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Aiven for OpenSearch® free tier

Get started with Aiven for OpenSearch® at no cost. The Aiven for OpenSearch 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 Aiven for OpenSearch concepts with a managed service
  • Build or test small search applications
  • Evaluate Aiven for OpenSearch before choosing a paid plan
  • Test and experiment during early development
  • Run small proofs of concept or demonstrations

The free tier supports limited-scale workloads. For production use, longer retention, or more advanced features, choose a paid plan.

What the free tier includes​

The free tier features:

  • Managed Aiven for OpenSearch cluster with a fixed configuration
  • 4 GB RAM, 20 GB storage
  • 2 shards
  • Snapshot retention up to 3 days
  • Sample dataset tools for testing indexing and search
  • Basic monitoring for metrics and logs

Standard Aiven for OpenSearch clients can connect the same way as they do to paid Aiven for OpenSearch plans.

Limitations​

Free tier services have the following restrictions.

Performance and configuration limits​

  • Max 20 shards per node
  • 50 concurrent connections
  • Fixed storage and performance limits
  • Fixed cluster settings

Features not available​

  • Service integrations such as logs, metrics, external authentication (SAML, OIDC, JWT)
  • Custom dictionary files
  • No security plugin
  • No import from custom repositories
  • Custom domains
  • Dynamic disk sizing

Service restrictions​

  • One free Aiven for OpenSearch service per organization
  • Paid services cannot be reverted to the free tier
  • Cloud provider is fixed with a limited set of regions
  • Cloud region is fixed: You cannot migrate your free tier service to another region.
  • 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 Aiven for OpenSearch services operate as follows:

  • Idle shutdown: The service powers off automatically if no data is indexed or queried 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.
  • First-use shutdown: A new free tier service with no first use can power off after 24 hours.
  • 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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