Cilium Version History

3 active, 4 end-of-life. 7 versions tracked.

Cilium releases minor versions roughly every 3-4 months. As the leading eBPF-based networking, security, and observability solution for Kubernetes, Cilium has become the default CNI for many managed Kubernetes providers including GKE.

Recommendation

For new Kubernetes clusters that need advanced networking, use Cilium 1.16+ (latest). It includes service mesh capabilities, Hubble observability, and WireGuard encryption.

Version	Released	End of Life	Latest Patch	Status
Cilium 1.19	February 3, 2026	TBD	1.19.1	Active
Cilium 1.18	July 29, 2025	TBD	1.18.7	Active
Cilium 1.17	February 4, 2025	TBD	1.17.13	Active
Cilium 1.16	July 24, 2024	February 3, 2026	1.16.19	End of Life
Cilium 1.15	January 31, 2024	July 29, 2025	1.15.19	End of Life
Cilium 1.14	July 27, 2023	February 4, 2025	1.14.19	End of Life
Cilium 1.13	February 15, 2023	July 24, 2024	1.13.18	End of Life

View Cilium Hub Page →

Cilium Support Policy

Cilium supports the three most recent minor versions with security patches and bug fixes. Older versions are end-of-life. Each minor version gets about 12 months of support given the 3-4 month release cadence.

What You Need to Know

Cilium is the default CNI for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Dataplane V2.

Cilium 1.14+ includes a sidecarless service mesh using eBPF, competing with Istio ambient mesh.

Hubble (built into Cilium) provides network observability without additional agents or sidecars.

WireGuard encryption in Cilium provides transparent pod-to-pod encryption with minimal performance overhead.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often does Cilium release new versions?

Cilium ships minor versions every 3-4 months. Patch releases come out as needed. The project maintains security patches for the three most recent minor versions.

Should I use Cilium or Calico?

Cilium uses eBPF for networking, which provides better performance and observability at scale. Calico uses traditional iptables/IPVS (with an optional eBPF mode). For new clusters, Cilium is generally the better choice if your kernel supports eBPF (Linux 5.4+). Calico is more mature and battle-tested in older environments.

Does Cilium replace Istio?

Cilium includes a sidecarless service mesh using eBPF that can handle basic L7 traffic management. For simple service mesh needs (mTLS, traffic splitting), Cilium alone may be sufficient. For complex L7 routing, retries, and advanced traffic policies, Istio is still more capable.

Related Tools

K8s Deprecation Checker

Vulnerability Scanner

Helm Chart Checker

EOL Timeline Visualizer

Get Cilium release alerts

New releases, EOL warnings, security patches. Monthly digest, no spam.

Free forever. Unsubscribe anytime.