This page explains how to manually resize Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Standard clusters. You can resize a cluster to increase or decrease the
number of nodes in that cluster. Alternatively, you can autoscale
your cluster, where GKE automatically resizes your node pools in
response to changing conditions, such as changes in your workloads and resource
usage.
These instructions don't apply to GKE
Autopilot
clusters, which automatically resize based on the number of Pods in the cluster.
When you add or remove nodes in your cluster, GKE adds or removes
the associated virtual machine (VM) instances from the underlying
Compute Engine Managed Instance Groups
(MIGs) provisioned for
your node pools. For removing nodes, do not use kubectl delete node as this
does not delete the Compute Engine VM instance in the node pool's underlying
MIG. Use cluster autoscaler or manually decrease the size of your
cluster.
Before you begin
Before you start, make sure that you have performed the following tasks:
If you want to use the Google Cloud CLI for this task,
install and then
initialize the
gcloud CLI. If you previously installed the gcloud CLI, get the latest
version by running gcloud components update.
Increase the size of your cluster
When you increase the size of a cluster, the following changes occur:
New node instances are created using the same configuration as the existing
instances.
NUM_NODES: the number of nodes in the pool in a
zonal cluster. If you use multi-zonal or regional clusters,
NUM_NODES is the number of nodes for each zone the
node pools is in.
Repeat this command for each node pool. If your cluster has only one node
pool, omit the --node-pool flag.
Console
To increase the size of a cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:
Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.
NUM_NODES: the number of nodes in the pool in a
zonal cluster. If you use multi-zonal or regional clusters,
NUM_NODES is the number of nodes for each zone the
node pools is in.
Repeat this command for each node pool. If your cluster has only one node
pool, omit the --node-pool flag.
Console
To decrease the size of a cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:
Go to the Google Kubernetes Engine page in the Google Cloud console.
Beside the cluster you want to edit, click more_vertActions, then click Edit.
Click the Nodes tab next to the Details tab.
In the Node Pools section, click the name of the node pool that you
want to decrease in size.
Click editResize.
In the Number of nodes field, enter how many nodes that you want in
the node pool, and then click Resize.
Repeat for each node pool as needed.
Autoscaling a cluster
GKE's cluster autoscaler feature automatically resizes
your node pools in response to changing conditions, such as changes in your
workloads and resource usage.
To learn more about how autoscaling works, refer to the cluster autoscaler
documentation. To set up autoscaling for your cluster, see
Autoscaling a cluster.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-26 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Resize a Standard cluster by adding or removing nodes\n\n[Standard](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/choose-cluster-mode)\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\nThis page explains how to manually resize Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)\nStandard clusters. You can resize a cluster to increase or decrease the\nnumber of nodes in that cluster. Alternatively, you can [autoscale](#autoscale)\nyour cluster, where GKE automatically resizes your node pools in\nresponse to changing conditions, such as changes in your workloads and resource\nusage.\n\nThese instructions don't apply to GKE\n[Autopilot](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/autopilot-overview)\nclusters, which automatically resize based on the number of Pods in the cluster.\n\nWhen you add or remove nodes in your cluster, GKE adds or removes\nthe associated virtual machine (VM) instances from the underlying\nCompute Engine [Managed Instance Groups\n(MIGs)](/compute/docs/instance-groups#managed_instance_groups) provisioned for\nyour node pools. For removing nodes, do not use `kubectl delete node` as this\ndoes not delete the Compute Engine VM instance in the node pool's underlying\nMIG. Use [cluster autoscaler](#autoscale) or manually [decrease the size of your\ncluster](#decrease).\n| **Note:** When you increase or decrease the size of a node pool that spans multiple zones, the new size represents the number of nodes in the node pool per zone. For example, if you have a node pool size of two that spans two zones, the total node count is four. If you resize the node pool to a size of four nodes, the total node count becomes eight.\n\nBefore you begin\n----------------\n\nBefore you start, make sure that you have performed the following tasks:\n\n- Enable the Google Kubernetes Engine API.\n[Enable Google Kubernetes Engine API](https://console.cloud.google.com/flows/enableapi?apiid=container.googleapis.com)\n- If you want to use the Google Cloud CLI for this task, [install](/sdk/docs/install) and then [initialize](/sdk/docs/initializing) the gcloud CLI. If you previously installed the gcloud CLI, get the latest version by running `gcloud components update`. **Note:** For existing gcloud CLI installations, make sure to set the `compute/region` [property](/sdk/docs/properties#setting_properties). If you use primarily zonal clusters, set the `compute/zone` instead. By setting a default location, you can avoid errors in the gcloud CLI like the following: `One of [--zone, --region] must be supplied: Please specify location`. You might need to specify the location in certain commands if the location of your cluster differs from the default that you set.