Microsoft Publisher left Microsoft 365 on October 1, 2026. Microsoft 365 subscribers can no longer open or edit .pub files in Publisher. Support for the one-time purchase versions, Publisher 2021 and Publisher LTSC 2021, ends on October 13, 2026. Those copies keep running after that date, but with no more security fixes or help. Publisher 2019 and Publisher 2016 already left support in October 2025. Your .pub files are not deleted. They stay where they are, and you can still open them with a free viewer or convert them to PDF or Word without Publisher. See what happens to your PUB files after 2026 for the file side of the story.
Update, 1 October 2026: Publisher has left Microsoft 365
As of today, Microsoft 365 subscribers can no longer use Publisher. Some copies still open with a “Publisher is retiring” banner, so if yours does, save your important files as PDF or Word now and do not count on it lasting. If Publisher no longer opens for you, your .pub files are still safe and the free Univik PUB File Viewer opens them on Windows without Publisher.
What Happened in October 2026
Microsoft announced the end of Publisher on February 15, 2024. The end came in two steps in October 2026. What “end of life” means for you depends on how you got Publisher, and most coverage of this topic glosses over the difference.
Two separate events, on two dates:
Microsoft 365 subscribers (October 1, 2026): Publisher is no longer part of Microsoft 365. You can no longer open or edit .pub files in Publisher. Some copies still opened on the morning of October 1 with a “Publisher is retiring” banner. Treat that as borrowed time.
Perpetual licence users (Publisher 2021 and Publisher LTSC 2021, October 13, 2026): Support ends on October 13, 2026. The application keeps running and you can still open and edit PUB files. But Microsoft stops issuing security updates, bug fixes and technical support. Publisher 2019 and Publisher 2016 already left support on October 14, 2025.
Which group you are in decides what to do next. If you are on Microsoft 365, the deadline has passed, so the job now is to open and convert your files without Publisher. If you have a perpetual licence, Publisher still works, but it gets no fixes after October 13. Use it now to convert the files that matter.
Office 2024 does not include Publisher
If you upgrade to Office 2024 or install it over an existing Office installation, Publisher is not included and any existing Publisher installation from the older Office version will be removed. There is no path to keep Publisher through an upgrade to Office 2024 or later.
“Publisher leaving Microsoft 365 did not delete a single file. What changed is the program that opens them. We have run batch conversions across PUB and PUZ files from every version and published some of the results in these guides, so the way out is known.”
Nick Rogers
|Founder, Univik, building file conversion tools since 2013
Which Version Do You Have? (Check This First)
Before you do anything else, confirm which version of Publisher you are running. Everything else follows from this.
Open Publisher. Click File in the menu bar, then Account (or Help in older versions).
Look at the Product Information section. If it says “Microsoft 365” or “Office 365” anywhere in the product name, you are on a subscription. If it says “Publisher 2021,” “Publisher 2019,” “Publisher 2016” or similar, you have a perpetual licence.
Note the version number. Scroll down to see the full version string. This tells you exactly which build you are running and whether you have received recent updates.
If Publisher no longer opens, or it shows a “Publisher is retiring” banner, you are on a Microsoft 365 subscription and Publisher has already been retired for you.
If You Use Microsoft 365
Publisher stopped being part of your subscription on October 1, 2026. Not “became unsupported.” Removed. You can no longer open or edit .pub files in it. If your copy still opens with a “Publisher is retiring” banner, treat that as borrowed time and save your files now.
What this means in practice:
Your .pub files are not deleted. They stay on your PC, USB drives, OneDrive or SharePoint. What stops is Publisher opening them, so you need another way to read or convert them.
You cannot use any other Microsoft 365 application to open PUB files. Word, PowerPoint and Excel do not open PUB files. However, a free browser-based Online PUB File Viewer still lets you see what is inside a PUB file without Publisher installed. To read PUB files offline on Windows with no upload, use the free Univik PUB File Viewer.
The PUB format is proprietary with no published specification. LibreOffice Draw is free and imports many .pub files, but the layout can shift. For files where the layout matters, use a tool made for PUB files, such as the viewers above or a PUB converter.
If Publisher still opens for you, it shows a “Publisher is retiring” banner saying you won’t be able to access Publisher or open Publisher files. Use that window to save your most important files as PDF or Word now. Nobody knows how long it lasts.
Microsoft’s own advice was to convert files before October 1, 2026. That date has passed, but it is not too late. You can still convert your PUB files to PDF or Word without Publisher. The checklist below shows how.
If You Have a Perpetual Licence
Publisher 2021, Publisher 2019 and Publisher 2016 keep working after October 2026. You can still open PUB files. You can still edit them. The application does not get removed, and Microsoft says you can still install and use it after support ends.
What changes is support. Publisher 2019 and Publisher 2016 lost support on October 14, 2025. Publisher 2021 and Publisher LTSC 2021 lose it on October 13, 2026. After that:
No more security updates. Any vulnerability discovered in Publisher after this date will not be patched. Opening a PUB file from an untrusted source becomes a security risk, because malformed PUB files could exploit unpatched vulnerabilities.
