GKE release notes

For node pools running on GKE versions 1.36.3-gke.1480000 and later, the minimum supported boot disk size is 15 GB. For earlier versions, the minimum supported boot disk size is 12 GB.

(2026-R34) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

(2026-R34) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

(2026-R33) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

(2026-R33) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

You can generate optimized GKE configurations that can improve performance for specific workloads, such as Redis and MySQL, by using the gcloud CLI. The configurations are ConfigMaps and ComputeClasses that apply performance recommendations to the workloads and the nodes. These optimizations are available in Preview for GKE version 1.31.1-gke.12000 or later. You can measure the performance improvements by using open source benchmarks. For more information, see Optimize for workloads on GKE.

In GKE version 1.36.0-gke.3302001 and later, you can run Arm workloads on the Autopilot container-optimized compute platform by using the general-purpose autopilot-arm and autopilot-arm-spot ComputeClasses. You can select these ComputeClasses in Autopilot or Standard clusters. GKE runs the workloads that select these ComputeClasses in Autopilot mode. This compute platform improves Pod scheduling latency, especially during autoscaling operations. For more information, see the following documents:

• Deploy workloads in Autopilot mode
• Autopilot Arm workloads

TPU Subslicing (also known as Dynamic Subslicing) is now generally available for Ironwood (TPU7x). This feature enables you to incrementally provision node pools for a cube or litepod, breaking them into smaller slices (subslices) to run workloads requiring smaller topologies. Updates in this GA release include:

• Dynamic sub-slicing (topologies smaller than 4x4x4, such as 2x2x1, 2x2x2, 2x2x4, and 2x4x4): Supported in GKE version 1.36.0-gke.3712000 or later.
• Dynamic super-slicing (topologies 4x4x4 or larger): Supported in GKE version 1.35.2-gke.1842000 or later.
• Partition Health Labels: The partition state label is updated to cloud.google.com/gke-tpu-partition-[shape]-state to specify smaller subslice shapes. It also introduces UNSET and INCOMPLETE states. Support for the DEGRADED state only applies to the top-level 4x4x4 topology, and not for smaller sub-slicing topologies.

For more information, see About GKE dynamic slicing.

(2026-R32) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

GKE now supports opting out of the default kubernetes.io/arch=arm64:NoSchedule taint on Arm nodes in Standard node pools and in custom ComputeClasses. To opt out of the default taint, set the --node-architecture-taint-behavior gcloud CLI flag to NONE for a node pool or set the taintConfig.architectureTaintBehavior field to NONE for a ComputeClass. By configuring this behavior, you allow workloads that lack explicit Arm tolerations to be scheduled on Arm-based machine families (such as N4A and C4A). This is useful for running multi-architecture workloads or simplifying scheduling in mixed-mode clusters. For more information, see Configure the default Arm architecture taint.

GKE Gateway and Inference Gateway now support Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). You can configure a CORS filter directly on an HTTPRoute resource by using the portable syntax standardized by Gateway API. This feature is available in Preview in GKE version 1.35 and later for the following GatewayClasses:

• gke-l7-rilb
• gke-l7-regional-external-managed
• gke-l7-global-external-managed

For more information, see Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.

In GKE version 1.36 and later, GKE Dataplane V2 with NetworkPolicies supports up to 15,000 nodes per cluster, increased from the previous limit of 7,500 nodes. For clusters exceeding 5,000 nodes, contact Cloud Customer Care to request a quota increase. For more information, see Cluster size limits and requirements.

In version 1.36.2-gke.1498000 and later, GKE supports mixed-protocol Services of type LoadBalancer in general availability (GA). Mixed-protocol Services let both external (NetLB) and internal (ILB) passthrough Network Load Balancers handle simultaneous TCP and UDP traffic on a single IP address across IPv4, IPv6, and dual-stack environments.

The general availability (GA) stage of mixed-protocol Services of type LoadBalancer fixes errors in traffic routing from stages prior to GA. This feature is in the GA stage in GKE version 1.36.2-gke.1498000 and later.

(2026-R31) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

(2026-R31) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

To improve security, Ubuntu node images in GKE version 1.37 and later don't pre-install the vulkan-tools package. If you run Vulkan diagnostic tools (such as vulkaninfo) directly on GKE Ubuntu hosts, then you must manually install the vulkan-tools package. This change doesn't affect containerized GPU/Vulkan workloads.

(2026-R30) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

(2026-R30) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

Starting on June 30, 2026, the Filestore API (file.googleapis.com) is enabled by default when you enable the Kubernetes Engine API (container.googleapis.com) in a project. The Filestore API is required for PersistentVolumes that use the ReadWriteMany access mode in GKE.

In GKE version 1.36.0-gke.3204000 and later, when you manually or automatically create a GKE node pool that consumes capacity reservations, you can stop GKE from falling back to on-demand capacity if reserved capacity isn't available. To consume any matching reservation without fallback, specify the any-reservation-then-fail reservation affinity in your node pool creation request, Pod specification, or ComputeClass specification. In ComputeClasses, this reservation affinity lets GKE move on to the next priority rule instead of creating on-demand compute resources. For more information, see Consuming reserved zonal resources.

GKE version 1.33 now supports the N4D machine series for node pool auto-creation and Autopilot clusters in the following patch versions and later:

• Node pool auto-creation: 1.33.12-gke.1208000 and later
• Autopilot: 1.33.13-gke.1079000 and later

In GKE version 1.36.0-gke.4447000 and later, the VerticalPodAutoscaler supports CPU startup boost, which temporarily increases CPU requests during application startup to improve startup latency and cost efficiency. This feature is available in Preview.

Rollout sequencing with custom stages is now generally available. This version of rollout sequencing, which is recommended if you're configuring an environment for the first time, offers a robust set of features including the following:

• Define custom stages: Sequence the rollout of a new GKE version across environments. With custom stages, you can, for example, deploy a new version on a small subset of production clusters before a wider rollout.
• Choose the scope of rollouts: Decide what types of versions that GKE rolls out in the sequence. For example, you can have GKE roll out patch versions, but not minor versions, across a sequence.
• Initiate a rollout: Create a rollout of a specific version, if you want GKE to roll out that version across your sequence.
• Manage a rollout: Pause, resume, cancel rollouts, or complete rollout stages as needed.

For more information, see About rollout sequencing with custom stages.

GKE Dataplane V2 clusters running version 1.35.1-gke.1516000 or later now use CNI version 1.1.0 in the CNI configuration files. This change requires downstream CNI plugins to be compatible with CNI version 1.1.0.

Customers using self-managed open-source Istio or in-cluster unmanaged Cloud Service Mesh (CSM) variant must manually upgrade their CSM CNI version to 1.23 to ensure compatibility. If you use an incompatible CNI version, nodes might fail to reach a Ready state and might show NetworkPluginNotReady errors.

(2026-R29) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.

(2026-R29) Security updates

This release includes new GKE versions that use updated Container-Optimized OS images. These updated images are cumulative, incorporating security fixes from all Container-Optimized OS versions released since the previous GKE release.

To identify the specific vulnerabilities that were resolved in each updated Container-Optimized OS image, see the Security release notes for that image. The following table includes links to the release notes for each updated Container-Optimized OS image:

(2026-R28) Version updates

GKE cluster versions have been updated.

New versions available for upgrades and new clusters.

The following versions are now available for new GKE clusters, and for manual control plane upgrades and node upgrades for existing clusters. For more information about versioning and upgrades, see GKE versioning and support and About GKE cluster upgrades.