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. No credit card is required.
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 proofs of concept 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 ingress and 250 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
- Fixed throughput limits for produce and 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 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
How free tier services operate
Free tier Kafka services operate as follows:
- Idle shutdown: The service powers off automatically if no data is produced or consumed for 24 hours. Extended inactivity can also trigger a shutdown. You receive a notification before shutdown and can power on the service from the Aiven Console.
- 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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