Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, systems, and computer program products for container image management. In a method, an image layer in a container image may be received by one or more processors, and the container image is to be stored in an image server comprising a group of image layers. A base portion may be selected by one or more processors from the group of image layers based on a similarity analysis between the image layer and the group of image layers. A patch portion may be generated by one or more processors based on a difference between the image layer and the selected base portion. With these embodiments, the container image may be stored based on multiple image layers, and thus the container image may be maintained in a much finer granularity so as to reduce requirements on the bandwidth and time cost for transmitting the container image.