Visio 2024 is a one-time purchase, supported until October 2029, and it runs on the same machine you are using now. Because you skipped 2021, you pick up two releases of new content in one step.
Where Visio 2019 actually stands in 2026
Microsoft ended support for Visio 2016 and Visio 2019 on 14 October 2025 — the same day Office 2016, Office 2019 and Windows 10 reached the end of their own lifecycles. Ten months on, it is worth being precise about what that did and did not mean, because the two get mixed up constantly.
| Ended 14 October 2025 | Still works today |
|---|---|
| Security updates | Opening, editing and saving your drawings |
| Bug fixes and stability updates | Your existing activation |
| Technical support from Microsoft | Reinstalling with your existing product key |
| New stencils, shapes and templates | The .vsdx file format |
Nothing was switched off. Your Visio 2019 licence is perpetual and it remains yours; the software opens this morning exactly as it did last year. What has changed is that every Visio vulnerability discovered since October 2025 stays unpatched on that install, and the gap widens every month. For a diagramming tool that routinely opens files sent in by clients, contractors and suppliers, that is a slow-building risk rather than a dramatic one.
Support for Office 2016 and Office 2019 clients — Visio 2019 included — connecting to Microsoft 365 services ended on 10 October 2023, two years before end of support. If your diagrams pull live data from SharePoint Online, Excel on the web or your directory, that connection has been running unsupported for nearly three years. Microsoft’s current list of supported clients covers the Visio desktop app with a Plan 2 subscription, Visio LTSC 2021 until October 2026, and Visio LTSC 2024 until October 2029. Visio 2019 is not on it.
What you actually get for the upgrade
Here is the part most comparisons get wrong. Almost every article you will find weighs Visio 2024 against Visio 2021, because that is the normal upgrade step. You are not taking the normal step. Coming from 2019 you collect two releases of new content at once, and the 2021 half is the larger of the two.
| Added | What you gain coming from Visio 2019 |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Expanded Azure stencils and new AWS infrastructure stencils for cloud and network topology work |
| 2021 | A curated library of premium stock images and icons |
| 2021 | Mobile app wireframe templates for low-fidelity design sketches |
| 2021 | Hex colour input in the Colors dialog — no more converting brand colours to RGB by hand |
| 2021 | Improved UML and ERD stencils, refreshed Start experience and ribbon |
| 2024 | New icons, sticky notes for brainstorming, and infographic content including pictograms and to-do lists |
| 2024 | 10+ further Azure stencils, plus Kubernetes shapes and Yourdon-Coad notations |
| 2024 | The Office 2024 theme, a modern transparency effect, and more vibrant hues for accessibility |
| 2024 | Search moved into the title bar, in line with the rest of the Office apps |
The pattern is clear enough: the bulk of the investment since 2019 has gone into cloud, network and software architecture content. If you draw Azure or AWS infrastructure, Kubernetes clusters or UML, the gap between your 2019 stencils and the current set is genuinely wide — and our guide to building network diagrams in Visio 2024 goes through the current shapes in practice.
And what has not changed
Quite a lot, which is the reassuring part. It is still a perpetual licence with a one-time purchase — nothing has been moved behind a subscription. The .vsdx file format has been in place since Visio 2013, so your existing drawings open in 2024 without a conversion step. The ribbon is where you left it, and there is no requirement to sign in to a cloud service to draw a flowchart.
Which leads to the honest caveat. If what you actually do in Visio is basic flowcharts and the occasional org chart, the feature list above will not change your working day, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. In that case the upgrade is justified by the support position, not the shape library. Both are legitimate reasons — but they are different reasons, and it is worth knowing which one applies to you.
Will Visio 2024 run on your current PC?
Almost certainly, and this is the assumption worth clearing up early. Upgrading Visio does not mean buying a computer.
| Requirement | Visio 2024 |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows Server 2019 |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz or faster, 2 cores |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM (2 GB on 32-bit) |
| Disk space | 4.0 GB available |
| Display and graphics | 1280 × 768 resolution, DirectX 10 graphics card |
| Other | Internet access and a Microsoft account for installation and activation |
In short: if the machine ran Visio 2019, it will run Visio 2024. The requirements have barely moved in five years.
