Aiven for MySQL® free tier: migration options
Migrate your data from your free Aiven for MySQL® service before the free tier is retired, by upgrading to a paid plan, switching to Aiven for PostgreSQL®, or exporting your data.
Retirement date: December 21, 2026
On December 21, 2026, remaining free Aiven for MySQL services will be powered off, and their data and backups will be deleted. Move your data before this date.
Aiven for MySQL remains fully available across all paid plans, and only the free tier is being discontinued.
What happens to your free service
The following table lists the stages of the free tier retirement.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| November 6, 2026 | You cannot create new free Aiven for MySQL services. Existing free services keep running. |
| Until December 21, 2026 | Your free service runs as before. Upgrade it, migrate your data, or export it. |
| December 21, 2026 | Aiven powers off all remaining free services and deletes their data and backups. |
Self-serve data retrieval will not be available after services are terminated on the retirement date.
Choose a migration path
Pick the path that matches what you need:
- Keep using MySQL on Aiven: upgrade your free service to the Developer plan. Your data stays in place and you keep the same connection details.
- Keep using a free database on Aiven: create an Aiven for PostgreSQL free service and migrate your data to it. This changes your database engine.
- Take your data with you: export your data to a file before the retirement date.
Upgrade to the Aiven for MySQL Developer plan
Upgrading keeps your data, your service name, and your connection details. The Developer plan is a paid plan that adds disk storage and Basic tier support. For plan contents and limitations, see Service pricing.
To upgrade your free service:
- Add a payment method to the project's billing group.
- In the Aiven Console, go to your service page.
- On the Overview page, find Service plan usage and click Upgrade plan.
The upgrade happens immediately. Basic tier support can take up to 3 hours to become available.
Move to the Aiven for PostgreSQL free tier
Aiven for PostgreSQL has a free tier with comparable resources. Moving to it means changing your database engine, so review the differences before you start. For the migration steps, see Migrate from Aiven for MySQL® to Aiven for PostgreSQL®.
For the free PostgreSQL plan contents and limitations, see Aiven for PostgreSQL® free tier.
Export your data
To keep a copy of your data outside Aiven, export it to a file with mysqldump or
mydumper. For the commands and connection details, see
Backup and restore Aiven for MySQL® with mysqldump or mydumper.
Verify your export before the retirement date, as you will not be able to recover your data after this deadline.
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