diff --git a/Documentation/Helm-Charts/ceph-cluster-chart.md b/Documentation/Helm-Charts/ceph-cluster-chart.md
index 684e14a2e..a3b0f5c3f 100644
--- a/Documentation/Helm-Charts/ceph-cluster-chart.md
+++ b/Documentation/Helm-Charts/ceph-cluster-chart.md
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ The following table lists the configurable parameters of the rook-operator chart
 | `cephFileSystems` | A list of CephFileSystem configurations to deploy | See [below](#ceph-file-systems) |
 | `cephImage.allowUnsupported` |  | `false` |
 | `cephImage.repository` |  | `"quay.io/ceph/ceph"` |
-| `cephImage.tag` |  | `"v19.2.3"` |
+| `cephImage.tag` |  | `"v20.2.1"` |
 | `cephObjectStores` | A list of CephObjectStore configurations to deploy | See [below](#ceph-object-stores) |
 | `clusterName` | The metadata.name of the CephCluster CR | The same as the namespace |
 | `configOverride` | Cluster ceph.conf override | `nil` |
diff --git a/Documentation/Upgrade/ceph-upgrade.md b/Documentation/Upgrade/ceph-upgrade.md
index 6d884b278..2b5d79219 100644
--- a/Documentation/Upgrade/ceph-upgrade.md
+++ b/Documentation/Upgrade/ceph-upgrade.md
@@ -27,10 +27,11 @@ until all the daemons have been updated.
 The following Ceph versions are supported in this release of Rook:
 
 * Ceph Squid v19.2.0 or newer
-* Ceph Tentacle v20.2.0 or newer
+* Ceph Tentacle v20.2.1 or newer
+* Ceph Tentacle v20.2.0: Not recommended
     * IMPORTANT: **There is a known data corruption issue in v20.2.0**, if the "read affinity" feature is enabled.
     Read affinity is disabled by default, and is enabled by the CephCluster setting `csi.readAffinity.enabled: true`.
-    If you have enabled read affinity, we recommend waiting for v20.2.1 before upgrading to Ceph Tentacle v20.
+    If read affinity is enabled in your cluster, upgrade to v20.2.1+.
     If read affinity is enabled with v20.2.0, Rook automatically disables read affinity internally to help avoid this corruption.
     After the upgrade, existing applications must be restarted to fully disable the read affinity in existing volumes.
     See [this issue](https://github.com/rook/rook/issues/16839) for more details.
diff --git a/deploy/charts/rook-ceph-cluster/values.yaml b/deploy/charts/rook-ceph-cluster/values.yaml
index 08bad1516..2b1efa6d5 100644
--- a/deploy/charts/rook-ceph-cluster/values.yaml
+++ b/deploy/charts/rook-ceph-cluster/values.yaml
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ cephImage:
   # In production, use a specific version tag instead of the general v19 flag, which pulls the latest release and could result in different
   # versions running within the cluster. See tags available at https://hub.docker.com/r/ceph/ceph/tags/.
   # To be more precise, you can always use a timestamp tag such as quay.io/ceph/ceph:v19.2.3-20250717
-  tag: v19.2.3
+  tag: v20.2.1
   # Whether to allow unsupported versions of Ceph. Currently Squid and Tentacle are supported.
   # Future versions such as Tentacle (v20) would require this to be set to `true`.
   # Do not set to true in production.
diff --git a/deploy/examples/cluster.yaml b/deploy/examples/cluster.yaml
index ce855ff1d..67e829243 100644
--- a/deploy/examples/cluster.yaml
+++ b/deploy/examples/cluster.yaml
@@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ spec:
     # v19 is Squid, v20 is Tentacle
     # RECOMMENDATION: In production, use a specific version tag instead of the general v20 flag, which pulls the latest release and could result in different
     # versions running within the cluster. See tags available at https://hub.docker.com/r/ceph/ceph/tags/.
-    # If you want to be more precise, you can always use a timestamp tag such as quay.io/ceph/ceph:v20.2.0-20251104
+    # If you want to be more precise, you can always use a timestamp tag such as quay.io/ceph/ceph:v20.2.1-20260402
     # This tag might not contain a new Ceph version, just security fixes from the underlying operating system, which will reduce vulnerabilities
-    image: quay.io/ceph/ceph:v19.2.3
+    image: quay.io/ceph/ceph:v20.2.1
     # Whether to allow unsupported versions of Ceph. Currently Squid and Tentacle are supported.
     # Future versions such as Umbrella (v21) would require this to be set to `true`.
     # Do not set to true in production.
diff --git a/deploy/examples/images.txt b/deploy/examples/images.txt
index b98771649..8afa987c4 100644
--- a/deploy/examples/images.txt
+++ b/deploy/examples/images.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
  docker.io/rook/ceph:master
  gcr.io/k8s-staging-sig-storage/objectstorage-sidecar:v0.2.2
- quay.io/ceph/ceph:v19.2.3
+ quay.io/ceph/ceph:v20.2.1
  quay.io/ceph/cosi:v0.1.4
  quay.io/cephcsi/ceph-csi-operator:v0.6.0
  quay.io/cephcsi/cephcsi:v3.16.2
diff --git a/images/ceph/Makefile b/images/ceph/Makefile
index 7bb76e585..67e666c24 100755
--- a/images/ceph/Makefile
+++ b/images/ceph/Makefile
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ include ../image.mk
 
 # ====================================================================================
 # Image Build Options
-CEPH_VERSION ?= v20.2.0-20251104
+CEPH_VERSION ?= v20.2.1-20260402
 
 REGISTRY_NAME = quay.io
 BASEIMAGE = $(REGISTRY_NAME)/ceph/ceph:$(CEPH_VERSION)