diff --git a/build/bin/docker-build.sh b/build/bin/docker-build.sh
index 936059cd53..f8bddc7b8c 100755
--- a/build/bin/docker-build.sh
+++ b/build/bin/docker-build.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ echo "RELEASE_LABEL .. $GITHUB_RUN_ID"
 echo "VCS_REF ........ $GITHUB_SHA"
 echo "VCS_URL ........ https://github.com/$GITHUB_REPOSITORY"
 
+# Remove expires-after for release builds (only pre-release builds should auto-expire)
+if [[ ! "$DOCKER_TAG" == *"-pre."* ]]; then
+  echo "Removing quay.expires-after label from Dockerfile"
+  sed -i "/quay.expires-after/d" $DOCKERFILE
+fi
+
 docker build \
   --build-arg VERSION_LABEL=$DOCKER_TAG \
   --build-arg RELEASE_LABEL=$GITHUB_RUN_ID \