Short version: The Cisco Catalyst 3850 passed its Last Date of Support on October 31, 2025. The Catalyst 3650 reaches its Last Date of Support on October 31, 2026. After those dates Cisco provides no TAC support, no RMA, and no security fixes — regardless of whether you still hold a contract.
If you run a campus access layer built on 3650s or 3850s, you are now either past the cliff or a few months from it. This guide gives you the exact milestone dates from Cisco's EOL bulletins, the official model-for-model replacement map to Catalyst 9300, and an honest read on what "unsupported" actually means when you still have 200 of these switches in closets.
The milestone tables that matter
Cisco publishes nine EOL milestones per product. Most of them are noise for a buyer. Three are not: End of Vulnerability/Security Support (no more patches for CVEs), End of Service Contract Renewal (you can no longer buy another year of coverage), and Last Date of Support (the switch is officially obsolete).
Catalyst 3850 Series — EOL bulletin EOL13188
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| End-of-Life Announcement | October 31, 2019 |
| End-of-Sale (hardware) | October 30, 2020 |
| Last Ship Date | January 29, 2021 |
| End of SW Maintenance Releases | October 30, 2021 |
| End of Routine Failure Analysis | October 30, 2021 |
| End of New Service Attachment | October 30, 2021 |
| End of Service Contract Renewal | January 28, 2025 |
| End of Vulnerability/Security Support | October 31, 2025 |
| Last Date of Support | October 31, 2025 |
Catalyst 3650 Series — EOL bulletin EOL14617
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| End-of-Life Announcement | October 31, 2020 |
| End-of-Sale (hardware) | October 31, 2021 |
| Last Ship Date | January 30, 2022 |
| End of SW Maintenance Releases | October 31, 2022 |
| End of Routine Failure Analysis | October 31, 2022 |
| End of New Service Attachment | October 31, 2022 |
| End of Service Contract Renewal | January 29, 2026 |
| End of Vulnerability/Security Support | October 31, 2026 |
| Last Date of Support | October 31, 2026 |
Read the second-to-last row carefully. The service contract renewal date is the one that quietly ends your options. For the 3650 it was January 29, 2026 — already gone. You cannot buy a new SmartNet year on a 3650 today. Whatever coverage you have runs to October 31, 2026 and then stops.
Two caveats most EOL blog posts get wrong
First, the Catalyst 3850 fiber SKUs are covered by a separate bulletin with later dates than the copper models above. If your estate is WS-C3850-12S / -24S / -48S, do not assume October 31, 2025 applies to you — check the specific fiber notice against your exact PID.
Second, there is a Cisco bulletin titled "End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches" (EOL14973, last order September 5, 2023) that is frequently quoted as the 3850 hardware EOL. It is not. That bulletin covers licenses only — SKUs like LL-C3850-48P-E= and C1-C3850-24-DNAA-T. The hardware bulletin is EOL13188, with the October 30, 2020 end-of-sale. Quoting the wrong one by two and a half years is a good way to lose an argument with your auditor.
The official replacement map: 3650/3850 → Catalyst 9300
Cisco's own migration table maps the 3650 to the Catalyst 9300L (fixed uplinks, StackWise-320) and the 3850 to the Catalyst 9300 (modular uplinks, StackWise-480). The 3650 Mini maps to the 9300LM, and 3850 fiber maps to the 9300X.
There is a licensing gotcha buried in the mapping. Cisco's old tiers do not translate one-to-one:
- LAN Base (-L) → Network Essentials (-E)
- IP Base (-S) and IP Services (-E) → Network Advantage (-A)
Note the collision: the old suffix -E meant IP Services on a 3650/3850, but on a Catalyst 9300 -E means Network Essentials, the lower tier. Order a C9300-48P-E as a like-for-like swap for a WS-C3850-48P-E and you will land a tier below where you were.
Catalyst 3650 → Catalyst 9300L
| End-of-sale PID | Description | Cisco replacement PID |
|---|---|---|
| WS-C3650-24TS-L | 24-port data, 4x1G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-24T-4G-E |
| WS-C3650-24TD-L | 24-port data, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-24T-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-24PS-L | 24-port PoE, 4x1G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-24P-4G-E |
| WS-C3650-24PD-L | 24-port PoE, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-24P-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-48TS-L | 48-port data, 4x1G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48T-4G-E |
| WS-C3650-48TD-L | 48-port data, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48T-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-48PS-L | 48-port PoE, 4x1G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48P-4G-E |
| WS-C3650-48PD-L | 48-port PoE, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48P-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-48FS-L | 48-port Full PoE, 4x1G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48PF-4G-E |
| WS-C3650-48FD-L | 48-port Full PoE, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48PF-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-8X24PD-L | 24-port mGig, 2x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-24UXG-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-12X48UQ-L | 48-port mGig, 4x10G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48UXG-4X-E |
| WS-C3650-12X48UZ-L | 48-port mGig, 2x40G uplink, LAN Base | C9300L-48UXG-2Q-E |
For IP Base (-S) and IP Services (-E) variants of the same chassis, substitute the -A (Network Advantage) suffix: WS-C3650-48PD-S → C9300L-48P-4X-A, and so on.
