Kiali End of Life: 2.21 to 2.25 End With Istio 1.29, October 12, 2026

By Scott Bissett  ·  Published: October 9, 2026  ·  Reference guide  ·  Read on October 9, 2026 at Kiali's prerequisites page and general FAQ (kiali.io), and Istio's supported releases page and istioctl reference (istio.io).

Kiali has no end-of-life dates of its own: each Kiali version is supported while an Istio version it is tested with is supported. Kiali, the console for the Istio service mesh, ties its support to Istio's in one sentence on its prerequisites page, and a compatibility table on the same page names the Kiali versions tested with each Istio release. Read together with Istio's supported releases table, the practical answer is this: Kiali 2.21 to 2.25 leave support when Istio 1.29 does, which Istio expects on October 12, 2026. Kiali 2.26 and later are tested with Istio 1.30, which Istio expects to reach end of life around December 2026; Istio prints only the month for that line.

Kiali's support rule, in Kiali's words

The rule is on Kiali's prerequisites page, under Version Compatibility: "Supported Kiali versions include only the Kiali versions associated with supported Istio versions." The same section says that starting with Kiali v2.4, each Kiali release is tested against the currently supported Istio releases, and it points readers to Istio for the dates themselves: "The Istio news page posts end-of-support (EOL) dates."

So a Kiali version has no end date until you ask which Istio versions it is tested with. The answer is in the compatibility table: each Istio row lists a range of tested Kiali versions. A Kiali version is supported as long as at least one Istio row that includes it is still supported, and it leaves support with the last of those Istio versions. Istio's own dates come from its policy that a minor release is supported until six weeks after the release two minors later, and Istio marks dates still governed by that rule as expected; our Istio 1.29 guide explains why 1.29's date is October 12, 2026.

Istio and Kiali compatibility

The Kiali column is Kiali's table as read on October 9, 2026; the end-of-life column is Istio's, with "expected" wherever Istio prints it. Each Istio row links to its live status page.

Reading the table by Kiali version instead of by Istio version gives each Kiali range the last supported Istio it is tested with, and so its end of support:

Istio 1.31 was released on August 27, 2026, but Kiali's table has no 1.31 row yet, so it names no Kiali version tested with 1.31. If Kiali adds that row, the Kiali versions in it stay supported for as long as Istio 1.31 is, which Istio expects to be around February 2027.

Key dates

• April 7, 2026: Istio 1.27 end of life. Kiali 2.12 to 2.16, whose newest tested Istio is 1.27, left support.
• July 1, 2026: Istio 1.28 end of life. Kiali 2.17 to 2.20 left support.
• August 27, 2026: Istio 1.31 released. Not yet in Kiali's compatibility table.
• October 12, 2026 (expected): Istio 1.29 end of life. Kiali 2.21 to 2.25 leave support. This page.
• Around December 2026 (expected, no day named): Istio 1.30 end of life, and with it every Kiali version whose newest tested Istio is 1.30.

How to check what you are running

Kiali's general FAQ gives three ways to read the Kiali version. In the console, open the Help menu at the top right of the Kiali window and select About; the About dialog shows the details of the running Kiali instance. The Mesh page, from the main menu, summarizes the mesh's infrastructure components and, where Kiali can determine them, their versions, Istio included. From the command line, the FAQ's example exposes Kiali with a port-forward and reads the version information as JSON from Kiali's /api endpoint:

kubectl port-forward -n istio-system deploy/kiali 20001:20001
curl http://localhost:20001/kiali/api

The response carries the Kiali version and the mesh version Kiali sees. For Istio itself, the istioctl reference documents a command that "Prints out build version information":

istioctl version

A Kiali version from 2.21 to 2.25 on an Istio 1.29 mesh is the pair this page is about. A Kiali version below 2.21 is already past its end of support, whatever Istio it runs with.

Upgrade path

1. Move Kiali to 2.26 or later first. Kiali's table lists 2.21 and higher as tested with Istio 1.29 and 2.26 and higher as tested with Istio 1.30, so a 2.26 or later release works with the mesh you run today and with the one you are moving to. Kiali's installation documentation covers the operator and Helm installs.
2. Then move Istio to 1.30. Follow Istio's upgrade guides. Istio's supported releases page notes that the control plane can be one version ahead of the data plane but not behind it, and recommends revisions so there is no skew at all. Our Istio 1.29 guide covers the mesh side of the move.
3. Check Kiali's table before going past 1.30. Istio 1.31 has the longer runway, but Kiali has not yet listed it. When it does, pick a Kiali version from the 1.31 row.
4. Check the rest of the stack in the same pass. The Kubernetes version under the mesh has its own end of life, and Istio tests each release on a specific set of Kubernetes versions. Our EOL Checker takes them together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related

• Kiali — every Kiali version's live status
• Istio — every Istio release's dates
• Istio 1.29 end of life — where Istio's date comes from and the move to 1.30 or 1.31
• Istio 1.29 · Istio 1.30 — the live status pages for the two Istio lines in this guide
• 2026 EOL calendar — every dated end of support this year
• Kiali prerequisites — the support rule and compatibility table this guide reads
• Istio supported releases — the Istio dates
• How we verify our dates — the rules every number on this site is held to