Upstream Kubernetes, Azure AKS and Amazon EKS run three different calendars and each counts differently. Everything is in one place below, with a day countdown and a source link under every table.
A version upstream Kubernetes no longer supports may still be supported on EKS and AKS — just at a different price. That is why there are three tables and not one.
The Kubernetes project maintains the three most recent minor releases. Each gets roughly a year of patches, and a new minor release appears about three times a year.
Source: kubernetes.io/releases · verified 30 Aug 2026
| Version | Released | End of patches | Status | Remaining |
|---|
AKS supports each GA version for 12 months (community support). Long-Term Support extends Microsoft support to two years from GA and requires the Premium tier: USD 0.60 per cluster per hour instead of USD 0.10 on the Standard tier, so USD 365 per month extra — exactly the same as extended support on EKS. Unlike EKS, though, you have to enable LTS yourself; if you do not, you pay nothing extra and the cluster is simply left without support. Where no exact date is given, support ends on the last day of the month shown.
Sources: learn.microsoft.com — supported Kubernetes versions, AKS pricing (prices verified through the Azure Retail Prices API) · verified 30 Aug 2026
| Version | AKS GA | End of community support | End of LTS | Status | Remaining |
|---|
EKS gives each version 14 months of standard support from its EKS release, after which the version moves automatically to extended support for a further 12 months — and starts costing USD 0.60 per hour instead of USD 0.10. Nobody switches it on or off for you.
Sources: docs.aws.amazon.com — Kubernetes versions, EKS pricing · verified 30 Aug 2026
| Version | EKS release | End of standard support | End of extended support | Status | Remaining |
|---|
A postponed upgrade is not zero. It is a line in the budget that simply never appears on an invoice under that name. Work it out on your own numbers.
A company runs three production clusters on Amazon EKS at version 1.32. Standard support for that version in EKS ended on 23 March 2026, so the clusters sit in extended support at USD 0.60 per hour instead of USD 0.10.
EUR 25,268 a year in total — every year again, until the version changes.
For comparison: an assessment with us costs EUR 2,900 and the upgrade of the first cluster typically EUR 6,000 – 9,000 as a one-off, with the assessment fee deducted from the upgrade price. So the question is not whether the upgrade is expensive. It is whether it is more expensive than EUR 25,268 every year.
USD converted at the Czech National Bank cross rate for 28 Aug 2026 (USD 1 = CZK 20.741, EUR 1 = CZK 24.150, so USD 1 = EUR 0.8588). EKS pricing verified with AWS on 30 Aug 2026. Ten days per upgrade and a EUR 700 day rate are assumptions of this example — you can overwrite both in the widget alongside.
We start with a read-only assessment over five days. We show exactly what will break during your upgrade and give a fixed price for the execution.
Once in a while, not a newsletter. We write when the end of support for the version you name here is approaching — and once more a week beforehand.
The tables above are updated quarterly and on every new minor release.
In upstream Kubernetes, patch support for 1.32 ended on 28 February 2026, for 1.33 on 28 June 2026, and 1.34 ends on 27 October 2026.
On Amazon EKS standard support runs longer: 1.32 ended on 23 March 2026, 1.33 on 29 July 2026, and 1.34 ends on 2 December 2026. On Azure AKS, community support for 1.32 ended in March 2026, for 1.33 in July 2026, and 1.34 ends in November 2026.
Amazon EKS gives each Kubernetes version 14 months of standard support from its EKS release. After that the version moves automatically to extended support for a further 12 months.
A cluster in extended support costs USD 0.60 per hour instead of USD 0.10 — USD 365 per month extra per cluster, roughly USD 4,380 a year. The transition is automatic: if you do not upgrade, you start paying the higher rate without doing anything at all.
Azure Kubernetes Service supports each GA version for 12 months under community support. Long-Term Support extends Microsoft support by another year, two years from GA in total. LTS requires the Premium tier and has to be switched on explicitly.
The Premium tier costs USD 0.60 per cluster per hour against USD 0.10 on the Standard tier — USD 365 per month extra per cluster, roughly USD 4,380 a year. That happens to be exactly what extended support costs on Amazon EKS, and the price is the same across all European regions.
One difference from EKS matters a great deal, though: on EKS a cluster moves into paid extended support by itself and you start paying without doing anything. On AKS nothing happens — you have to enable LTS. If you do not, you pay nothing extra and the cluster is left without support and without security patches.
You need LTS when an application cannot be upgraded on a yearly cycle — typically in a regulated environment with long approval processes. It solves an organisational problem, not a technical one.
The cluster does not stop working. Three other things happen.
You start paying more — USD 0.60 per hour instead of USD 0.10 on EKS automatically, and the same rate on AKS for the Premium tier with LTS if you want to keep support. You stop receiving security patches once extended support ends too; from an audit point of view that is unsupported software in production — a finding, not technical debt. And every postponed upgrade makes the next one more expensive: minor versions cannot be skipped, so the ones you missed have to be worked through one at a time.