Aiven for Apache Kafka® free tier
Get started with Apache Kafka at no cost. The Aiven for Apache Kafka free tier is a fully managed service for learning, prototyping, and evaluation, and it does not require a credit card.
When to use the free tier
Use the free tier to:
- Explore Apache Kafka concepts with a managed service
- Build or test small event-driven applications
- Evaluate Aiven for Apache Kafka before choosing a paid plan
- Test end-to-end message flow during early development
- Run small proof-of-concepts or demonstrations
The free tier supports limited-scale workloads. For production use, longer retention, or features such as Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect, choose a paid plan.
What the free tier includes
The free tier includes:
- A managed Kafka cluster with a fixed configuration
- Karapace Schema Registry
- Streaming throughput up to 250 KiB/s total (125 KiB/s ingress and 125 KiB/s egress)
- Sample data generation for testing message flow
- Basic monitoring for metrics and logs
Standard Kafka clients can connect the same way as they do to paid Aiven for Apache Kafka plans.
Limitations
Free tier services have the following restrictions.
Performance and capacity
- Throughput limits of up to 125 KiB/s for produce traffic and 125 KiB/s for consume traffic
- Up to 5 topics, each with two partitions
- Fixed data retention settings
- Limited number of users and ACLs
Features not available
- Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect
- Aiven for Apache Kafka® MirrorMaker 2
- Tiered storage
- Service integrations such as logs, metrics, and authentication
- Custom configuration for certain Kafka settings
Service restrictions
- One free Kafka service per project or organization
- Paid services cannot be reverted to the free tier
- Cloud provider is fixed with a limited set of regions
- Free tier services are not covered by an SLA
- Maintenance window is fixed
- Additional disk storage cannot be added
- Creation available only through the Aiven Console; CLI, Terraform, and API support may be added later
How free tier services operate
Free tier Kafka services operate as follows:
- Idle shutdown: If no data is produced or consumed for 24 hours, the service is powered off automatically. Free tier services may also be powered off after extended periods of inactivity. You will receive a notification before shutdown, and you can power on the service from the Aiven Console at any time.
- Leader election: The service continues operating after a node failure by using a simplified leader election mode. This ensures availability for small, non-production workloads.
- Alerts: Platform alerts are not routed to Aiven operators.
- Configuration updates: Aiven may change the cloud provider, region availability, or configuration of free services.
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