Container-Optimized OS End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all Container-Optimized OS versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
Container-Optimized OS cos-129 is supported until March 1, 2028, its end-of-support date. The next Container-Optimized OS version to reach end of life is cos-121, on March 1, 2027. 13 of 16 tracked Container-Optimized OS versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, cos-117, did so on September 1, 2026. The full Container-Optimized OS lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
Running an EOL version? Get matched with support options — free ↓| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cos-69 LTS | cos-69-10895-385-0 | Sep 18, 2018 | Dec 1, 2019 | 2488 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-73 LTS | cos-73-11647-656-0 | Mar 25, 2019 | Sep 5, 2020 | 2209 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-77 LTS | cos-77-12371-1109-0 | Sep 27, 2019 | Apr 1, 2021 | 2001 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-81 LTS | cos-81-12871-1317-8 | Mar 27, 2020 | Jan 10, 2022 | 1717 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-85 LTS | cos-85-13310-1498-13 | Sep 24, 2020 | Sep 1, 2022 | 1483 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-89 LTS | cos-89-16108-798-22 | Apr 7, 2021 | Mar 1, 2023 | 1302 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-93 LTS | cos-93-16623-461-42 | Oct 18, 2021 | Oct 24, 2023 | 1065 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-97 LTS | cos-97-16919-450-41 | Mar 29, 2022 | Mar 27, 2024 | 910 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-101 LTS | cos-101-17162-528-64 | Sep 15, 2022 | Oct 21, 2024 | 702 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-105 LTS | cos-105-17412-535-98 | Apr 3, 2023 | Apr 1, 2025 | 540 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-109 LTS | cos-109-17800-570-50 | Sep 27, 2023 | Sep 24, 2025 | 364 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-113 LTS | cos-113-18244-582-104 | Apr 15, 2024 | May 12, 2026 | 134 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-117 LTS | cos-117-18613-731-21 | Oct 2, 2024 | Sep 1, 2026 | 22 days past EOL | EOL |
| cos-121 LTS | cos-121-18867-584-23 | Apr 14, 2025 | Mar 1, 2027 | 159 days remaining | Warning |
| cos-125 LTS | cos-125-19216-655-28 | Oct 9, 2025 | Sep 1, 2027 | 343 days remaining | Active |
| cos-129 LTS | cos-129-19506-448-36 | May 21, 2026 | Mar 1, 2028 | 525 days remaining | Active |
Live EOL badge for your README — updates automatically at every build.
[](https://endoflife.ai/cos)
Container-Optimized OS lifecycle status — the real story
Google publishes a precise policy for Container-Optimized OS: a new LTS milestone is introduced approximately every four months after roughly four months of feature development and two of stabilization, and each LTS milestone is supported for 26 months — security fixes for the whole period, plus fixes for production issues. LTS milestones are the ones intended for production, exposed as cos-[MILESTONE]-lts image families.
Non-LTS milestones are not for production use. The end-of-life dates above are the end of each LTS milestone's 26-month window.
Verified against the vendor's lifecycle documentation on August 22, 2026.
Container-Optimized OS release and support pattern
16 of the 16 tracked lines are designated long-term support, which is where the longer windows sit.
Of the 16 release lines tracked, 13 are past end of life and 3 are still within support. The newest line, cos-129, was released May 21, 2026. The next scheduled end of life is cos-121 on March 1, 2027 — 159 days from this build. The longest-supported line currently published is cos-129, to March 1, 2028.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
What does Container-Optimized OS end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of Container-Optimized OS reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches. Vulnerabilities discovered after this date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database, exploit code appears on GitHub, and your systems remain permanently exposed.
The CVE blind spot: A CVE-based scan does not show the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no vendor patch is coming. This is one of the most dangerous gaps in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL Container-Optimized OS should treat it as a vulnerability class in their risk register, apply compensating controls (network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, access restriction), and prioritize migration to a supported version.
Your options when Container-Optimized OS reaches end of life
There are four realistic paths. Which one is right depends far more on how long the system needs to keep running than on the version you are on today.
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Move to a supported version | The system will outlive the current version's support window and you can schedule the work | Budget for compatibility testing, not just the upgrade itself — that is where the real cost sits |
| Replace the component | The project is unmaintained, or a better-supported alternative exists | The replacement has its own lifecycle and its own end-of-life date — you are changing vendors, not escaping the problem |
| Buy extended support | Migration is genuinely underway but cannot finish before the deadline, or the workload is frozen by certification or a third-party application | A bridge, not a destination — every year purchased is a year the migration still has to happen |
| Document accepted risk | The system is isolated, short-lived, or scheduled for retirement | Only defensible with real compensating controls and a written decision — auditors treat undocumented end-of-life software as a finding |
How to choose, in one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support purchased repeatedly costs more than doing the project once, and the project only gets harder as the version ages. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next migration before it surprises you.
Worth saying plainly, because vendors selling extended support rarely will: extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon. It is the right answer when a deadline is genuinely unreachable, not as a default. Compare the annual fee against the one-time cost of migrating before committing to either.
Formalizing decisions like this across your estate? Our free EOL policy template is a ready-to-adopt policy with risk tiers, remediation SLAs, and audit mapping — no signup, free to use and share.
Extended Support Options
If you cannot migrate immediately, extended support vendors provide continued security patches for EOL Container-Optimized OS versions. This is a bridge, not a permanent solution — plan your migration in parallel.
Container-Optimized OS has 13 versions past end of life — security patches have stopped, but CVE disclosures haven't. Extended support past the official date exists for many products in this position — whether it exists for Container-Optimized OS is exactly what we check. Tell us where to reach you and we'll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest "no vendor covers this."