Master Event-Driven architectures
Build expertise using the exact managed Kafka implementation trusted by Fortune 500 companies, completely free of charge.
Free Apache Kafka®
Aiven is the Apache Kafka® development platform. Start your free managed Kafka cluster with included schema registry and REST proxy.
Service benefits
What's included our free Apache Kafka service
With Aiven's free managed Apache Kafka plan, we've set healthy limits that protect the ecosystem while giving you enough room to build real applications.
Data in: Up to 250 kb/s
Data out: Up to 250 kb/s
Schema Registry
Version and plan upgrade in one click
Automation via Aiven CLI or Terraform
REST proxy
Data encrypted on disk and network
3 days retention
5 topics, 2 partitions
What the limits mean in practice
Limit | Value | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
Data in | Up to 250 KB/s | Roughly 250 events/second at a 1 KB average payload |
Data out | Up to 250 KB/s | Enough for prototype consumers and integration tests |
Topics | Up to 5, with 2 partitions each | Fits a multi-service prototype; plan your topic names before you start |
Retention | Up to 3 days | Covers most development and testing cycles |
Services | One free Kafka service per organisation | One cluster to share across your projects |
Idle shutdown | Automatic power-off when inactive | You get a notification first. Topic data is lost on shutdown; your configuration is kept. One click in the Console to bring it back |
Service integrations | Not included | Available on paid plans |
Cloud regions | Limited selection | Full cloud and region choice on paid plans |
Support | Documentation | Email and SLA-backed support on paid plans |
The only completely free Managed Apache Kafka®
Get the stability and automation of Kafka as a service trusted by our enterprise customers, scaled for your prototyping needs. This is not a demo environment, it's the same Apache Kafka APIs, the same managed platform, sized for development.
Validate complex architectural concepts instantly
Skip approvals and resource provisioning to test mission-critical designs right away with a fully functional, reliable Kafka as a service.
Launch your next microservice today
Deploy a dependable, low-latency hosted Kafka cluster for side projects without any infrastructure overhead or cost commitments.
Enterprise-grade infrastructure
Experience the stability, security, and automation of the hosted infrastructure our largest customers rely on.
Why not just run Kafka locally?
| Local Kafka | Free Aiven for Apache Kafka |
|---|---|---|
Setup time | JVM, KRaft config, ports, certificates | Minutes, from the Console |
Schema Registry | Manual install and configuration | Included, pre-configured |
REST proxy | Manual install and configuration | Included, pre-configured |
Cluster | Single node | Managed cluster, fixed configuration |
TLS/SSL | Manual certificate setup | Automatic, enforced |
Monitoring | DIY — JMX, Prometheus, Grafana | Built-in via the Aiven Console |
Teardown and restart | Local process management | One click in the Console |
Sharing with a teammate | Not without networking work | Share credentials, done |
What you can build on the free tier
A few common starting points. These all fit inside the free tier limits, and plenty more does too.
Event-driven microservices
Wire a producer service — a checkout event, say — to a consumer service that sends notifications. Test the full asynchronous flow, including failure and replay, without managing a broker.
Schema evolution and contract testing
Register an Avro, JSON Schema or Protobuf contract in the included Schema Registry, then try to break it. Catch incompatible changes in development instead of in someone else's consumer.
IoT and sensor ingestion prototypes
Simulate sensor traffic with the built-in Sample Data Generator and validate your ingestion pipeline before you commit to hardware. 250 KB/s covers a surprising number of sensors.
Ready to build?
Get started in three steps
Sign up for Aiven & create your project
No credit card needed.
Create your free managed service
Your cluster provisions in under two minutes.
Connect & start building
Use Sample Data Generator or Quick Connect in the Aiven console to start producing messages in as little as 30 seconds.
When should you upgrade?
The free tier is built for development and prototyping. These are the signals that it's time to move up.
You need... | Upgrade when... |
|---|---|
Higher throughput | You regularly exceed 250 KB/s in or out |
An always-on cluster | Idle shutdown starts interrupting your work |
More topics or partitions | Your design outgrows 5 topics and 2 partitions each |
Kafka Connect and integrations | You need connectors to databases, object storage or other sinks |
A production SLA | You need uptime guarantees and priority support |
Frequently asked questions
Whilst Apache Kafka® is Open Source, meaning the core software is free, managed Apache Kafka® is usually a paid service. Aiven are now offering a Free Tier for Apache Kafka®, which provides a fully managed, no-strings-attached Kafka service for $0/month.
Aiven’s free Apache Kafka® tier is a fully managed Apache Kafka service offered at $0/month. It is designed for personal development, learning, testing, and hobbyist projects.
Yes! This is not a trial plan; it is a fully managed, no-strings-attached Kafka service and it is completely free.
As long as the Free tier exists, you can use it within the specified resource limits. Free services will be automatically powered off if they or the Aiven platform aren't actively used, but you can reactivate simply within the console, with no time limit imposed.
Absolutely. You can transition to a paid plan without disrupting service continuity, although a cloud migration will be necessary. Our upcoming ‘Developer Tier for Kafka’ will be available in the near future to enable you to upgrade without cloud migration. Aiven handles the transition behind the scenes, ensuring your data and configurations are moved to the new plan without downtime.
We have set limits carefully on the Free Tier to ensure stability for all users. The key technical limitations are:
- Data IN: up to 250 kb/s
- Data OUT: up to 250 kb/s
- Retention: up to 3 days
- Clouds: Limited
- No Kafka Connect
- No integrations
- Automatic Poweroff: Free services will be automatically powered off if they or the Aiven platform aren't actively used.
- Support: Support is provided via documentation.
Find a kafka plan that fits your needs from the Aiven for Apache Kafka® range.
Yes. The free tier includes Karapace, an open-source tool that provides both a Schema Registry and a REST Proxy.These features allow you to manage Avro/JSON/Protobuf schemas and interact with your cluster via HTTP. You can review all the included features in the Aiven Free Kafka Tier documentation.
The best way to test is to connect your local application directly to the Aiven Free Kafka endpoint using the provided SSL credentials. Additionally, Aiven provides a Sample Data Generator in the console to help you simulate message flow without writing producer code immediately. For a quick guide on getting started, check out our post on Just Free Kafka in the Cloud.
Yes, Aiven provides basic monitoring for all free services. You can view real-time metrics and service logs directly in the Aiven Console to track throughput and service health. If you are exploring different ways to visualize your clusters, you might also find our guide on the Top Kafka UIs helpful.
Yes. All data is encrypted at rest (on disk) and in transit (using TLS/SSL) to ensure the highest level of security, even on the free plan. We believe in providing robust data infrastructure for all, so enterprise-grade security is never compromised. (Bonus reading: Curious about the future of Kafka storage? Read about Diskless Apache Kafka (KIP-1150)).
Ready to build?
Create your free Aiven for Apache Kafka® Service
Set up your fully managed Apache Kafka service in less than 5 minutes. It's easy and quick — simply access our web console or use our API, CLI, or Terraform.