Totara upgrades and version support: where every version stands in 2026

If your organisation runs Totara, the version number matters more than it looks. It decides whether security issues on your site still get fixed, which features your learners and administrators can use, and how large your next upgrade project will be.

Totara changed its support model in 2026. It now supports the latest three major versions, releases one major version a year, and offers two upgrade pathways. This page sets out where each version stands, what changed, and what an upgrade to Totara 20 involves. If you are new to the platform, start with our overview of Totara LMS.

Every date below comes from Totara's published lifecycle table, checked on 15 September 2026. Totara reserves the right to change it, so treat Totara's page as the source of truth.

Which Totara versions are supported right now

Totara versions move through three stages. In General Support, bugs and security issues are fixed and patch releases ship regularly. In Security Support, only critical security issues are fixed. After that, a version is unsupported and receives nothing.

Think of it like a car model. General Support is full dealer service. Security Support is safety recalls only. Unsupported means the dealer no longer stocks the parts.

Minor releases have their own shorter windows. Totara 20.1 is already out of support. Totara 20.2, released 22 July 2026, has General Support until 31 October 2026 and Security Support until 30 November 2026.

What changed in 2026

Three things, and together they shorten how long you can stay put.

The n-2 policy. Totara now supports the latest three major versions. Older versions are working through transition dates that honour earlier commitments, which is why Totara 13 to 17 still carry support dates in the table above. Once those dates pass, the three-version rule is what applies.

Shorter windows for new versions. Under the Long-Term Support pathway, each major version now receives 24 months of General Support followed by 12 months of Security Support, three years in total. Older releases, up to and including Totara 18, were given four years of General Support. Totara 19 and 20 had their dates brought forward as part of the change.

One major release a year. Totara 19 arrived in January 2025 and Totara 20 in January 2026. On that rhythm, a site that upgrades less often than every two years will regularly find itself in Security Support or beyond.

LTS or Progressive: choosing an upgrade pathway

Totara offers two ways to stay current.

Long-Term Support is the default. You take one major upgrade a year, with monthly patches in between that fix bugs and security issues without changing functionality. New features built during the year are held back and arrive together in the next major version. It suits organisations with formal change control and teams who prefer change in planned, larger steps.

Progressive delivers a minor release roughly every quarter, such as 20.1, 20.2 and 20.3, so new features arrive sooner. New features are switched off by default, so nothing changes for users until you enable it. The trade-off is that each minor version is supported only until the next one ships, so you must take every minor and major release to stay supported.

If you have worked with enterprise software before, a Progressive minor release sits somewhere between the two models you already know. It carries fixes like a service pack, and it carries new functionality like an evergreen or continuous-update product, but with the features held behind switches you control rather than turned on for everyone the moment they ship.

As an example of the difference, program self-enrolment arrived in Totara 19.1. Progressive customers had it in 2025. LTS customers received it with Totara 20.

You are not locked in. You can switch pathways at the start of any major release cycle, in either direction.

What you gain by moving to Totara 20

The size of the gain depends on where you start. Two changes are worth knowing regardless.

Totara Engage is now part of Totara Learn. Since Totara 19, Workspaces, Forums and user-generated content sharing are standard in Totara Learn rather than a separate product. If you are on an older version and chose not to buy Engage, upgrading brings those collaborative features with it.

AI features arrived with Totara 20. They include a writing assistant, image generation, a knowledge check-in question generator, a SMART goal assistant, course tag suggestions and a recommendations engine. They are optional and disabled by default, so an upgrade does not switch them on for your learners.

What happens if you stay on an unsupported version

Your site keeps running. What stops is the fixing.

Security vulnerabilities discovered after the end date are not patched for your version. The hosting stack underneath Totara, including PHP, the database and the operating system, keeps moving on its own schedule, and older Totara versions eventually cannot run on supported versions of those components. That leaves a choice between running unsupported software on an unsupported stack, or an upgrade that has grown larger with every year of delay.

For organisations in healthcare, government and other regulated settings, an unsupported learning platform holding staff records and compliance history is also an audit finding waiting to happen.

How Lambda Learning runs a Totara upgrade

A well-run upgrade is mostly preparation. This is our documented process, and we start new customers on Totara 20.

1. Confirm the starting point. Your exact version, your pathway, and your hosting environment. Very old sites may not be able to reach Totara 20 in a single step, and the route is confirmed before anything else is planned.
2. Audit what sits on top of Totara. Third-party plugins, custom code, themes and integrations each need checking against the target version. Anything unmaintained is replaced, rebuilt or retired.
3. Check the hosting stack. The target version sets minimum versions for PHP and the database, and those may need upgrading first.
4. Upgrade a copy first. The upgrade runs on a staging copy of your site with your real data, never on production first.
5. Test what your organisation depends on. Certifications and recertification, audiences and hierarchies, HR import, reports, single sign-on and integrations. If you report through Zoola Analytics, those reports are part of the test plan.
6. Review the changes with your administrators. Interface and feature changes are shown to the people who support your learners before learners see them.
7. Schedule the cutover, with a tested rollback plan. Production is upgraded in an agreed window, and the pre-upgrade site is kept recoverable until you sign off.

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest version of Totara?

Totara 20 is the current major version, released 28 January 2026. The latest minor release on the Progressive pathway is Totara 20.2, released 22 July 2026.

How long is each Totara version supported?

Under the current Long-Term Support pathway, 24 months of General Support followed by 12 months of Security Support. Versions released before the 2026 policy change have their own dates, set out in the table above.

Is Totara 18 still supported?

Yes. Totara 18 is in General Support until 27 November 2027 and Security Support until 31 December 2027.

Is Totara 19 still supported?

Yes. Totara 19 is in General Support until 23 January 2027, then Security Support until 23 January 2028.

What does n-2 mean for Totara?

It means Totara supports the current major version and the two before it. Today that is Totara 20, 19 and 18.

Do I have to upgrade every year?

No. On the Long-Term Support pathway a version is supported for up to three years. Annual upgrades are encouraged but not required. On the Progressive pathway, you must take every release to remain supported.

Will upgrading change what my learners see?

Major upgrades can change the interface, which is why changes are reviewed with administrators on a staging copy first. New features on the Progressive pathway are off by default.

Does Totara Engage still exist?

Not as a separate product. Its main collaborative features became standard in Totara Learn as of Totara 19.

Find out what your upgrade to Totara 20 involves

Tell us your version and we will tell you the route, the risks and the work. If staying where you are is the right call for now, we will say so.

Book a demo: https://www.lambdalearn.io/schedule-a-meeting-lambda-suite

Talk to a specialist: https://www.lambdalearn.io/schedule-a-meeting-lambda-suite

Totara is a trademark of Totara Learning Solutions Ltd. Lambda Learning Inc. is a Totara Platinum Partner.