Kubernetes follows an N-2 support policy (meaning that the 3 most recent minor versions receive security and bug fixes) along with a 15-week release cycle. This results in a release being supported for 14 months (12 months of support and 2 months of upgrade period).

Applicable fixes, including security fixes, may be backported to those three release branches, depending on severity and feasibility. Patch releases are cut from those branches at a regular cadence, plus additional urgent releases, when required. The Release Managers group owns this decision. For more information, see the patch release page, which also lists expected release dates for future releases, along with exact EoL dates for all active branches.

Since Kubernetes has a client-server architecture, there is a supported version skew between the client/server, which also determines the supported component upgrade order.