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Standard Kafka overview

Standard Kafka is an Aiven for Apache Kafka® service type that stores topic data in object storage through diskless topics. It is available on Aiven Cloud, runs on Kafka 4.x and later, and supports classic and diskless topics in the same service.

Standard Kafka is compatible with Apache Kafka APIs and clients.

New customers can create Standard Kafka services. Classic Kafka remains available only for existing customers.

In the Aiven CLI and advanced configuration, Standard Kafka is still identified with inkless.

Key differences from classic Kafka​

Standard Kafka changes how Kafka services store and manage data:

  • Classic topics: Tiered storage of classic topics is enforced with local retention set at 15 minutes or a 5 GB partition limit.
  • Diskless topics: Opt-in diskless topics can be used and store all retained data in object storage.
  • Managed configuration: Some broker-level settings use managed defaults.
  • KRaft-based metadata management: Standard Kafka supports Apache Kafka 4.x and later, so all Standard Kafka services use KRaft for metadata and consensus instead of ZooKeeper.
  • Kafka Connect deployment: Kafka Connect is deployed as a separate service.

Billing and cost​

Aiven bills Standard Kafka services for compute, storage, and network usage as separate components. Billing depends on your selected service plan and actual usage.

For details on how network usage is measured and priced, see Pricing for Aiven for Apache Kafka®.

When to use Standard Kafka​

Use Standard Kafka to:

  • Scale storage without managing broker disk capacity.
  • Retain larger volumes of data for extended periods.
  • Scale and recover clusters faster than fixed-storage deployments.
  • Combine classic and diskless topics in the same service.

Existing Classic Kafka services​

Existing Classic Kafka services continue to run unchanged. You cannot upgrade or migrate a Classic Kafka service to Standard Kafka. You set the service type when you create the service and cannot change it later. To use Standard Kafka, create a Standard Kafka service.

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