On September 15, 2026, all Cloud Composer 1 versions and versions 2.0.x of Cloud Composer 2 will reach their planned end of life. You will not be able to use environments with these versions. We recommend planning migration to Cloud Composer 3. Cloud Composer 2 versions 2.1.x and later are still supported and are not impacted by this change.
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Cloud Composer supports Python 3.
To see the major.minor.patch versions of Python 3 used in a
specific Cloud Composer image, see
Cloud Composer version list.
After an environment is created, you cannot switch an existing
environment to a different minor Python version.
Python 2 support in Cloud Composer 1
Support for Python 2 was deprecated in Cloud Composer
version 1.19.0:
Starting from version 1.19.0, it is not possible to create new environments
with Python 2, or upgrade existing environments with Python 2 to 1.19.0
and later versions of Cloud Composer.
Starting from version 1.19.6, it is no longer possible to use any operators
that call Python 2. In particular, PythonVirtualenvOperator can no
longer create virtual environments with Python 2.
Existing environments with Python 2 are not impacted by this change. It is
possible to upgrade such environments to Cloud Composer version 1.18.12
and earlier through gcloud CLI, API, and Terraform.
New Airflow operators, sensors, and hooks are only developed for
Python 3, which may cause connectivity options to be outdated for Python 2
environments. As such, we highly recommend migrating your DAGs to a
Python 3 environment, and creating all new environments with Python 3.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eCloud Composer exclusively supports Python 3, and the specific versions can be found in the Cloud Composer version list.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eOnce a Cloud Composer environment is set up, its Python minor version cannot be changed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCloud Composer version 1.19.0 deprecated Python 2 support, preventing the creation of new Python 2 environments or the upgrade of existing ones.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eStarting from version 1.19.6, operators that use Python 2, such as \u003ccode\u003ePythonVirtualenvOperator\u003c/code\u003e, are no longer functional.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAlthough existing Python 2 environments are not directly affected, new Airflow components are developed only for Python 3, making migration to Python 3 highly recommended.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Supported Python versions\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nCloud Composer supports Python 3.\n\nTo see the `major.minor.patch` versions of Python 3 used in a\nspecific Cloud Composer image, see\n[Cloud Composer version list](/composer/docs/composer-versions).\n\nAfter an environment is created, you cannot switch an existing\nenvironment to a different minor Python version.\n\nPython 2 support in Cloud Composer 1\n------------------------------------\n\nSupport for Python 2 was deprecated in Cloud Composer\nversion 1.19.0:\n\n- Starting from version 1.19.0, it is not possible to create new environments\n with Python 2, or upgrade existing environments with Python 2 to 1.19.0\n and later versions of Cloud Composer.\n\n- Starting from version 1.19.6, it is no longer possible to use any operators\n that call Python 2. In particular, `PythonVirtualenvOperator` can no\n longer create virtual environments with Python 2.\n\n- Existing environments with Python 2 are not impacted by this change. It is\n possible to upgrade such environments to Cloud Composer version 1.18.12\n and earlier through gcloud CLI, API, and Terraform.\n\n- New Airflow operators, sensors, and hooks are only developed for\n Python 3, which may cause connectivity options to be outdated for Python 2\n environments. As such, we highly recommend migrating your DAGs to a\n Python 3 environment, and creating all new environments with Python 3.\n\n| **Note:** If you want to continue using Python 2, note that samples located in [python-docs-samples](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/python-docs-samples) are no longer checked for compatibility with Python 2.7.\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Creating environments](/composer/docs/composer-2/create-environments)\n- [Cloud Composer version list](/composer/docs/composer-versions)\n- [Release Notes](/composer/docs/release-notes)"]]
