Executive Summary

Oracle makes the most recent Java SE releases, including the latest release for which it offers Long-Term Support (LTS), available under a permissive license (Oracle No-Fee Terms and Conditions, or NFTC). Updates to older releases are offered under the Java SE OTN license. To give users of NFTC releases time to transition, Oracle provides one year of overlap during which both the current and previous LTS releases remain available under the permissive license.

The release of Oracle JDK 25 in September 2025, which Oracle offers as the current LTS release, started the one-year transition period for NFTC users of JDK 21.

JDK 21 was released in September 2023, and all updates through and including September 2026 are available under the NFTC. Further Oracle JDK 21 updates, beginning with the October 2026 Critical Patch Update (CPU), are planned to be offered under the Java SE OTN license – the same license under which Oracle currently offers updates to Java 8, 11, and 17.

JDK 25 updates are planned to remain available under the NFTC until October 2028, one year after the next LTS release that Oracle currently plans to offer, which is Java 29.

Similarly, beginning with the October 2026 CPU, GraalVM for JDK 21 updates are planned to be available under the GraalVM OTN License Including License for Early Adopter Versions. GraalVM users interested in Java technology are encouraged to transition to Oracle JDK or Oracle OpenJDK releases. For more information, see this blog.

Details

Oracle JDK 21

With the release of Oracle JDK 17 in 2021, Oracle introduced the permissive, no-fee NFTC license for the latest Java releases. Since then, every new Java release, including Oracle JDK 21 and Oracle JDK 25, has been made available under the permissive, no-fee NFTC license.

Even after the release of JDK 25, Oracle JDK 21 users have continued to receive updates under the NFTC license. As announced when the NFTC licensing model was introduced, Oracle JDK 21 updates are planned to remain available under NFTC for one year following the release of JDK 25.

This one-year overlap is intended to give users who wish to continue using the permissive no-fee NFTC license time to migrate to Oracle JDK 25, the latest LTS release. At the end of this transition period, beginning with the October 2026 CPU, further Oracle JDK 21 updates are planned to be offered under the same Java SE OTN license currently used for updates to Java 8, Java 11, and Java 17.

Java SE Universal Subscription customers, legacy Java SE product customers, users running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, those using Oracle Java as part of licensed Oracle products, and users running Java for personal use, development, testing, prototyping, or demonstrating applications will continue to be able to use the latest JDK 21 updates after this licensing transition in the same way they can today with the latest updates to JDK 8, 11, and 17. More information is available in the Oracle Java SE Licensing FAQ.

License and Support Availability

Oracle Java SE Universal Subscription provides commercial support together with advanced management and monitoring capabilities for enterprise Java deployments.

Organizations that wish to continue receiving Oracle JDK 21 or GraalVM for JDK 21 updates starting in October 2026 should consider Oracle Java SE Universal Subscription. Under the Java SE Universal Subscription, commercial support for Java 21 remains available until at least September 2031, consistent with the Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap.

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