Catalyst 3850 → Catalyst 9300
| End-of-sale PID | Description | Cisco replacement PID |
|---|---|---|
| WS-C3850-24T-L | 24-port data, LAN Base | C9300-24T-E |
| WS-C3850-24P-L | 24-port PoE+, LAN Base | C9300-24P-E |
| WS-C3850-24U-L | 24-port UPOE, LAN Base | C9300-24U-E |
| WS-C3850-48T-L | 48-port data, LAN Base | C9300-48T-E |
| WS-C3850-48P-L | 48-port PoE+, LAN Base | C9300-48P-E |
| WS-C3850-48F-L | 48-port Full PoE, LAN Base | C9300-48P-E |
| WS-C3850-48U-L | 48-port UPOE, LAN Base | C9300-48U-E |
| WS-C3850-24XU-L | 24-port mGig UPoE, LAN Base | C9300-24U-E |
| WS-C3850-12X48U-L | 48-port (12 mGig + 36 Gig) UPoE, LAN Base | C9300-48UXM-E |
Again, the IP Base / IP Services versions of each map to the -A suffix: WS-C3850-48P-E → C9300-48P-A.
What "past Last Date of Support" actually means for you
It does not mean the switch stops forwarding packets on November 1. It means four specific things:
- No security patches. The next IOS XE vulnerability that hits the 3850 will not be fixed. For anything in a PCI, HIPAA, or public-sector audit scope, this is usually the item that forces the budget.
- No RMA. A dead switch is a dead switch. Your only source of a replacement chassis is the secondary market.
- No TAC. You own every problem you hit.
- No contract to renew. The renewal window already closed on both platforms.
The practical consequence is that your risk profile flips from "Cisco covers hardware failure" to "I cover hardware failure." That is survivable — plenty of organisations run EOL gear deliberately — but only if you plan for it instead of discovering it during an outage.
Three realistic strategies
1. Refresh to Catalyst 9300 / 9300L. The right answer for anything security-sensitive or under audit. Use the mapping tables above, and watch the licensing tier collision.
2. Keep running, but hold spares. If the 3650/3850 estate is in a low-risk segment and the refresh budget is two years out, the rational play is to buy your own cold spares now while supply is deep and cheap. Once you have no RMA path, a shelf spare is your RMA path. Typically you want one spare per 15–25 deployed units, weighted toward whatever model sits in your most painful-to-reach closets.
3. Segment and defer. Push the EOL switches to isolated, non-sensitive VLANs (guest, lab, signage), refresh the rest, and let the old gear age out. This buys real time and is far cheaper than a big-bang refresh.
Strategies 2 and 3 both depend on being able to source EOL hardware reliably — which is where a distributor with real secondary-market depth matters more than a Cisco price list.
Where to source the parts
We stock both sides of this migration. For the refresh path, new Catalyst 9300 and 9300L chassis, uplink modules, and stack kits. For the "keep it running" path, tested 3650/3850 chassis, power supplies (PWR-C2-250WAC, PWR-C2-640WAC, PWR-C2-1025WAC), and stacking hardware — the parts Cisco no longer sells at all.
- Network Switches — Catalyst 9300, 9300L, 9200 and the EOL Catalyst lines
- Cisco Parts — power supplies, stack modules, uplink modules, spares
- Transceivers & Optics — SFP, SFP+, QSFP for both generations
- Refurbished Cisco Switches & Networking — for cold spares and budget refresh
If you are buying used or refurbished 3650/3850 units as spares, read our guide on how to buy refurbished Cisco switches safely first — serial validation matters a great deal more once Cisco will no longer RMA the unit for you.
Need a quote?
Send us your PID list — EOL spares, Catalyst 9300 refresh, or both — and we will price it. We ship worldwide DDP with duties included, accept purchase orders, and return quotes within 24 hours.
Sources: Cisco end-of-life bulletins EOL13188 (Catalyst 3850 switches), EOL14617 (Catalyst 3650), and EOL14973 (Catalyst 3850 licenses), published on cisco.com. Milestone dates and replacement product PIDs are taken directly from Cisco's published Table 1 and Table 2 in those bulletins. Always confirm dates against the bulletin for your exact PID before making a purchasing decision — Cisco amends these notices.