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Kubernetes Cost Optimization

Resource requests/limits tuning, node auto-provisioning, spot instances, and right-sizing to reduce cloud spend.

🎯Key Takeaways
Right-size with VPA recommendations
Use spot/preemptible instances for stateless workloads (save 60-80%)
Karpenter: faster node provisioning than Cluster Autoscaler

Kubernetes Cost Optimization

Resource requests/limits tuning, node auto-provisioning, spot instances, and right-sizing to reduce cloud spend.

~1 min read
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What you'll learn
  • Right-size with VPA recommendations
  • Use spot/preemptible instances for stateless workloads (save 60-80%)
  • Karpenter: faster node provisioning than Cluster Autoscaler

Where K8s Costs Hide

Over-provisioned requests waste node capacity (you pay for the reservation). Under-provisioned limits cause OOMKills. Idle dev/staging clusters run 24/7 unnecessarily. Solutions: VPA for right-sizing requests, Cluster Autoscaler + spot instances for compute, Karpenter for faster/smarter provisioning.

Key takeaways

  • Right-size with VPA recommendations
  • Use spot/preemptible instances for stateless workloads (save 60-80%)
  • Karpenter: faster node provisioning than Cluster Autoscaler

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