--- title: Why Are Kubernetes Costs So High? The Real Reasons and... description: Average CPU utilization across production Kubernetes clusters sits at just 8%, and the problem is getting worse. Three structural causes drive this waste:... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-kubernetes-costs-so-high-the-real-reasons-and-the-fix--dnfeerroq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why Are Kubernetes Costs So High? The Real Reasons and the Fix. | daily.dev og:description: Average CPU utilization across production Kubernetes clusters sits at just 8%, and the problem is getting worse. Three structural causes drive this waste:... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-kubernetes-costs-so-high-the-real-reasons-and-the-fix--dnfeerroq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/dNFeErROq.png og:image:alt: Why Are Kubernetes Costs So High? The Real Reasons and the Fix. 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. # Why Are Kubernetes Costs So High? The Real Reasons and the Fix. **[Cast AI](https://daily.dev/sources/castai)** · 11 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Average CPU utilization across production Kubernetes clusters sits at just 8%, and the problem is getting worse. Three structural causes drive this waste: developers set padded resource requests with no cost signal at authoring time, the Cluster Autoscaler scales on requests rather than real usage amplifying that waste, and 86% of organizations run no chargeback so no team owns the spend. The fix follows a four-step sequence: establish workload-level cost visibility first, then continuously rightsize pod requests using real utilization data, tune autoscaling delays and thresholds, and finally automate the cycle to prevent decay. Rightsizing with accurate data typically reduces OOM kills rather than increasing them, and well-optimized clusters target 40–60% CPU utilization rather than the current 8% baseline. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do Kubernetes clusters have such low CPU utilization compared to VM deployments? Kubernetes clusters often run at very low CPU utilization, around 8% on average across tens of thousands of production clusters, because node provisioning is driven by resource requests rather than actual usage. Developers pad requests to avoid OOM kills, and the Cluster Autoscaler treats those inflated requests as real demand, provisioning far more capacity than workloads consume. VM deployments avoid this because per-VM cost is visible and directly attributed. _Anyone tuning cluster efficiency can track Kubernetes cost optimization writeups and benchmarks on daily.dev._ ### Does reducing Kubernetes memory and CPU requests cause more OOM kills? No, rightsizing requests to match actual consumption tends to reduce OOM kills rather than cause them. One customer cluster running with deliberately padded requests averaged 40 to 50 OOM kills per interval; after rightsizing both CPU and memory requests to real usage, OOM kills dropped to near zero, because realistic memory limits removed heap-expansion pressure that was pushing workloads past node memory ceilings. _Engineers debugging OOM kills can follow rightsizing case studies and Kubernetes memory tuning discussions on daily.dev._ ### What Kubernetes cost optimization steps should I follow to cut cloud spend without breaking production? Follow a specific sequence: establish cost visibility per workload and namespace first, then rightsize resource requests using real utilization data, then tune autoscaler settings like the Cluster Autoscaler's scale-down delay and HPA/VPA thresholds, and finally automate the cycle continuously so gains don't decay. Skipping steps causes optimization to erode within weeks as workloads and traffic patterns evolve. _Teams sequencing a cost-reduction rollout can compare Kubernetes autoscaling and FinOps approaches on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why Kubernetes Utilization Is Stuck Below 40%](https://daily.dev/posts/why-kubernetes-utilization-is-stuck-below-40--qvj2z12nz) · Cloud Native Now · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Do I Reduce Kubernetes Costs Without Hurting Reliability?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-do-i-reduce-kubernetes-costs-without-hurting-reliability--11xjt53gx) · Fairwinds Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Find and Eliminate Idle Kubernetes Resources at Scale](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-find-and-eliminate-idle-kubernetes-resources-at-scale-febdxox1c) · finout · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The 7 Kubernetes Cost Drivers Most Teams Miss](https://daily.dev/posts/the-7-kubernetes-cost-drivers-most-teams-miss-qntoy99sp) · Cast AI · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Report: Utilization of Kubernetes Infrastructure Remains Abysmal](https://daily.dev/posts/report-utilization-of-kubernetes-infrastructure-remains-abysmal-bixnad6mv) · Cloud Native Now · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#finops](https://daily.dev/tags/finops) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-kubernetes-costs-so-high-the-real-reasons-and-the-fix--dnfeerroq) ```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":"Why Are Kubernetes Costs So High? 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