Apple publishes no support period for any iPhone, so every figure you have read was calculated by the writer. Here is what Apple does publish, and the measurement nobody runs on it: on one day in May 2026 Apple patched an iPhone 6s that went on sale in September 2015, ten years and eight months earlier.
A practical guide to getting it right.
The number does not exist#
Search this question and the results agree suspiciously closely: five years, six, sometimes seven. The agreement is not evidence, because none of those figures come from Apple. Apple publishes a compatibility list, the iPhones that run the current release, and says nothing anywhere about how long any model will keep receiving updates. (Apple's iOS 26 compatibility list)
This is unusual rather than sinister. Google publishes a window. Samsung publishes what it is patching right now. Motorola and OnePlus print an end date per model because UK regulations require them to. Apple, which sells into the same UK market, files what it must and has never turned it into a consumer-facing promise, so the number that would answer this question has no source to be quoted from.
What the published figures actually are is an average of Apple's past behaviour. Someone counted how long previous iPhones lasted before being dropped, took the mean, and printed it. As a description of a pattern that is fair. As a fact about the handset in your pocket it is a guess, and it is set in the same typeface as the sourced numbers beside it, which is what makes it misleading rather than merely uncertain.
Key point
The useful move is to stop asking when your iPhone will stop getting updates, which has no answer, and start asking what Apple has actually shipped to it and when. That question is answerable, sourced, and less satisfying.
What Apple actually publishes#
Two things, and they do different jobs. The first is the compatibility list for the current release: the models that can run iOS 26. That is a present-tense list of which iPhones still receive new iOS versions, and it currently starts at the iPhone 11 of September 2019. The second is the security releases page, a running log of every security update Apple has shipped and which devices each one went to. The first tells you whether your model is still on the main line. The second tells you whether it is still being patched at all, which is not the same question.
Neither page contains a forward-looking statement. There is no "supported until", no minimum period, and no end date, for any model, anywhere. That absence is the honest answer to this article's title, and it is worth stating plainly before getting to the part where Apple comes out looking good.
Off the latest iOS is not the same as unsupported#
Dropping off the newest iOS is widely treated as the moment an iPhone dies. It is not. Apple maintains security-only branches of older iOS releases and patches them alongside the current one, so a phone can be several years past its last feature update and still receiving fixes for the flaws that matter.
The cleanest way to see this is to look at one day rather than a policy. On 11 May 2026 Apple shipped four sets of security updates simultaneously: iOS 26.6 for current models, iOS 18.7.9 for the iPhone XS and XR, iOS 16.7.16 for the iPhone 8 and X, and iOS 15.8.8 for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 and first-generation SE. (Apple security releases)
So on one day in May 2026, Apple patched phones from 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. An iPhone 8 owner who concluded in 2023 that the device was finished, because the next iOS would not install on it, went on receiving security updates for more than two years after that. The iPhone 8 is still on the iOS 16 branch, which is how we know that branch is being maintained.
How long that works out to, measured rather than averaged#
This is the calculation nobody publishes, and it is only a subtraction. Take the month a model went on sale, take the date it last received a patch, and the gap is elapsed support: not a forecast, not an average, just how long that specific phone was actually being maintained. Using the 11 May 2026 releases as the endpoint gives a floor for each group, because in every case the phone was still supported on that date rather than finished.
Every one of these numbers is larger than the five-to-seven years the roundups quote, and unlike those, each is a measurement rather than a mean.
Two things follow. The first is that Apple's real record is considerably better than the figures published about it, which is an odd thing for the internet to have got wrong in the pessimistic direction. The second is that the record is the wrong tool for the job people want it for. It cannot tell you about your phone's future, because Apple has not committed to repeating it, and a ten-year pattern with no promise behind it is still not a promise.
Heads-up
Apple publishes no end date for the legacy security branches either, and has not said it will maintain them. A phone on iOS 15 today may get another patch or may already have had its last one. What can be checked is what has shipped, never what is coming.
