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OpenSearch Software Foundation

The Linux Foundation fund that has held OpenSearch, the Apache 2.0 fork of Elasticsearch, since AWS handed it over in September 2024.

1 projects in this catalogPart of the Linux FoundationWebsite

What it is

The OpenSearch Software Foundation is a directed fund of the Linux Foundation, launched in Vienna on September 16, 2024, when AWS moved the OpenSearch project it had run since 2021 to the LF. It hosts a single project, OpenSearch, which covers the search engine, OpenSearch Dashboards, Data Prepper and the other repositories in the opensearch-project GitHub organisation, 154 of them public in October 2026. It then had four Premier members, AWS, IBM, SAP and Uber, and 17 General members, among them Aiven, Canonical, Intel and CERN. In September 2026 it reported more than 2.4 billion downloads in total, 140% more than a year earlier.

For someone choosing a technology, the move means the OpenSearch name is a registered trademark of the Linux Foundation rather than of AWS, and the code belongs to OpenSearch Project, a Series of LF Projects, LLC. The technical charter requires new code to come in under the Apache License 2.0 with a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off and no contributor licence agreement, so no single company holds the rights it would need to relicense OpenSearch, as Elastic did with Elasticsearch in 2021.

The foundation pays for the project; it does not steer it. Its website says it is “not involved in technical oversight”, which belongs to the project’s elected Technical Steering Committee (TSC). AWS still has the largest group on it: four of the 15 TSC members in October 2026 worked there, including the chair.

Its projects in this catalog

OpenSearchOpen sourceThe Apache 2.0 fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana 7.10.2 that AWS started in 2021, now run by a Linux Foundation project.

In depth

The board pays, the TSC decides#

The Governing Board oversees the foundation and spends its budget. Premier members pay $150,000 a year and each appoint a board member. General members pay by consolidated headcount, $5,000 to $100,000 a year according to the website in October 2026 (the 2024 agreement said up to $40,000), and get one representative for every five members, at most three; non-profits can join as Associate members for free. The TSC chair also sits on the board, and no corporate group may hold more than two seats. The LF keeps custody of the money and charges a fee of 9% of the first $1 million raised each year and 6% above that.

The TSC replaced an earlier Leadership Committee, seven of whose 13 founding members came from AWS, on the day the foundation formed. Its first members served one- or two-year terms so that seats came up in turn; elections were held in 2025 and 2026, and since 2026 all 15 members are elected for two years. In October 2026 four came from AWS, including chair Andrew Ross, two from Apple, and one each from IBM, SAP, Uber, NetApp Instaclustr, OpenSource Connections, Eliatra, Spacelift and Mountain Fog, plus one independent. The TSC meets monthly and has set up technical advisory groups for build, observability, search and security.

Long-term support through vendors#

The foundation doesn’t sell support. Instead it designates some major releases as long-term support (LTS) versions, maintained for at least 18 months from release across the engine, Dashboards and the security plugin, and certifies vendors to provide that support; the contract is between the user and the vendor, and the foundation can revoke a certification. In October 2026 its list included BigData Boutique, Eliatra and Reslv, and Seacom and Sidecar were certified in September 2026.

Where it came from2021–2026

In January 2021 Elastic said new versions of Elasticsearch and Kibana would no longer be released under Apache 2.0, and AWS said it would maintain an Apache 2.0 fork. It introduced OpenSearch in April 2021 and ran the project itself for three years, without a contributor licence agreement, and later set up a Leadership Committee drawn mostly from AWS.

On September 16, 2024 the Linux Foundation announced the OpenSearch Software Foundation in Vienna, with AWS, SAP and Uber as Premier members and nine General members. The project then counted more than 700 million downloads and more than 200 maintainers, and a Technical Steering Committee took over from the Leadership Committee.

At its first anniversary, in August 2025, the foundation reported more than 1 billion downloads, up 78% in a year, and more than 400 contributing organisations. IBM later joined as a fourth Premier member. At OpenSearchCon North America in San Jose on September 22, 2026 it reported more than 2.4 billion downloads and 31% more contributors than a year before.

Why it’s built this way

A foundation as well as a licence
Apache 2.0 without a contributor licence agreement already stopped any one company from relicensing the code; moving the trademark and governance to the Linux Foundation was meant, in AWS’s words, to give OpenSearch vendor-neutral governance that invites greater collaboration.
Keep money and code apart
Paying members fund the project through the Governing Board, while technical decisions stay with a TSC elected by the community and set out in a separate technical charter.
One project, many repositories
The engine, Dashboards, Data Prepper, clients and plugins form a single LF project under one TSC, so the foundation has no project stages or portfolio of separate projects.
Long-term support from certified vendors
The foundation designates LTS versions and certifies vendors to maintain them for at least 18 months, while the support contracts stay between users and vendors.

Timeline

  1. 2021

    Elastic leaves Apache 2.0 in January; AWS introduces OpenSearch in April

  2. 2024

    OpenSearch Software Foundation launched on September 16; the TSC replaces the Leadership Committee

  3. 2025

    First TSC elections; more than 1 billion downloads reported at the first anniversary in August

  4. 2026

    All TSC seats now elected; more than 2.4 billion downloads reported in September

Sources · facts checked 2026-10-28

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