What is Karpenter?
A Kubernetes node autoscaler that provisions the right nodes for pending pods in seconds.
Karpenter is an open-source Kubernetes node provisioner built by AWS. Unlike Cluster Autoscaler, Karpenter looks directly at pending pod requirements and provisions the optimal node type in under 60 seconds — choosing the right size and instance type automatically. It supports Spot instances, mixed instance types, and custom NodePools. Karpenter consolidates underutilized nodes automatically, reducing waste. It's significantly faster and smarter than the Cluster Autoscaler.
Deep Dive Guide
karpenter vs cluster autoscaler
More Kubernetes Terms
Admission Controller
A Kubernetes plugin that intercepts API requests before objects are persisted.
Auto Scaling
Automatically adjusting the number of compute resources based on demand.
ClusterIP
The default Kubernetes Service type that exposes a service on an internal cluster IP.
ConfigMap
A Kubernetes object for storing non-sensitive configuration data as key-value pairs.
Controller Manager
Kubernetes control plane component running control loops to maintain desired state.
CoreDNS
The default DNS server in Kubernetes clusters for service discovery.
Test your knowledge of Karpenter and 130 other DevOps concepts