Google Kubernetes Engine

google managed-kubernetes service

Google Kubernetes Engine is the fully managed Kubernetes service from Google.

Release Released Active Support Maintenance Support Latest
1.29 5 months and 3 weeks ago
(26 Jan 2024)
Ends in 6 months
(31 Jan 2025)
Ends in 8 months
(21 Mar 2025)
1.29.6-gke.1326000
(17 Jul 2024)
1.28 7 months ago
(04 Dec 2023)
Ends in 5 months
(31 Dec 2024)
Ends in 6 months and 2 weeks
(04 Feb 2025)
1.28.11-gke.1260000
(17 Jul 2024)
1.27 1 year ago
(15 Jun 2023)
Ended 2 weeks and 6 days ago
(30 Jun 2024)
Ends in 1 month and 1 week
(31 Aug 2024)
1.27.15-gke.1252000
(17 Jul 2024)
1.26 1 year and 3 months ago
(31 Mar 2023)
Ended 2 months and 3 weeks ago
(30 Apr 2024)
Ended 2 weeks and 6 days ago
(30 Jun 2024)
1.26.15-gke.1469001
(03 Jul 2024)
1.25 1 year and 7 months ago
(14 Dec 2022)
Ended 5 months and 3 weeks ago
(31 Jan 2024)
Ended 3 months and 3 weeks ago
(30 Mar 2024)
1.25.16-gke.1759000
(18 Apr 2024)
1.24 2 years ago
(23 Jun 2022)
Ended 10 months ago
(31 Aug 2023)
Ended 8 months ago
(31 Oct 2023)
1.24.17-gke.2472000
(11 Jan 2024)
1.23 2 years ago
(03 May 2022)
Ended 1 year and 1 month ago
(31 May 2023)
Ended 11 months ago
(31 Jul 2023)
1.23.17-gke.10700
(08 Aug 2023)
1.22 2 years and 4 months ago
(07 Mar 2022)
Ended 1 year and 4 months ago
(28 Feb 2023)
Ended 1 year and 2 months ago
(30 Apr 2023)
1.22.17-gke.14100
(07 Jul 2023)
1.21 2 years and 9 months ago
(01 Oct 2021)
Ended 1 year and 8 months ago
(01 Nov 2022)
Ended 1 year and 5 months ago
(31 Jan 2023)
1.21.14-gke.18800
(22 Mar 2023)
1.20 3 years ago
(09 Jun 2021)
Ended 2 years and 7 months ago
(01 Dec 2021)
Ended 1 year and 11 months ago
(01 Aug 2022)
1.20.15-gke.13700
(18 Aug 2022)
1.19 3 years ago
(14 Apr 2021)
Ended 2 years and 9 months ago
(01 Oct 2021)
Ended 2 years ago
(01 Jun 2022)
1.19.16-gke.15700
(23 Jun 2022)
1.18 3 years ago
(29 Mar 2021)
Ended 2 years and 11 months ago
(01 Aug 2021)
Ended 2 years and 4 months ago
(01 Mar 2022)
1.18.20-gke.6000
(17 Sep 2021)
1.17 3 years ago
(29 Mar 2021)
Ended 3 years ago
(01 Jul 2021)
Ended 2 years and 8 months ago
(01 Nov 2021)
1.17.17-gke.9100
(09 Jun 2021)

GKE offers two modes of operations: Standard and Autopilot:

  • Standard: Users manage the cluster’s underlying infrastructure. Node auto-upgrade is configurable but is enabled by default.
  • Autopilot: GKE provisions and manages the cluster’s underlying infrastructure, including nodes and node pools. Nodes are always upgraded automatically to the version of the control plane.

GKE performs automatic upgrades of your cluster control plane, regardless of whether your cluster is enrolled in a release channel or not. Control plane upgrades cannot be disabled.

GKE provides a total of 14 months of support for each Kubernetes minor version once the version has been made available in the Regular channel. Nodes and node pool versions can be up to two minor versions older than the control plane as per the Kubernetes version skew policy.

New GKE Standard clusters are created with a default version, a stable release of a recent Kubernetes minor version or patch release. Versions newer than the default are also generally available on a weekly basis. Autopilot clusters are enrolled in a release channel (defaults to standard) instead.

Release Channels

GKE offers 3 release channels: Rapid, Regular (default), and Stable. GKE automatically manages the version and upgrade cadence for a cluster and its node pools if it is enrolled in a release channel. All channels offer supported releases of GKE and are considered generally available (GA). The End-of-life dates for a specific release will match the above, regardless.

No Channel (Static)

Clusters with a static GKE version are not enrolled in a release channel. Users are responsible for managing their upgrade strategy in this case. They must still adhere to the Kubernetes version and version skew support policy, and use supported GKE versions.

Google may automatically upgrade your nodes for security and compatibility purposes in select cases.

Security bulletins for GKE are published along with an RSS Feed. Please consult the upgrade guide before upgrading. Upgrade notifications are available over Pub/Sub as well.

More information is available on the Google Kubernetes Engine website.

You should be running one of the supported release numbers listed above in the rightmost column.

You can check the version that you are currently using by running:
kubectl version

You can submit an improvement to this page on GitHub :octocat: . This page has a corresponding Talk Page.

A JSON version of this page is available at /api/google-kubernetes-engine.json. See the API Documentation for more information. You can subscribe to the iCalendar feed at /calendar/google-kubernetes-engine.ics.