No technical support. Microsoft support will not assist with Publisher issues after this date.
Windows updates may break Publisher. A Windows security update could change a system component that Publisher depends on. Since Publisher is no longer being maintained, these incompatibilities will not be fixed.
Office 2024 removes Publisher. If you upgrade your Office installation to Office 2024 or later, Publisher is gone. Office 2024 does not include Publisher in any configuration.
The practical recommendation for perpetual licence users: use Publisher until it causes problems, but convert your important PUB files now. Do not wait until Publisher breaks. At that point, conversion becomes much harder.
Standalone Publisher licences are no longer sold
You cannot buy Publisher as a new product, and it is not part of Office 2024. The only remaining purchase option is a secondhand Office 2021 perpetual licence that includes Publisher, and Office 2021 reaches end of support on October 13, 2026.
The PUB File Problem Nobody Is Talking About
Here is the part most retirement guides skip.
Publisher has been running for 35 years, but Microsoft never published an open specification for the PUB file format. Unlike DOCX (an ISO open standard that any application can implement) or PDF (a published standard readable by hundreds of applications), PUB is a proprietary binary format with no documented schema.
The consequence: very few programs read PUB files well. LibreOffice Draw is free and imports many .pub files, but layouts with custom fonts, master pages, text that flows between boxes or layered images can shift. A small number of specialist tools are built for PUB files, including free viewers and paid batch converters.
What this means for you: losing Publisher does not delete your PUB files, but it does take away the one program that could open and edit them without fuss. Leave them as .pub and every future reopen depends on finding a tool that still reads the format.
This is why conversion is still the right move after the deadline. Turning each PUB file into a PDF or Word file puts your content in a format any computer can open for years to come.
Your Three Paths Forward
Path 1: Convert Now (Recommended)
Convert all PUB files to PDF (for archiving) and DOCX (for editing) as soon as you can. If you still have a working copy of Publisher (a perpetual Publisher 2021, 2019 or 2016, or a Microsoft 365 copy that still opens), use its Save As for individual files. With no Publisher, or for bulk jobs, use a batch converter like Univik PUB Converter, which needs no Publisher and handles dozens or hundreds of files. Keep the original PUB files as a backup until you have verified the converted versions. If you only need the graphics, you can also extract the images from your publications.
Path 2: Keep Perpetual Publisher (Caution)
If you already have Office 2021 with Publisher, you can keep using it, but support ends on October 13, 2026 and there are no security updates after that. This path is not open to Microsoft 365 users. This is a reasonable short-term bridge if you have many files and need time to convert them. It is not a permanent solution. Do not use this path as a reason to delay converting your files.
Path 3: Rebuild in a New Tool
For organisations that create new content regularly (newsletters, brochures, flyers), switching to a replacement tool now means rebuilding templates in Word, PowerPoint or Canva. New content is created in the new tool. Existing PUB files are converted for archiving. This is the cleanest long-term approach but requires the most upfront work.
Most organisations will use a combination of Paths 1 and 3: convert the existing PUB archive, then rebuild the active templates in a replacement tool. For guidance on which replacement tool fits your use case, see our Microsoft Publisher alternatives guide.
What to Do Now: Action Checklist
Audit your PUB file inventory. Search your computer, shared drives, OneDrive and SharePoint for *.pub files. You need to know how many you have before you can plan the conversion. Use Windows Search or PowerShell: Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Recurse -Filter *.pub
Triage by priority. Not all PUB files are equal. Active templates you use regularly need immediate attention. Archived files from five years ago can wait. Focus conversion effort on anything still in active use first.
Decide the output format for each type. PUB files used for printing or distribution → convert to PDF. PUB files containing editable content you may want to update later → convert to DOCX or PPTX. PUB files that are reference documents → convert to PDF and archive.
If you still have Publisher, use its Save As. This only works with a working copy: a perpetual Publisher 2021, 2019 or 2016, or a Microsoft 365 copy that still opens. For a small number of files, open each one in Publisher, go to File then Save As and choose PDF or Word Document as the file type. This is free and uses Publisher’s own rendering. Suitable for up to 20 to 30 files. No Publisher? Go to step 5.
Use a batch converter for larger archives. For organisations with dozens or hundreds of PUB files, manual conversion is not feasible. Univik PUB Converter converts PUB files to PDF, Word, JPG, PNG and other formats in bulk on Windows. No Publisher installation needed, so it works on machines where Publisher has already gone.
Verify the converted files. Spot-check a sample of converted files to confirm layout, fonts and images survived the conversion. Keep the original PUB files so you can re-convert any file that needs it.
Keep original PUB files as a backup. Do not delete the originals until you have verified all conversions. Store the originals in a separate archive folder after conversion. Even without Publisher, having the originals means you can convert them if a better tool becomes available in future.
