GKE Becomes More Elastic: Scale to Zero, Save Costs, and Keep Workloads Responsive
Google, Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
GKE 1.37 adds native scale-to-zero, letting idle batch jobs and dev environments stop consuming resources without tools like KEDA.
Google Kubernetes Engine 1.37 introduces native scale-to-zero capabilities, letting sporadic workloads such as batch processors, event-driven workers, and dev environments scale down to zero replicas and restart quickly on GKE capacity buffers when demand returns.
Previously, scaling to zero required the add-on Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling (KEDA), which added operational complexity.
Building the capability directly into the GKE control plane eliminates the need for separate operators and extensive configuration. The core mechanism combines HPA with AutoscalingMetric, a managed metrics pipeline that reads external signals directly.