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Start for Free with Managed Databases & Streaming
Deploy fully managed PostgreSQL®, MySQL, and Apache Kafka® in minutes. Always free, and using the same infrastructure as our paid plans.
What Is the Aiven Free Tier?
Get the full Aiven experience without a credit card. The Free Tier gives you always-on, managed infrastructure for learning, building prototypes, and running small workloads.
Always-free plans
No 30-day trial, no expiry
Upgrade anytime, seamlessly
When your project outgrows the free tier, scale to a production-grade plan with no migrations or downtime
Managed infrastructure
With monitoring, automated backups (databases) and built-in durability (Kafka)
Enterprise grade, sandbox sized
Built on the same infrastructure and platform as paid plans, with capped resources
Ready to build?
How to set up your free cloud database or streaming platform
Deploy a service
Pick your free cloud SQL database or Kafka instance. Your managed service is ready in minutes.
Scale when ready
Hit production traffic? Upgrade to a paid plan with a single click and your data stays intact.
Compare Free Services
Every free managed database ships with managed infrastructure, monitoring, and automated upgrades with no configuration required.
Service | Best for | Free resources | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
PostgreSQL | Apps & analytics | 1GB Storage, 1GB RAM, network costs | |
MySQL | Web apps & CMS | 1GB Storage, 1GB RAM, network costs | |
Apache Kafka | Event streaming | Up to 250 kb/s data IN and OUT, retention up to 3 days | |
OpenSearch | Vector search, RAG & AI agents | 20GB Storage, 4GB RAM, up to 20 shards |
Service highlights
PostgreSQL
The world's most advanced open-source database.
- Managed PostgreSQL with automated maintenance and recovery
- Extensions: PostGIS, TimescaleDB & more
- Upgrade path to high-availability configurations.
- Automated patching and updates
- Data encrypted on disk and network
MySQL
Trusted database for web apps and content platforms.
- Managed MySQL with automated maintenance and recovery
- Upgrade path to high-availability configurations.
- Automated patching and updates
- Data encrypted on disk and network
Apache Kafka
High-throughput event streaming, fully managed.
- Fully managed Apache Kafka cluster
- Ideal for event-driven architectures
- Built-in monitoring
- Schema Registry and REST proxy
- Upgrade to scale seamlessly
OpenSearch
Vector search and RAG for AI-powered applications.
- Managed OpenSearch® with 4GB RAM
- Ideal for k-NN indexing and vector search
- 20GB persistent storage and up to 20 shards
- Upgrade to scale seamlessly
Why Choose Aiven for Free Cloud Database Hosting?
- HIPAA compliant
- PCI-DSS compliant
- GDPR & CCPA compliant
- SOC2 compliant
- ISO/IEC series compliant
Same platform as paid plans.
Identical infrastructure, tooling, and APIs.
Transparent pricing when scaling
No hidden fees. See exactly what you'll pay before you upgrade.
No vendor lock-in
No proprietary extensions, no lock-in dialects. Switch tools or migrate away at any time without penalty.
100% open-source compatible
Every service runs on unmodified open-source software. Your existing skills, drivers, and tooling work out of the box, no adjustments needed.
Use cases
Learning databases & streaming
Hands-on practice with real managed infrastructure, not a sandbox simulation.
Building MVPs
Create your minimum viable product without paying for infrastructure until you need to scale.
Side projects & hackathons
Get a database or event bus spun up in minutes during hackathon weekend.
Testing microservices architectures
Validate your microservice architecture with real managed services before committing to a paid plan.
Read more
Related resources
FAQ
The Aiven Free Tier is always free: there's no trial period and no expiry date. You can keep using your free services for as long as you like.
Yes, it’s free forever. No credit card or payment details are required, and you will never be charged automatically.
The Free Tier is ideal for developers, students, and small teams who want to learn, prototype, or build side projects without upfront infrastructure costs.
The free tier is not aimed at production workloads. For mission-critical apps, we recommend upgrading to a paid plan.
Paid plans offer more compute, storage, higher-availability configurations, and priority support. Free Tier services use the same underlying infrastructure but with capped resources.
Resource limits vary by service. Each service page (PostgreSQL, MySQL, OpenSearch, Kafka) lists the exact CPU, RAM, and storage allocations available on the free plan.
Yes. Free Tier services include capped throughput and connection limits appropriate for development and small workloads.
Free Tier services run on a fixed configuration. To scale, you upgrade to a paid plan which you can do from the console in one click.
You can upgrade to any paid plan (including High Availability) with one click. Your data and connection details are preserved, and there is no downtime during the transition.
High availability (multi-node) configurations are available on paid plans. Free Tier services run on single-node setups.
Yes. Automated backups are included on all Aiven services, including the Free Tier.
Your data is protected by the same enterprise-grade security used for our paid plans. All services include:
- Encryption: Data is encrypted both in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256).
- Isolation: Services run in dedicated, isolated environments with automated backups.
- Compliance: Our platform is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, ensuring the underlying infrastructure meets global security standards.
If you choose to delete a free service, your data will be removed. You can redeploy a new free service at any time.
Each Aiven account can run one free service per service type (for example, one free PostgreSQL, one free MySQL, one free OpenSearch, one free Kafka).
Yes. You can invite team members to your Aiven project to collaborate on free services.
Yes. Aiven supports standard import methods (pg_dump, mysqldump, etc.) to migrate existing databases into your free service.
Full documentation is available at docs.aiven.io, covering setup, configuration, and best practices for all services.
Yes. Aiven is actively expanding the Free Tier to include more managed services. Watch this page for announcements.