diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5d143223c..9de315afd 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 2. The following in-progress deprecations have proceeded:
 
    + Argument `logicalAsInt` to `fwrite()` has been removed.
+   + Argument `autostart` to `fread()` has been removed.
 
 # data.table [v1.17.0](https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/milestone/34)  (20 Feb 2025)
 
diff --git a/R/fread.R b/R/fread.R
index 3e8aeb207..2f95e4eb0 100644
--- a/R/fread.R
+++ b/R/fread.R
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ showProgress=getOption("datatable.showProgress",interactive()), data.table=getOp
 nThread=getDTthreads(verbose), logical01=getOption("datatable.logical01",FALSE),
 logicalYN=getOption("datatable.logicalYN", FALSE),
 keepLeadingZeros=getOption("datatable.keepLeadingZeros",FALSE),
-yaml=FALSE, autostart=NULL, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC")
+yaml=FALSE, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC")
 {
   if (missing(input)+is.null(file)+is.null(text)+is.null(cmd) < 3L) stopf("Used more than one of the arguments input=, file=, text= and cmd=.")
   input_has_vars = length(all.vars(substitute(input)))>0L  # see news for v1.11.6
@@ -124,7 +124,6 @@ yaml=FALSE, autostart=NULL, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC")
 
     input = file
   }
-  if (!is.null(autostart)) stopf("'autostart' is deprecated. Consider skip='string' or skip=n. This argument will be removed in the next release.");
   if (is.logical(colClasses)) {
     if (!allNA(colClasses)) stopf("colClasses is type 'logical' which is ok if all NA but it has some TRUE or FALSE values in it which is not allowed. Please consider the drop= or select= argument instead. See ?fread.")
     colClasses = NULL
diff --git a/inst/tests/tests.Rraw b/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
index ea7260a78..fbf8b941e 100644
--- a/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
+++ b/inst/tests/tests.Rraw
@@ -13178,7 +13178,7 @@ test(1925.10, as.ITime(x),               structure(c(12L, 67L), class="ITime"))
 test(1925.11, as.ITime(x, ms='nearest'), structure(c(12L, 68L), class="ITime"))
 test(1925.12, as.ITime(x, ms='ceil'),    structure(c(13L, 68L), class="ITime"))
 
-test(1936.1, fread("A,B\n1,3\n2,4", autostart=1), error="autostart.*deprecated.*Consider skip")
+# 1936.1 was of defunct argument autostart
 if (.Platform$OS.type == "unix") test(1936.2, is.data.table(fread("ls .")))
 
 # add helpful error to %between%
diff --git a/man/fread.Rd b/man/fread.Rd
index 27e840ccd..e642d8ec9 100644
--- a/man/fread.Rd
+++ b/man/fread.Rd
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ nThread=getDTthreads(verbose),
 logical01=getOption("datatable.logical01", FALSE),
 logicalYN=getOption("datatable.logicalYN", FALSE),
 keepLeadingZeros = getOption("datatable.keepLeadingZeros", FALSE),
-yaml=FALSE, autostart=NULL, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC"
+yaml=FALSE, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC"
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -65,7 +65,6 @@ yaml=FALSE, autostart=NULL, tmpdir=tempdir(), tz="UTC"
   \item{logicalYN}{If TRUE a column containing only Ys and Ns will be read as logical, otherwise as character.}
   \item{keepLeadingZeros}{If TRUE a column containing numeric data with leading zeros will be read as character, otherwise leading zeros will be removed and converted to numeric.}
   \item{yaml}{ If \code{TRUE}, \code{fread} will attempt to parse (using \code{\link[yaml]{yaml.load}}) the top of the input as YAML, and further to glean parameters relevant to improving the performance of \code{fread} on the data itself. The entire YAML section is returned as parsed into a \code{list} in the \code{yaml_metadata} attribute. See \code{Details}. }
-  \item{autostart}{ Deprecated. Please use \code{skip} instead. }
   \item{tmpdir}{ Directory to use as the \code{tmpdir} argument for any \code{tempfile} calls, e.g. when the input is a URL or a shell command. The default is \code{tempdir()} which can be controlled by setting \code{TMPDIR} before starting the R session; see \code{\link[base:tempfile]{base::tempdir}}. }
   \item{tz}{ Relevant to datetime values which have no Z or UTC-offset at the end, i.e. \emph{unmarked} datetime, as written by \code{\link[utils:write.table]{utils::write.csv}}. The default \code{tz="UTC"} reads unmarked datetime as UTC POSIXct efficiently. \code{tz=""} reads unmarked datetime as type character (slowly) so that \code{as.POSIXct} can interpret (slowly) the character datetimes in local timezone; e.g. by using \code{"POSIXct"} in \code{colClasses=}. Note that \code{fwrite()} by default writes datetime in UTC including the final Z and therefore \code{fwrite}'s output will be read by \code{fread} consistently and quickly without needing to use \code{tz=} or \code{colClasses=}. If the \code{TZ} environment variable is set to \code{"UTC"} (or \code{""} on non-Windows where unset vs `""` is significant) then the R session's timezone is already UTC and \code{tz=""} will result in unmarked datetimes being read as UTC POSIXct. For more information, please see the news items from v1.13.0 and v1.14.0. }
 }