# KubeletTooManyPods alert: what it means and how to fix it

What the KubeletTooManyPods Prometheus alert means, its common causes, the PromQL rule and the runbook steps to fix it, with a ready-to-use rule in YAML.

Last reviewed 2026-10-31

A node is running more than 95% of the Pods it can hold, as set by the kubelet's `maxPods` (110 by default). When it reaches the limit, new Pods that would land there stay Pending, and a crowded node is more likely to show kubelet slowness.

* **Severity**: Info (`info`)
* **Fires after**: 15m
* Part of the [Kubernetes alert rules](https://n9e.github.io/alert-rules/kubernetes.md) (`kubernetes.yml`)

## The rule[​](#the-rule "Direct link to The rule")

```
count by(cluster, node) (

  (kube_pod_status_phase{job="kube-state-metrics",phase="Running"} == 1) * on(instance,pod,namespace,cluster) group_left(node) topk by(instance,pod,namespace,cluster) (1, kube_pod_info{job="kube-state-metrics"})

)

/

max by(cluster, node) (

  kube_node_status_capacity{job="kube-state-metrics",resource="pods"} != 1

) > 0.95
```

Alert message: `Kubelet '{{ $labels.node }}' is running at {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} of its Pod capacity.`

## Common causes[​](#common-causes "Direct link to Common causes")

* Many small Pods packed onto large nodes, which hit the Pod limit before CPU or memory run out.
* DaemonSets and sidecar-heavy workloads using up slots on every node.
* Completed or failed Pods that have not been garbage-collected yet.
* On some managed clusters the Pod limit is tied to the number of IP addresses a node can get, so it is lower than 110. On Amazon EKS with the VPC CNI, for example, it depends on the instance type.

## How to fix it[​](#how-to-fix-it "Direct link to How to fix it")

1. Run kubectl get pod -A -o wide --field-selector spec.nodeName=\<node> | wc -l for the actual count;
2. Compare against the kubelet maxPods setting (110 by default);
3. Use kubectl drain or scheduling policy to move some Pods to other nodes;
4. If you genuinely need higher density, raise maxPods but reassess node CPU/memory/PLEG pressure at the same time.

## Notes[​](#notes "Direct link to Notes")

* The ratio counts Pods in the `Running` phase against the node capacity reported by kube-state-metrics.
* The expression selects `job="kube-state-metrics"`. If your scrape job or namespace is named differently, change these matchers or the rule never matches.

## Metrics it uses[​](#metrics-it-uses "Direct link to Metrics it uses")

* `kube_pod_status_phase` (kube-state-metrics)
* `kube_pod_info` (kube-state-metrics)
* `kube_node_status_capacity` (kube-state-metrics)

## Related alerts[​](#related-alerts "Direct link to Related alerts")

* [KubeNodeNotReady](https://n9e.github.io/alert-rules/kubernetes/kubenodenotready.md): … has been unready for more than 15 minutes.
* [KubePodNotReady](https://n9e.github.io/alert-rules/kubernetes/kubepodnotready.md): Pod …/… has been in a non-ready state for longer than 15 minutes.

## Prometheus rule YAML[​](#prometheus-rule-yaml "Direct link to Prometheus rule YAML")

Add this to a rules file loaded through `rule_files`, or download every Kubernetes rule at once as [`kubernetes.yml`](https://n9e.github.io/alert-rules/kubernetes.yml).

```
- alert: KubeletTooManyPods

  expr: |-

    count by(cluster, node) (

      (kube_pod_status_phase{job="kube-state-metrics",phase="Running"} == 1) * on(instance,pod,namespace,cluster) group_left(node) topk by(instance,pod,namespace,cluster) (1, kube_pod_info{job="kube-state-metrics"})

    )

    /

    max by(cluster, node) (

      kube_node_status_capacity{job="kube-state-metrics",resource="pods"} != 1

    ) > 0.95

  for: 15m

  labels:

    severity: info

  annotations:

    summary: "Kubelet '{{ $labels.node }}' is running at {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} of its Pod capacity."

    runbook_url: "https://n9e.github.io/alert-rules/kubernetes/kubelettoomanypods"
```

**With Nightingale**: this rule ships in the [Kubernetes integration](https://n9e.github.io/integrations/kubernetes.md) template; [import it into a business group](https://n9e.github.io/docs/data/integrations/import.md) and Nightingale attaches the runbook to every alert it sends.

## Sources and license[​](#sources-and-license "Direct link to Sources and license")

The rule expression is adapted from [kubernetes-mixin](https://github.com/kubernetes-monitoring/kubernetes-mixin) (Apache-2.0). The runbook steps come from [Nightingale's integration templates](https://github.com/ccfos/nightingale/tree/main/integrations) (Apache-2.0); the explanation and causes are written for this page.