What EKS extended support will cost you.
An EKS control plane costs $0.10 per cluster-hour on standard support and $0.60 on extended support. That is about $365 more per cluster, every month.
Two dates are coming. On November 26, 2026 AWS force-upgrades every 1.31 control plane to 1.32, which is still on extended support. On December 2, 2026 1.34 leaves standard support and starts billing at the extended rate. Enter your clusters below.
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EKS Kubernetes version dates
From the Amazon EKS release calendar, checked October 17, 2026. All dates are UTC. Extended-support billing starts at 00:00 UTC on the end-of-standard date.
| Version | EKS release | End of standard support | End of extended support | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.37 | Oct 1, 2026 | Dec 1, 2027 | Dec 1, 2028 | |
| 1.36 | Jun 2, 2026 | Aug 2, 2027 | Aug 2, 2028 | |
| 1.35 | Jan 27, 2026 | Mar 27, 2027 | Mar 27, 2028 | |
| 1.34 | Oct 2, 2025 | Dec 2, 2026 | Dec 2, 2027 | |
| 1.33 | May 29, 2025 | Jul 29, 2026 | Jul 29, 2027 | |
| 1.32 | Jan 23, 2025 | Mar 23, 2026 | Mar 23, 2027 | |
| 1.31 | Sep 26, 2024 | Nov 26, 2025 | Nov 26, 2026 |
How the numbers are worked out
Rates. $0.10 per cluster-hour on standard support, $0.60 on extended support (AWS EKS pricing). A month is 730 hours, the convention AWS uses, so standard is $73 per cluster-month and extended is $438.
Lifecycle. Each version gets 14 months of standard support and then 12 months of extended support. Extended support is on by default. If you turned it off, your cluster is upgraded at the end of standard support instead and this page overstates your cost.
Auto-upgrades. At the end of extended support AWS moves the control plane to the oldest supported version, which is usually still on extended support. The 12-month figure follows that chain and assumes the upgrade lands on the end date; AWS says it can happen any time after. Nodes, managed node groups and add-ons are not upgraded with it.
Not included. Provisioned Control Plane tiers, EKS Auto Mode, Hybrid Nodes, EC2 and Fargate compute, and Outposts local clusters (which have no extended support). The premium is what extended support costs over standard for the same clusters.
Frequently asked questions
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How much does EKS extended support cost?
Amazon EKS extended support costs $0.60 per cluster-hour, against $0.10 on standard support. Over a 730-hour month that is $438 instead of $73, so every cluster on an extended version costs about $365 more per month, or $4,380 more per year. The fee is charged per cluster, not per node or workload.
When does EKS 1.34 enter extended support?
EKS 1.34 leaves standard support on December 2, 2026. From that date every 1.34 control plane bills at the extended rate of $0.60 per cluster-hour instead of $0.10, about $365 more per cluster each month. Extended support for 1.34 then runs until December 2, 2027, when AWS upgrades the cluster for you.
What happens to EKS 1.31 clusters on November 26, 2026?
Extended support for 1.31 ends on November 26, 2026, and AWS upgrades every remaining 1.31 control plane to 1.32. Version 1.32 is itself on extended support, so the cluster keeps paying $0.60 per cluster-hour. AWS does not upgrade your nodes or add-ons for you, and an automatic upgrade cannot be rolled back.
Can I turn off EKS extended support?
Yes, but only while the cluster is still on standard support. Run aws eks update-cluster-config --name <cluster> --upgrade-policy supportType=STANDARD and the cluster never bills at the extended rate: at the end of standard support AWS upgrades it to the next version instead. Once a cluster has entered extended support, you cannot disable it.
How do I stop paying for EKS extended support?
Upgrade the cluster to a version that is still on standard support. After December 2, 2026 the oldest such version is 1.35, so a 1.31 cluster needs four upgrades: to 1.32, 1.33, 1.34 and then 1.35. EKS moves one minor version at a time, and nodes and add-ons have to follow at each hop.
The money is the easy part. See what breaks on the upgrade.
Getting off extended support means one or more upgrades. Find the removed APIs, rejected settings and add-on incompatibilities before you start, not halfway through.
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