Why and How to Upgrade from Python 3.8 Before Its End‑of‑Life

Upgrading to a new software version is work and offers little benefit to users, who care about features and bug fixes rather than the latest version number.

Consequently, many people still use Python 3.8; as of September 2024 about 14 % of packages downloaded from PyPI were built for Python 3.8, representing 250 million installations in a single day.

However, the upgrade window is limited: Python 3.8 reaches end‑of‑life at the end of October 2024, after which there will be no further bug‑fix or security updates.

What does end‑of‑life mean?

Python 3.8 was released in October 2019. According to PEP 569, for the first two years error‑fix and security‑fix sub‑releases were issued every two months; thereafter only security fixes were provided, and all releases stop five years after the initial release.

Therefore, from October 2024 onward, any security vulnerability in Python 3.8 will not be patched by the core development team.

Some Linux distributions provide long‑term support (LTS) that includes security fixes for the packages they ship, so if you are using an LTS distro that still includes Python 3.8 you may continue to receive fixes from the distro.

Nevertheless, LTS support is finite; for example, Ubuntu 20.04 (which ships Python 3.8) will end regular security updates in April 2025, after which only paid personal updates are available.

Another issue is that third‑party Python libraries are dropping support for 3.8, meaning critical bugs may remain unfixed and most Linux distributions will not backport every library fix.

Package

Supports 3.8?

Latest version supporting 3.8

NumPy

No

December 2022

Pandas

No

June 2023

Django 5.x

No

Never supports

It is time to upgrade from 3.8.

In the short term, aim to move to a Python version that still receives dependency updates; for example, if you depend on Pandas, the last version compatible with Python 3.9 was released in June 2023, so you should at least upgrade to Python 3.9.

Python’s major versions are fairly backward‑compatible, so you can follow this incremental path:

Upgrade to 3.9.

Fix any discovered issues.

Upgrade to 3.10 and fix issues.

Repeat until you reach Python 3.12 or even 3.13.

Other larger considerations include the ongoing nature of upgrade requirements:

Ubuntu 20.04 stops receiving free security updates in April 2025.

Python 3.9 stops receiving security updates in October 2025.

Django 5.2 stops receiving security updates in April 2026.

From the opposite perspective, newer Python releases have been scheduled as follows:

Python 3.9 – October 2020

Python 3.10 – October 2021

Python 3.11 – October 2022

Python 3.12 – October 2023

If you are still on Python 3.8 in 2024, it likely means other priorities or organizational constraints have delayed the upgrade; you should establish a continuous process to regularly update both the interpreter and its dependencies.

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