\n\nIncrease the size of your cluster\n---------------------------------\n\nWhen you increase the size of a cluster, the following changes occur:\n\n- New node instances are created using the same configuration as the existing instances.\n- New Pods may be scheduled on the new instances.\n- Existing Pods are **not** moved to the new instances.\n\n### gcloud\n\nTo increase the size of a cluster's node pools, run the [`gcloud container clusters resize`](/sdk/gcloud/reference/container/clusters/resize) command: \n\n```\ngcloud container clusters resize CLUSTER_NAME --node-pool POOL_NAME \\\n --num-nodes NUM_NODES\n```\n\nReplace the following:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e: the name of the cluster to resize.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePOOL_NAME\u003c/var\u003e: the name of the node pool to resize.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eNUM_NODES\u003c/var\u003e: the number of nodes in the pool in a zonal cluster. If you use multi-zonal or regional clusters, \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eNUM_NODES\u003c/var\u003e is the number of nodes for each zone the node pools is in.\n\nRepeat this command for each node pool. If your cluster has only one node\npool, omit the `--node-pool` flag.\n\n### Console\n\nTo increase the size of a cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:\n\n1. Go to the **Google Kubernetes Engine** page in the Google Cloud console.\n\n [Go to Google Kubernetes Engine](https://console.cloud.google.com/kubernetes/list)\n2. Beside the cluster you want to edit, click *more_vert*\n **Actions** , then click **Edit**.\n\n3. Click the **Nodes** tab next to the **Details** tab.\n\n4. In the **Node Pools** section, click the name of the node pool that you\n want to increase in size.\n\n5. Click *edit* **Resize**.\n\n6. In the **Number of nodes** field, enter how many nodes that you want in\n the node pool, and then click **Resize**.\n\n7. Repeat for each node pool as needed.\n\nDecrease the size of your cluster\n---------------------------------\n\n| **Warning:** Do not use both cluster autoscaler and manual resize commands simultaneously on a node pool, as this can cause interactions that result in unstable or incorrect node pool size.\n\nWhen you decrease the size of a cluster, the following changes occur:\n\n- GKE gracefully terminates nodes that are being deleted, using the [drain](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/safely-drain-node/) process to remove the Pods from the instance. [`PodDisruptionBudget`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/run-application/configure-pdb/) and [`terminationGracePeriodSeconds`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/pod/#termination-of-pods) are both respected for up to one hour.\n- Pods managed by a replication controller are rescheduled by the controller to run on the remaining instances.\n- Pods not managed by a replication controller are not restarted.\n\nThe MIG does not differentiate between instances running\nPods and instances without Pods. Resizing down removes instances at random.\n\nTo learn how to add node pools and to manage existing ones, refer to\n[Adding and managing node pools](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/node-pools). \n\n### gcloud\n\nTo decrease the size of a cluster's node pools, run the [`gcloud container clusters resize`](/sdk/gcloud/reference/container/clusters/resize) command: \n\n```\ngcloud container clusters resize CLUSTER_NAME --node-pool POOL_NAME \\\n --num-nodes NUM_NODES\n```\n\nReplace the following:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCLUSTER_NAME\u003c/var\u003e: the name of the cluster to resize.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePOOL_NAME\u003c/var\u003e: the name of the node pool to resize.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eNUM_NODES\u003c/var\u003e: the number of nodes in the pool in a zonal cluster. If you use multi-zonal or regional clusters, \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eNUM_NODES\u003c/var\u003e is the number of nodes for each zone the node pools is in.\n\nRepeat this command for each node pool. If your cluster has only one node\npool, omit the `--node-pool` flag.\n\n### Console\n\nTo decrease the size of a cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:\n\n1. Go to the **Google Kubernetes Engine** page in the Google Cloud console.\n\n [Go to Google Kubernetes Engine](https://console.cloud.google.com/kubernetes/list)\n2. Beside the cluster you want to edit, click *more_vert*\n **Actions** , then click **Edit**.\n\n3. Click the **Nodes** tab next to the **Details** tab.\n\n4. In the **Node Pools** section, click the name of the node pool that you\n want to decrease in size.\n\n5. Click *edit* **Resize**.\n\n6. In the **Number of nodes** field, enter how many nodes that you want in\n the node pool, and then click **Resize**.\n\n7. Repeat for each node pool as needed.\n\nAutoscaling a cluster\n---------------------\n\nGKE's [cluster autoscaler](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/cluster-autoscaler) feature automatically resizes\nyour node pools in response to changing conditions, such as changes in your\nworkloads and resource usage.\n\nTo learn more about how autoscaling works, refer to the [cluster autoscaler](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/cluster-autoscaler)\ndocumentation. To set up autoscaling for your cluster, see\n[Autoscaling a cluster](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/cluster-autoscaler).\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Learn more about clusters](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/cluster-architecture)."]]
