What is GKE Autopilot and how does it differ from Standard mode?

GKE Autopilot is a fully managed Kubernetes mode where Google manages the entire infrastructure including nodes — you only manage Kubernetes objects (Pods, Deployments, Services). Differences from Standard: No node management: you never create or manage node pools. Google provisions, scales, and maintains nodes automatically. Per-Pod billing: billed for actual pod resource requests, not node VMs. No cost for idle node capacity. Security hardened by default: Shielded VMs, secure boot, workload identity enforced. No access to nodes: no SSH, no DaemonSets (privileged), no host namespaces. Automatic bin-packing and scaling: Google optimally packs pods and scales nodes within seconds. When to use Autopilot: most stateless workloads, teams that want Kubernetes without node management. Standard mode is needed for specialized node hardware, custom node configurations, or DaemonSets.