When does the Galaxy S21 stop getting updates?
The Galaxy S21’s security-update window closed on 2026-02-21. It still works; it no longer receives fixes for newly found flaws.
Released Read
What is published
- Feature updates until
- Security updates until
Basis: Maker commitment, via endoflife.date
endoflife.date records active (OS upgrade) support ending 2025-10-06 and security support ending 2026-02-21 for Galaxy S21 5G. Both windows had already closed by the 2026-08-20 access date. Samsung later listed the S21 series among devices eligible for four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates. These dates are Samsung's published window as recorded by endoflife.date, not a prediction of when updates actually stopped.
endoflife.date — Samsung mobile, retrieved 2026-09-06
- Shipped with
- Android 11Samsung Newsroom UK — Galaxy S21 5G and S21+ 5G, retrieved 2026-08-20
What the dates mean
Feature updates are new versions of Android and the maker’s software on top of it. Security updates are fixes for newly found flaws, issued without new features, and they continue after feature updates stop. A phone past its security date still works; it stops being patched. The dates above are the maker’s published window as recorded by the source linked, not a prediction of when updates will actually stop.
What Samsung actually committed to
endoflife.date records active (OS upgrade) support ending 2025-10-06 and security support ending 2026-02-21 for Galaxy S21 5G. Both windows had already closed by the 2026-08-20 access date. Samsung later listed the S21 series among devices eligible for four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates. These dates are Samsung's published window as recorded by endoflife.date, not a prediction of when updates actually stopped.
Recorded from endoflife.date — Samsung mobile, retrieved 2026-09-06
- Feature updates until
- 2025-10-064.7 years after release
- Security updates until
- 2026-02-215.1 years after release
- Basis
- Maker commitment, via endoflife.date
OS upgrades versus security updates
OS upgrades bring new Android versions and features. Security updates are patches for newly found flaws, and they can outlast the upgrades.
Upgrades end first. New versions stop on 2025-10-06; security patches continue for 5 months after that, to 2026-02-21.
What stops working first
Today
The Galaxy S21 shipped with Android 11; this site holds no record of the newest version it runs. Outside its security window: it closed on 2026-02-21, 8 months before 2026-10-18.
What to do with that
The Galaxy S21 is past its window, and that is the one reason to move that does not depend on any specification. The row-by-row case for or against replacing it, with what it fetches used, is on Should I upgrade my Galaxy S21?; the full sheet is on the Galaxy S21 page. Every phone’s version of this page is listed at All update timelines.