Standard support for ElastiCache Redis OSS versions 4 and 5 ended January 31, 2026, and those caches were enrolled in paid Extended Support: an 80% premium in years one and two and 160% in year three, ending January 31, 2029. Why upgrading to Valkey is usually the cheapest fix, and how to do it with little or no downtime.
Caches still on ElastiCache Redis OSS 4 or 5 were automatically enrolled in Extended Support on February 1, 2026. For provisioned nodes the premium is 80% in the first two years and 160% in the third. AWS's example: a cache.m5.large on version 5 in US East (Ohio) costs $0.2808 an hour in Extended Support through January 2028, and $0.4056 from February 2028. Extended Support ends on January 31, 2029.
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Upgrade the engine. ElastiCache for Valkey is priced 20% below Redis OSS for node-based clusters and 33% below for serverless, and it is compatible with the Redis OSS clients and commands most applications use. So an old cache can go from an 80% premium to a 20% discount in one change.
Check client libraries and any commands or modules you rely on against the target version.
Upgrade in a non-production environment first and run the application's tests and a load test.
Upgrade production during a quiet period. ElastiCache supports in-place upgrades from Redis OSS to Valkey for supported source versions; very old caches may need an intermediate Redis OSS upgrade first. Multi-AZ clusters fail over during the process.
Right-size while you are there: old caches are often on previous-generation node types, and Graviton nodes cost less.
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As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.