Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Q 24-Port 40G Switch

The Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Q puts twenty-four 40 GbE ports on QSFP+ into a single rack unit, and every one of them is fixed. Cisco stopped taking orders for it on 30 April 2024 and supports it to 30 April 2029 under notice EOL15039. Twenty-four 40G ports aggregate fewer and faster links, typically from the switches that serve hosts rather than from the hosts themselves.

Ports and what this switch is for

Twenty-four ports of 40 GbE on QSFP+ is a spine or aggregation count, and it answers a different question from a switch built around a large number of 10G ports. This chassis sits above the layer that serves hosts, collecting a smaller number of much faster links, which is why the entire port complement is fixed at one speed and there is no module slot to change part of it. Cisco publishes the port media, the physical build and the address and route scale for this model; three performance figures were withdrawn at end-of-sale and are named below rather than estimated.

Physically this is the same one-rack-unit platform the rest of the family uses, and the parts list is worth reading before a spare is ordered. Two power supply slots run 1+1, both supplies are field-replaceable and hot-swappable, and Cisco ships one fitted, which belongs in bay number one when it is alone. Cooling is up to five variable-speed fans on the FAN-T4-R part, and the switch keeps running with one of them failed. Cisco publishes supply ratings, BTU and an input range of 115 to 230 VAC, but no figure for what the switch itself draws.

Lifecycle: what Cisco stopped selling, and what Cisco still supports

Cisco supports the Catalyst C9500-24Q until 30 April 2029, which is the date that decides whether buying one makes sense at all. The reason it is available refurbished rather than new is the other date in the same notice: Cisco's last day to order a C9500-24Q was 30 April 2024, under end-of-life notice EOL15039, which Cisco's own page renders with an amended marker on its title. A switch with years of vendor support left and no route to buy it new is the clearest case there is for the secondary market.

The order in which those two dates are read changes what they mean. Taken support-first, the platform is a supported one that happens to be bought second-hand. Taken order-first, it looks like a platform in retreat. The support date is the one a design has to satisfy, and on this model it is comfortably ahead, which is why this page leads with it.

What Cisco does not publish about this switch

Cisco publishes neither a switching-capacity figure, nor an ASIC specification, nor a forwarding rate in packets per second for the Catalyst C9500-24Q. The 12Q, 24Q and 40X were removed from the live Catalyst 9500 data sheet once they reached end-of-sale, and where Cisco does name an ASIC family on current Catalyst 9500 models it never states a count. Cisco does still publish this switch's MAC and route scale, its physical specifications and its power and cooling parts, and this page states those in full; what it does not do is restate the three figures Cisco has withdrawn.

Naming the gap precisely is the point. It would be easy to write that Cisco publishes nothing about a withdrawn model, and it would be wrong: the part number still appears on Cisco's own pages, in the installation guide, in the scale template table and in the end-of-life notice. What has gone is three specific figures. A buyer who checks will find exactly that, which is the only reason this section is worth having.

Where the C9500-24Q sits in the 9500 line

The useful comparison is against the sixteen-port 10G model, because it is the trade this page's switch actually loses and wins on: port speed against published throughput and support horizon.

A C9500-24Q gives 24 fixed ports at 40G where a C9500-16X gives 16 at 10G with room to add an uplink module, and Cisco supports the 16X for two years longer, to 30 April 2031 under EOL15621 against 30 April 2029 under EOL15039. The 480 Gbps and 360 Mpps figures in the right-hand column belong to that switch and to no other model in this comparison. Where the design genuinely needs 40G at the port rather than behind a module, this switch is the one that provides it and the port speed is the whole argument.

A cheaper contrast, one layer down, is a 1G access switch with fast uplinks. A Nexus 9348GC-FXP puts 48 ports of 1G copper under uplinks far quicker than the access ports themselves, which is the opposite shape to this switch: many slow ports and a few fast ones, rather than a small number of uniformly fast ones.

