diff --git a/.github/workflows/update-nix-releases.yml b/.github/workflows/update-nix-releases.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d581290b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/update-nix-releases.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+name: "Update nix releases"
+on:
+  repository_dispatch:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+  schedule:
+    - cron: "31 2 * * *"
+jobs:
+  update-nix-releases:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v31
+      - name: Update nix releases
+        run: nix-shell --run update-nix-releases
+      - name: Create Pull Request
+        uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v7
+        with:
+          title: Update nix versions
+          labels: dependencies
diff --git a/nix/update-nix-releases.nix b/nix/update-nix-releases.nix
index bb0cafc1d..99450c38a 100644
--- a/nix/update-nix-releases.nix
+++ b/nix/update-nix-releases.nix
@@ -24,6 +24,14 @@ writeShellApplication {
       | sort --reverse --version-sort \
       | while read -r version; do
 
+      # ignore everything below 2.18 for speed, this might need to be adjusted in the future
+      majorVersion=$(echo "$version" | cut -d. -f1)
+      minorVersion=$(echo "$version" | cut -d. -f2)
+      if [ "$majorVersion" -lt 2 ] || { [ "$majorVersion" -eq 2 ] && [ "$minorVersion" -lt 18 ]; }; then
+        echo >&2 "Skipping $version"
+        continue
+      fi
+
       rev=$(git -C "$tmp/nix" rev-parse "$version-maintenance")
       echo >&2 "Version $version on branch $version-maintenance is at $rev"