Choose and set up your replacement tool. What you use for new content from now on depends on what you were using Publisher for. Brochures and flyers → Canva. Newsletters → Word or Mailchimp. Complex print layouts → Affinity (now a free app from Canva) or Adobe InDesign. Presentations → PowerPoint.
What Microsoft Recommends Instead
Microsoft’s own guidance suggests these replacements for common Publisher use cases:
| Publisher Use Case | Microsoft’s Recommended Replacement |
|---|---|
| Envelopes, labels, newsletters, programs, invoices and letterhead | Word |
| Banners, signs and posters | PowerPoint |
| Flyers, brochures, ads, certificates and business cards | Word or PowerPoint |
| Calendars and greeting cards | Word or PowerPoint |
| Any of these from a ready-made design | Templates from Microsoft Create |
Microsoft’s recommended alternatives are all within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, which makes sense from their perspective. They do not cover third-party alternatives that may be a better fit for professional designers or organisations with complex layout needs.
For an honest comparison of all available alternatives including Canva, Affinity, Adobe InDesign and LibreOffice, see our complete Publisher alternatives guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Publisher still work after October 2026?
It depends on your licence type. For Microsoft 365 subscribers, no. Publisher left Microsoft 365 on October 1, 2026 and you can no longer open or edit .pub files in it. Some copies still opened on October 1 with a “Publisher is retiring” banner, so if yours does, save your files now. For perpetual licence users (Publisher 2021 and Publisher LTSC 2021), the application keeps running, but support ends on October 13, 2026 and there are no security updates or bug fixes after that. Microsoft also confirms that Office 2024 does not include Publisher, so any upgrade removes it.
Will renewing Microsoft 365 or reinstalling Office bring Publisher back?
No. Publisher is no longer part of any Microsoft 365 plan, so renewing, repairing Office or reinstalling it does not bring Publisher back. Only a perpetual copy of Publisher 2021, 2019 or 2016 can still be installed. If Publisher will not start or a file will not open, our guide to Publisher cannot open this file walks through each cause. Your .pub files are safe either way, and you can open them without Publisher.
Can I still open PUB files after Publisher is retired?
Yes. Your PUB files are not deleted, and you have several ways to open them. A perpetual copy of Publisher 2021, 2019 or 2016 still opens them, though it is unsupported. LibreOffice Draw is free and imports many .pub files, but the layout can shift. The free Univik PUB File Viewer opens PUB files from any version on Windows, and the free Univik Online PUB Viewer opens Publisher 2003 and newer files in your browser with nothing uploaded. To keep your content usable for good, convert the files to PDF or Word.
What is the best format to convert PUB files to?
It depends on intended use. PDF is best for files you only need to view and print, because it preserves the layout exactly and is readable on any device. DOCX (Word) is best for files you may need to edit. It makes the content accessible but may shift the layout somewhat. PPTX (PowerPoint) works well for slide-based and presentation-style Publisher documents. For a step-by-step guide to the Word conversion specifically, see our PUB to Word conversion guide.
Do I need to convert PUB files if I have a perpetual Publisher licence?
Not immediately, but yes, eventually. A perpetual Publisher installation keeps working after support ends, but without security updates. Publisher 2019 and 2016 are already unsupported, and Publisher 2021 joins them on October 13, 2026. A Windows update could break Publisher rendering without a fix being available. Converting your important PUB files now, while Publisher still works, protects them regardless of what happens to the application later.
What happens if I have thousands of PUB files to convert?
Manual conversion is not practical at scale. Microsoft’s PowerShell script (Convert-PubFileToPDF) can batch-convert PUB files to PDF but needs a licensed, working copy of Publisher. Univik PUB Converter converts large PUB archives to PDF, Word and other formats in bulk on Windows without requiring Publisher to be installed. That matters now that Microsoft 365 users have lost Publisher, because it still converts files after the October 1 cut-off.
Is Microsoft Publisher being replaced by a new product?
No. Microsoft has not announced a Publisher replacement. They suggest using Word and PowerPoint, with templates from Microsoft Create, for tasks that Publisher previously covered. These are not direct replacements, because they have different feature sets and workflows. Third-party options like Canva and Affinity (now a free app from Canva) come closer to Publisher’s functionality but require migration effort. See our alternatives guide for a full comparison.
The Short Version
So, Publisher. Thirty-five years. Gone from Microsoft 365 on October 1, 2026, with support for the last one-time purchase versions ending on October 13.
The proprietary format is the real problem. Word files and Excel files will outlast Microsoft because the formats are open standards that any developer can implement. PUB files are tied to an application that has now been retired. Your files are still there, and you can still open and convert them without Publisher. Convert them now, so the content lives on in PDF or Word instead of depending on a format almost nothing else reads.
How many PUB files are you dealing with: a handful or hundreds? That number is the first thing to find out, because it determines whether manual conversion or a batch approach is the right path.