diff --git a/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/template/gcp/modules/kubernetes/main.tf b/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/template/gcp/modules/kubernetes/main.tf
index 086fde7bb..ba7c3ce0a 100644
--- a/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/template/gcp/modules/kubernetes/main.tf
+++ b/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/template/gcp/modules/kubernetes/main.tf
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 data "google_client_config" "main" {
 }
 
+data "google_container_engine_versions" "main" {
+  location       = var.location
+  version_prefix = "${var.kubernetes_version}."
+}
+
 resource "google_container_cluster" "main" {
   name                = var.name
   location            = var.location
-  min_master_version  = var.kubernetes_version
+  min_master_version  = data.google_container_engine_versions.main.latest_master_version
   deletion_protection = false
 
   node_locations = var.availability_zones
@@ -75,7 +80,7 @@ resource "google_container_node_pool" "main" {
   name     = local.merged_node_groups[count.index].name
   location = var.location
   cluster  = google_container_cluster.main.name
-  version  = var.kubernetes_version
+  version  = data.google_container_engine_versions.main.latest_node_version
 
   initial_node_count = local.merged_node_groups[count.index].min_size
 
@@ -122,4 +127,11 @@ resource "google_container_node_pool" "main" {
     tags = var.tags
   }
 
+  lifecycle {
+    ignore_changes = [
+      # GCP automatically adds resource labels for node pools (e.g., goog-gke-accelerator-type)
+      node_config[0].resource_labels,
+    ]
+  }
+
 }