Buying a switch Cisco no longer sells

There is no route to a new Catalyst C9500-24Q. Cisco closed ordering on 30 April 2024 and the support commitment runs to 30 April 2029 under EOL15039, so the platform is supported and unavailable at the same time, and the secondary market is what sits in between. That is a narrower decision than it first appears: the question is not whether to buy used, it is whether 40G aggregation on this platform is right, because used is the only condition in which it exists.

Whole systems, switches included, carry a 2-year Enterasource warranty, and shipping is free FedEx Ground to the lower 48 states. No Cisco entitlement is claimed to transfer with a used unit. The Catalyst 9500 family page sets the three models side by side, and the Cisco switching and routing catalogue covers the families either side of this one.

Condition, testing and what ships with the switch

Testing happens at both ends of the process. A switch is tested when it arrives, then dismantled, cleaned and booked into stock; when it is picked against an order it is rebuilt, configured and tested again before packing. That second test is the last thing that happens to it here. Cosmetic condition is recorded as found, and the optics fitted, if any, are listed rather than assumed.

Software licenses and subscriptions are not included unless the listing states otherwise. Cisco sells the Catalyst 9500 in two network stack levels - Network Essentials and Network Advantage - and the level is recorded in the part number rather than being a cosmetic suffix. On this platform the difference is functional rather than cosmetic: Cisco lists StackWise Virtual as a Network Advantage feature and not a Network Essentials one. Tell us which level your network needs before you order and we will confirm, in writing, what the specific unit we are shipping carries.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the Cisco C9500-24Q supported?

Cisco's last day of support for this model is 30 April 2029, published in end-of-life notice EOL15039. The same notice gives 30 April 2024 as the last day the switch could be ordered from Cisco, which is why it is available refurbished rather than new. The support date is the one a design has to live inside, and the ordering date is the one that explains where the hardware comes from. Cisco's page for the notice carries an amended marker, which is the current version.

What is the difference between a C9500-24Q and a C9500-40X?

Port speed and port count, in opposite directions. This switch carries 24 ports running at 40 GbE on QSFP+ and all of them are fixed; the 40-port model carries 40 ports at 10 GbE on SFP and SFP+, and it can take an uplink module on top of them. Both left Cisco's price list on the same day and both are supported to the same day under the same notice, so lifecycle is not what separates them. The design question is whether you need fewer faster ports or more slower ones.

Is a 40G switch worth buying if Cisco has stopped selling it?

That depends on the support horizon rather than on the ordering date. Cisco supports this model to 30 April 2029 under notice EOL15039, so the platform behind it is a maintained one, and 40 Gigabit aggregation has not been superseded in the role this switch fills. What buying used does remove is the option of adding identical new units from the vendor later, so size the deployment for the estate you expect rather than assuming an easy expansion path.

What is the throughput of a C9500-24Q?

Cisco does not publish a switching-capacity figure, an ASIC specification or a forwarding rate in packets per second for this model, and no number is offered here in place of one. What Cisco did keep publishing is the scale side of the same table: 64,000 MAC addresses, 64,000 IPv4 and 32,000 IPv6 longest-prefix-match routes, 48,000 IPv4 and 24,000 IPv6 host routes, and 18,000 entries each for security and quality-of-service access lists.

Is there a stacking kit for the C9500-24Q?

No. Cisco builds no stacking kit for the Catalyst 9500 and the chassis carries no data-stacking ports, so there is nothing to cable two of them together with in the way a Catalyst 9200 or 9300 stack is built. The equivalent capability on this platform is StackWise Virtual, which runs two chassis as one over a StackWise Virtual Link with stateful switchover and in-service software upgrade. Cisco licenses it at the Network Advantage level rather than Network Essentials.

Does a refurbished C9500-24Q include a Cisco license?

Software licenses and subscriptions are not included unless the listing says so. At 40G the thing worth confirming before ordering is the network stack level the unit was originally built at, because it is recorded in the part number and it decides whether capabilities such as StackWise Virtual are available to you. Tell us which level the design assumes, Network Essentials or Network Advantage, and we will confirm in writing what the specific switch being shipped carries.