SAP S/4HANA 2020 is an on-premise release of SAP's HANA-based ERP delivered under the annual release rhythm that preceded the current biennial model. It consolidated functional and technical improvements over the 19xx releases — across finance, sourcing and procurement, manufacturing and the Fiori user experience — and was a common upgrade target for customers in the early 2020s who wanted to move beyond the first generation of S/4HANA releases.
It became generally available on 7 October 2020. SAP mainstream maintenance ended 31 December 2025 — the date from which SAP ceases routine corrections, security notes and legal/regulatory updates for the release. Crucially, SAP offers no extended-maintenance phase for this release, so the mainstream date is a hard cut-off rather than the start of a paid extension — there is no buying of extra time at the version level. Systems still on this release are now running without standard SAP support, which is a security, compliance and audit exposure that should be closed quickly.
The successor is a current S/4HANA release, 2023 or 2025, reached through a routine in-place upgrade. SAP's later shift to a biennial release model with longer maintenance windows means that moving onto one of those releases does more than restore support — it also buys a materially longer horizon than any annual release, reducing how often the next upgrade comes due.
Customers on the 2020 annual release should plan an upgrade to a biennial release ahead of the cut-off. Because no extended-maintenance phase is offered, the mainstream date is a hard stop with no paid extension to fall back on, so IT leaders and application owners should place the upgrade firmly on the roadmap rather than treating it as optional.
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