--- title: An Update on Our Container Registry Migration | daily.dev description: Istio is retiring both the `gcr.io/istio-release` and `registry.istio.io/release` container registries by late 2026. The `registry.istio.io/release` proxy is... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/an-update-on-our-container-registry-migration-sdqwah5rh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: An Update on Our Container Registry Migration | daily.dev og:description: Istio is retiring both the `gcr.io/istio-release` and `registry.istio.io/release` container registries by late 2026. The `registry.istio.io/release` proxy is... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/an-update-on-our-container-registry-migration-sdqwah5rh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/SDQwaH5rH.png og:image:alt: An Update on Our Container Registry Migration og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # An Update on Our Container Registry Migration **[Istio](https://daily.dev/sources/istio)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Istio is retiring both the `gcr.io/istio-release` and `registry.istio.io/release` container registries by late 2026. The `registry.istio.io/release` proxy is being shut down because Cloudflare egress IPs trigger rate-limiting on free container hosting platforms. Users should migrate to `docker.io/istio` as soon as possible. Instructions are provided for migrating via `istioctl` (updating IstioOperator config or passing a CLI flag) and via Helm (updating the values file). Istio 1.30 users are most likely affected, as that version defaults to `registry.istio.io/release`. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Is registry.istio.io/release being retired for Istio container images? Yes, registry.istio.io/release will be retired in late 2026, alongside gcr.io/istio-release, which was already scheduled for retirement. The original plan was for registry.istio.io/release to proxy requests through Cloudflare to another registry, but this caused rate-limiting issues on free container hosting platforms due to traffic funneling through limited egress IPs. _Track infrastructure deprecations like this Istio registry retirement on daily.dev before they break your pipelines._ ### Which container registry should I use for Istio images now? Migrate to docker.io/istio as the recommended container registry going forward. Istio versions other than 1.30 already default to docker.io/istio, while Istio 1.30 defaults to registry.istio.io/release, which is being retired. Configuring a pull-through cache is also suggested for maximum availability during the transition. _Developers migrating registries can follow ecosystem changes like this on daily.dev to plan upgrades ahead of deadlines._ ### How do I check if my Istio installation is affected by the gcr.io or registry.istio.io registry retirement? Run a command to list all pods using images hosted on registry.istio.io/release, since Istio 1.30 defaults to that registry while other versions default to docker.io/istio. You should also separately check for gcr.io/istio-release usage, since that registry is being retired in late 2026 as well, and migrate any affected pods to docker.io/istio. _Ops teams auditing Kubernetes clusters for deprecated dependencies can keep tabs on changes like this via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Istio is Migrating Container Registries](https://daily.dev/posts/istio-is-migrating-container-registries-5dovnmq4c) · Istio · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Istio 1.31 Adds Agentgateway Waypoints and Moves Release Artifacts off Google Cloud](https://daily.dev/posts/istio-1-31-adds-agentgateway-waypoints-and-moves-release-artifacts-off-google-cloud-5pof4xnve) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing Istio 1.31.0](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-istio-1-31-0-onsnrwev9) · Istio · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Retires the Ingress Nginx Controller for Kubernetes](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-retires-the-ingress-nginx-controller-for-kubernetes-ldynums2g) · The New Stack · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [What to Expect From Kubernetes 1.36](https://daily.dev/posts/what-to-expect-from-kubernetes-1-36-u9p6lgf7l) · Cloud Native Now · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#containers](https://daily.dev/tags/containers), [#istio](https://daily.dev/tags/istio), [#service-mesh](https://daily.dev/tags/service-mesh) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/an-update-on-our-container-registry-migration-sdqwah5rh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"An Update on Our Container Registry Migration","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/an-update-on-our-container-registry-migration-sdqwah5rh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/an-update-on-our-container-registry-migration-sdqwah5rh"},"datePublished":"2026-07-25T18:37:46.010Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:06:26.539Z","description":"Istio is retiring both the `gcr.io/istio-release` and `registry.istio.io/release` container registries by late 2026. 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