question When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine? in Workflow Automation forum

When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

TamojitD — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 11:03:14 GMT

Hi Team,

As we know the legacy workflow editor has entered the maintenance state from last couple of years. Can anyone confirm the deprecation of workflow editor in Australia version?

if Yes, in that case is it required to migrate the legacy workflows to workflow studio flows/subflows before the upgrade process?

If No, can we perform the Australia upgrade with legacy workflows in mid 2026? and is there a confirmed deprecation plan for legacy editor?

Please help.

Regards,

Tamojit

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

GlideFather — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:19:56 GMT

Hi @TamojitD,

as far as I know, there's no plan to deprecate the legacy workflows, it's however strongly recommended to use the flow (designer), but not enforced...

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

Ankur Bawiskar — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 13:10:30 GMT

@TamojitD

Workflows are into the platform from very beginning and I don't think ServiceNow will deprecate them

ServiceNow recommends moving to Flow designer as it's low-code, no-code approach but they won't stop supporting Workflows

There are lots of custom workflows from many customers and not every customer will be keen to convert it to Flow as it requires lot of DEV + TEST efforts.

💡 If my response helped, please mark it as correct ✅ and close the thread 🔒— this helps future readers find the solution faster! 🙏

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

Bimschleger — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:52:58 GMT

Hi @TamojitD , I lead the product team for Flow and Workflow. At this time, there are no plans to deprecate the Legacy Workflow engine.

As of the Zurich release, ServiceNow no longer ships legacy workflows out of the box for new instances. However, any existing legacy workflows that you have on an existing instance will continue to run perfectly fine.

As others have noted above, we recommend building all new automation in Flow Designer.

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

Ankur Bawiskar — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 02:53:53 GMT

@TamojitD

Hope you are doing good.

Did my reply answer your question?

💡 If my response helped, please mark it as correct ✅ and close the thread 🔒— this helps future readers find the solution faster! 🙏

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

Aditya_hublikar — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:06:27 GMT

Hello @TamojitD ,

There is no officially announced fixed date for the complete deprecation of Legacy Workflow in ServiceNow.

However, starting with the Zurich release, the Workflow Editor is no longer available for creating new workflows on freshly created instances, it is redirecting to flow designer workflow studio.
When you navigate to Workflow Editor → New Workflow, it redirects to Flow Designer (Workflow Studio).

Existing (previously created) legacy workflows are still accessible in the old workflow area.
On new Zurich instances, you cannot create new legacy workflows.
Flow Designer is now the recommended and supported automation tool going forward.

If you upgrade an existing instance (for example, Xanadu or Yokohama → Zurich):
- Legacy workflows remain accessible and executable
- In some upgraded instances, legacy workflow creation may still be visible, depending on instance history and configuration
If the instance is originally created on the Zurich release (not upgraded):
- Creating a new workflow redirects to Flow Designer
- Legacy workflow creation is fully blocked

Best Practice:
ServiceNow strongly encourages migrating all new and existing automation to Flow Designer, as legacy workflows are in maintenance mode and are expected to be fully retired in a future release.

If this helps you then mark it as helpful and accept the solution😊.

Regards,

Aditya,

Technical consultant

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

Aditya_hublikar — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:19:06 GMT

Hello @TamojitD ,

If my response helps you then mark it as helpful and accept as solution. It will help other community members for further future queries.

Regards,

Aditya,

Technical Consultant

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

kevinanderson — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:06:25 GMT

Our org is in the middle of a large legacy workflow to flow migration. I have some thoughts on the topic here: What do you do with more than 500 legacy ServiceNo... - ServiceNow Community

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

cuesawdue — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:08:55 GMT

Very good

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

ubhimani — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:25:23 GMT

@Aditya_hublikar is there any official documentation on this?

Re: When is the deprecation date for Legacy Workflow Engine?

ubhimani — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:26:28 GMT

@Bimschleger is there any official documentation on this or any communications disseminated to the customers?