Amazon EKS extended support for Kubernetes versions now generally available

Today, Amazon EKS announces general availability of extended support for Kubernetes versions. You can run EKS clusters using any Kubernetes version for up to 26 months from the time the version becomes available on EKS. Extended support for Kubernetes versions is available for Kubernetes versions 1.21 and higher. For a full list of versions and support dates, see here.

Standard support begins when a Kubernetes minor version becomes available in EKS, and continues for 14 months - the same as the Kubernetes project support window for minor versions. Past this point, the Kubernetes project stops releasing security patches for a minor version. Extended support in Amazon EKS begins immediately at the end of standard support and continues for 12 months. EKS clusters in extended support will continue to get security patches for the Kubernetes control plane as well as critical patches for the Amazon VPC CNI, kube-proxy, and CoreDNS add-ons, AWS-published EKS-Optimized AMIs, and EKS Fargate nodes.

Extended Support for Kubernetes versions is available in all AWS regions. EKS clusters running Kubernetes versions 1.23 and higher in the extended support window will be charged $0.60 per cluster per hour, starting April 1st 2024. EKS clusters running Kubernetes versions 1.21 and 1.22 will be charged $0.60 per cluster per hour, starting May 1st 2024. Pricing for clusters running Kubernetes versions in standard support is unchanged — you will continue to pay $0.10 per cluster per hour.

For information about pricing, see the blog. For version support lifecycle dates and FAQs, see documentation.