Resource requests and limits for containers

Resource requests and limits are set per container; CPU and memory are the most common resources. The kube-scheduler uses the request to decide which node a Pod is placed on, while the kubelet enforces limits and reserves at least the request amount for the container. A container may exceed its request when the node has spare capacity. CPU limits are hard limits enforced through CPU throttling; memory limits are enforced reactively by the kernel with out-of-memory (OOM) kills, so a container that exceeds its memory limit may be terminated. If you set a limit without a request and no admission-time default applies, Kubernetes copies the limit as the request. Koskamo editorial guidance: set both requests and limits on every container so scheduling and eviction behave predictably. Scope: Kubernetes. Reviewed October 4, 2026.