They will: “As Soon As Possible” for them. 
Meaning probably some time in February (Security patch level on my FP4 is November 5th, + 2 months, + last day of the second month + the traditional couple days late = some time early February 2026). 
I am afraid you are right. But hope dies last, that they might accept serious matter of these issues and try to be faster than that.
Triggering @Fairphone_CM
Android 15 is on Oct Patch not Nov.
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This might be true for FP5 or 6, but the FP4 ist still on sec level Oct 5th
Even Google doesn’t do the job. Ly son pixel 7a has no December update due to a bug. So don’t be surprised if things are not easy for Fairphone.
Sorry, that was no mistake: I did specify “patch level on my FP4”, and the “Orange users” A13 patch level is (as of today) “November 5th 2025”.
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is there any realistic chance that fairphone will get a better update policy any time soon?
Googles official patch levels are now 3 month behind after they decided to do quarterly releases and the FP6 is still on december 2025 today.
GrapheneOS guys manage to provide updates within hours, not month.
When will fairphone manage that?
Graphene or any other Custom ROM dont need to go through google certification,so this is comparing Apples and oranges.
So the answer to this
most likely is never
A comparison I consider reasonable
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Other vendors like Samsung WITH google certification still manage this within a week, not half a year.
And pointing out ChatGPT arguments isn’t exaclty providing more confidence. The official google releases are already 3 month late, yet fairphone is 2-3 month later then even that. There is a 5 month gap between what fairphone is providing vs. what is possible even with certification.
Even without security being a priority, before I can consider a fairphone as a viable choice I want at least reliable updates (even if just like samsung) and basic security features like secure enclave which even the FP 6 still doesn’t have, decades after it became common for even cheap devices.
Even super cheap manufacturers like Xiaomi do better. All I want is to see fairphone become even comparable instead of reading the same old excuses.
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For the past two months, I have been reading GOS users and developers criticizing other ROMs and stock phone systems even more strongly, precisely because of the new change introduced by Google regarding security patches.
Firstly, I don’t deny that Fairphone is behind on the security patches available to verified manufacturers, and that they should make an effort to improve, as their efforts are insufficient. However, let’s remember that Pixel phones are the first to receive these patches, making it much easier to implement them than on other phones, which is one of the reasons given by GOS.
Secondly, “future” patches are closed source. GOS and other manufacturers can implement them even without knowing if they really only apply the changes indicated. GrapheneOS security preview releases - GrapheneOS Discussion Forum
This is not an excuse for Fairphone, it is a reality that I want to point out.
Personally, and this is my opinion, what interests me most is those critical security patches that are actively used, which Google continues to release when appropriate.
Thirdly, the patches relating to January only critically affect Dolby, which is why LineageOS, which was also vilified by Graphene a few days ago, has not applied any changes because it is not affected.
Could the same be true for Fairphone OS? I don’t know:
https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_build_release/+/472473
And finally, there were no critical patches for Android in February:
Only fixes for the Pixel, precisely.
And that’s why Lineage uploaded again without any changes:
Now that March is here, it is very likely, and I hope so, that Fairphones will apply the patches, and most importantly, that no critic will be left behind, if we can exclude Dolby’s, which I don’t know.
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The OEMs like GrapheneOS do have acces to the source code before the public release, so they also know the changes they apply. Since they sign releases, you can also prove that all their claims are true once the related source is made public by google.
The claims about patches being irrelevant for some devices seem wild. There are multiple zero days fixed almost every month and its highly unlikely there are no security patches that would not affect general middleware components like file parsers that would be relevant to every single android device regardless of manufacturer.