Windows 10 reached end of support on 14 October 2025 — the same day as Visio 2019. A PC old enough to be running Visio 2019 is quite likely running Windows 10 as well, which means two unsupported layers rather than one. Visio 2024 is fully supported on Windows 10, so this does not block the upgrade, but the operating system is the more urgent of the two problems. Our guide to Windows 10 Extended Security Updates covers the options.
What it costs
Microsoft’s own UK list price for Visio Professional 2024 is £639.99 as a one-time purchase, with Visio Standard 2024 at £339.99. Those numbers are the single biggest reason people assume a subscription must be the sensible route — and they are also the reason a genuine perpetual licence from a UK reseller is worth a look before you commit to paying monthly for the rest of the software’s life.
There are three subscription options and they are easy to confuse, so it is worth separating them. Visio in Microsoft 365 is a lightweight web and Teams app included with most Microsoft 365 commercial plans — useful for viewing and basic diagrams, but it is not the desktop application. Visio Plan 1 is £3.80 per user per month paid yearly and is still web-only. Visio Plan 2 is £11.50 per user per month paid yearly — £138 a year — and is the only one that includes the desktop app you are currently running.
Plan 2 is a reasonable fit if you need co-authoring in the browser, Power BI embedding or Power Automate integration. If you need Visio on one PC to produce diagrams, you are renting something you could own. We have laid out that comparison properly in Visio Professional 2024 vs Visio Plan 2, and the same logic applied to Office in our case for buying it once and owning it permanently.
Visio 2021 keys are cheap and widely advertised, and they look like an easy way out of Visio 2019. They are not. Visio 2021 reaches end of support on 14 October 2026 — roughly seven weeks from now. Buying it today means having this exact conversation again before Christmas.
So — is the upgrade worth it?
Any one of these is true
- You use Visio for work of any kind
- You open drawings sent to you by other people
- Your diagrams link to live data from Microsoft 365
- You draw cloud, network or software architecture
- You hold Cyber Essentials or answer client security questionnaires
All of these are true
- Visio is on a personal, offline machine
- You only open files you created yourself
- Your diagrams hold no client or customer data
- You draw simple flowcharts and nothing more
The second column is a genuinely defensible position and we would rather say so than pretend every reader has to buy something today. But it is a narrow set of conditions, and all four have to hold at once. The moment a supplier’s drawing lands in your inbox, the calculation changes.
Frequently asked questions
No. Support for Visio 2016 and Visio 2019 ended on 14 October 2025. Microsoft no longer issues security updates, bug fixes or technical support for either version, and neither is supported for connecting to Microsoft 365 services.
No. Visio 2019 continues to run and your perpetual licence remains valid. End of support means Microsoft stopped maintaining it, not that the software was disabled or removed.
Yes. Both use the .vsdx format that Microsoft introduced with Visio 2013, so your existing drawings open directly with no conversion step and no loss of shapes or formatting.
No. Visio 2024 is supported on Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019. A PC that runs Visio 2019 comfortably will run Visio 2024 — though Windows 10 itself is now out of support, which is a separate question worth looking at.
Visio 2024 is a one-time purchase you own permanently, installed on one PC. Visio Plan 2 is a subscription at £11.50 per user per month paid yearly, which adds the web and Teams apps, co-authoring and Power Platform integration — and stops working when you stop paying.
No. Visio 2021 reaches end of support on 14 October 2026, so it would leave you in the same position within weeks. Visio 2024 is supported until October 2029.
Yes. A genuine Visio 2019 licence does not expire and was not revoked at end of support. You can still reinstall and activate it — you simply will not receive any further updates.
Until October 2029. Microsoft’s lifecycle documentation gives Visio 2024 and Visio LTSC 2024 a five-year support window from their October 2024 release, covering both Standard and Professional editions.
Gary Walsh is the Head of Tech Support at Software Supplies, with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Fully Microsoft-certified and experienced across the full business software stack — from Windows and Office to cloud infrastructure and device management — Gary delivers practical, no-nonsense advice that helps users and businesses get the most from their technology.