What you can and cannot know about your own iPhone#
Pros
- Whether your model runs the current iOS: published by Apple, and a definite yes or no
- Every security update your model has received, and the date of the most recent one: published by Apple
- How long your model has been supported so far: a subtraction on those two facts
- Whether your installed version is the latest available for your device: shown in Settings, General, Software Update
Cons
- When your iPhone will stop receiving security updates: not published, not committed to, not knowable
- Whether the legacy branch your phone is on will get another patch: not published
- Which iPhones the next iOS will drop: not announced, and guessing is how the bad numbers got made
- How long a model you are about to buy will be supported: the one question a buyer most wants answered
The asymmetry is the whole story. Everything about the past is documented and everything about the future is silent, and the popular answers to this question are produced by treating the first as if it settled the second.
What this means if you are buying#
Check your iPhone against Apple's own pages
Our free checker reads from the manufacturers' pages rather than from roundups. For an iPhone it tells you whether the model is on Apple's current iOS list and says outright that Apple publishes no end date, instead of inventing one. For a Pixel, Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus it gives you whatever that maker actually publishes, which in two cases is an exact month.
How long does Apple support iPhones?
Apple publishes no support period for any iPhone, so there is no official figure. What can be measured is elapsed support: on 11 May 2026 Apple shipped security updates to models going back to the iPhone 6s of September 2015, which is ten years and eight months of patching for that device and a minimum rather than a total. The current release, iOS 26, runs on the iPhone 11 and later.
Why do articles say five to seven years if Apple publishes nothing?
Because those figures are averages of how long previous iPhones lasted before Apple dropped them, calculated by the writer. They describe Apple's past behaviour, not a commitment, and they sit on the page in the same typeface as sourced facts. The measured figures are also higher than the averages, because the averages usually stop counting at the last iOS version upgrade rather than the last security patch.
Does my iPhone stop getting security updates when it cannot run the latest iOS?
No. Apple maintains security-only branches of older iOS releases and patches them alongside the current one. On 11 May 2026 it released iOS 26.6 for current models and, the same day, iOS 18.7.9 for the iPhone XS and XR, iOS 16.7.16 for the iPhone 8 and X, and iOS 15.8.8 for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 and first-generation SE. Leaving the compatibility list ends new iOS versions and features, not patching.
Which iPhones run iOS 26?
Apple's compatibility list starts at the iPhone 11, which went on sale in September 2019, and runs to the current models. If your iPhone is older than that it is no longer receiving new iOS versions, which does not by itself mean it has stopped receiving security updates.
When will my iPhone stop getting security updates?
Nobody outside Apple knows, and Apple has not said. This is the one question about iPhone support that genuinely cannot be answered from a source, and any specific date you find has been inferred. What you can check is the most recent update your model actually received.
Is an iPhone supported for longer than an Android phone?
Measured on what has already happened, Apple's record is long: at least seven years and eight months of patching for models released between 2015 and 2018, and more than ten for the oldest of them. Measured on what is promised, Apple is the only major maker promising nothing, while Google commits to seven years for the Pixel 8 and later and Motorola and OnePlus publish a per-model end date. Those are different questions and the answer flips depending on which you are asking.
How can I tell how long my iPhone has been supported?
Subtract the month the model went on sale from the date of the most recent security update it received, both of which Apple publishes. That gives elapsed support, which is a fact. It does not give remaining support, which is not available for any iPhone at any price.
Should I upgrade my iPhone because support is ending?
There is no published date for support ending, so there is no date to act on. Given that phones from 2015 were still being patched in 2026, support duration is a weak reason to replace an iPhone compared with battery health, repair cost, or an app you rely on dropping the OS version. In practice a banking or payment app refusing to run is what forces the decision far more often than a security cutoff.
Sources
- Apple: Apple security releasessupport.apple.com
- Apple: iPhone models compatible with iOS 26support.apple.com
Discussion