# Yugabyte K8s Operator Image Licensing Question

**URL:** <https://forum.yugabyte.com/t/yugabyte-k8s-operator-image-licensing-question/5131>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [July 31, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.yugabyte.com/t/yugabyte-k8s-operator-image-licensing-question/5131 "2026-07-31T20:54:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sjia28.qualys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@sjia28.qualys](https://forum.yugabyte.com/u/sjia28.qualys)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.yugabyte.com/t/yugabyte-k8s-operator-image-licensing-question/5131/1 "2026-07-31T20:54:48Z")

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Hello. I had a question about the licensing of the [open source Yugabyte K8s Operator](https://github.com/yugabyte/yugabyte-k8s-operator)’s images. By default, Yugabyte K8s Operator uses [quay.io/yugabyte/yugabyte-k8s-operator](http://quay.io/yugabyte/yugabyte-k8s-operator) as its image. Is this image free to use without a license?

A prior GitHub message from a Yugabyte mantainer mentions that the operator repo’s bundled chart does not require you to use Yugabyte Anywhere or its license: [Is the operator production ready? · Issue #30 · yugabyte/yugabyte-k8s-operator · GitHub](https://github.com/yugabyte/yugabyte-k8s-operator/issues/30#issuecomment-3282566505) . But when I look inside the image that the chart uses, it seems to be using Yugabyte Anywhere’s binaries which are distributed under the PolyForm free trial license.

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**Author:** ![sjia28.qualys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@sjia28.qualys](https://forum.yugabyte.com/u/sjia28.qualys)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.yugabyte.com/t/yugabyte-k8s-operator-image-licensing-question/5131/2 "2026-08-05T20:13:37Z")

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To answer my own question, Aman Njhawan from the Yugabyte team confirmed that the “yugabyte-k8s-operator” image is usable for free under the Apache license.

 ![2026-08-05-yugabyte-k8s-operator-license-confirmation](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/yugabyte/original/2X/7/7401d73c00c1df00da8c2a2942688402802bb79e.png)