 20)

On Node 25: move to 26.

Upgrading safely

  1. Pin the version per project with .nvmrc and engines in package.json. (What Is nvm?)
  2. Upgrade locally and in CI first, run the full test suite, and watch for deprecation warnings.
  3. Check native modules (database drivers, image libraries, bcrypt) — they need versions built for the new Node ABI. A fresh npm ci rebuilds them.
  4. Update Docker base images (node:26-slim or similar) and your hosting platform's runtime setting. (Production Dockerfile for Node)
  5. Deploy to staging, then production. (Dev, Staging and Production)

Frameworks follow along: Next.js 16.4 notes a Node 24.13.1+ worker-threads bug it works around, and tools like Tailwind shipped Node 26 compatibility fixes earlier this year — keep framework versions current when you move Node. (Next.js 16.4)

Source: Node.js release schedule

EasySpawn servers let Claude Code install the exact Node version your project pins, so upgrading from 24 to 26 is a tested branch, not a server rebuild. See how it works or join the waitlist.

Related: What Is Node.js? · Node vs Bun vs Deno · Update Dependencies Safely · Semantic Versioning Explained

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