karpenter

For a product SaaS (~12 production nodes, 3 clusters), EKS Auto Mode cut internal K8s ops from 80 to 35 hours/month at similar compute spend — partner MSP quote was $6,500/mo on top for 24/7 paging alone.

Karpenter replaces Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler with intelligent bin-packing and just-in-time node provisioning. This guide covers setup, consolidation, cost optimization, and production patterns for EKS clusters.

Karpenter vs Cluster Autoscaler on EKS: consolidation + flexible NodePools beat half-empty ASG nodes. July 2026: karpenter.sh/v1, WhenEmptyOrUnderutilized, Spot mix checklist.