Confluent Cloud licensing covers how Confluent charges for Confluent Cloud, its hosted service for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink and related components. Confluent Cloud is not licensed per user or per server. It is billed on consumption. The billable dimensions are data transferred, storage, compute units (CKU and eCKU) and add-on services such as connectors, ksqlDB, Flink and the Advanced Security add-on.[3] The Confluent Cloud Services Agreement governs use.[6] Pricing, commitments and support are set by the Confluent Cloud Definitions and Rules. These state that fees are “based on per-unit pricing” and charged on the customer’s use of each component.[5] For the general model, see subscription and consumption licensing.
Editions
Confluent sells five Kafka cluster types. Basic is aimed at development and testing. Standard is for production on public networking, and Enterprise for production that needs private networking. Dedicated provides reserved capacity with manual scaling. Freight is a cost-optimized type for high-throughput workloads that can tolerate relaxed latency.[2] The first four types other than Dedicated are elastic and are measured in eCKUs. Dedicated is measured in CKUs.[1]
| Cluster | eCKU or CKU rate (list) | Ingress / egress (per GB) | Storage (per GB-month) | eCKU range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | First eCKU free, then USD 0.14 per eCKU-hour[4] | USD 0.05[4] | USD 0.08[4] | 1 to 50[2] |
| Standard | USD 0.75 per eCKU-hour[4] | USD 0.035 to 0.050[4] | USD 0.08[4] | 1 (2 for 99.99% SLA) to 10[2] |
| Enterprise | USD 1.75 to 2.25 per eCKU-hour[4] | USD 0.020 to 0.050[4] | USD 0.08[4] | 1 (2 for 99.99% SLA) to 32[2] |
| Freight | USD 2.25 per eCKU-hour, minimum 2 eCKUs[4] | USD 0.014 to 0.030[4] | USD 0.03[4] | 2 to 152[2] |
| Dedicated | Per CKU-hour; rate not on the public pricing page[1] | Per GB written or read[1] | Per GB stored per hour[1] | Whole CKUs; 4 per cluster on credit card billing, 24 on marketplace or invoice billing, more on request[2] |
The pricing page quotes ingress, egress and storage rates before replication.[4] Add-on services have their own units. Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink is charged per CFU, at USD 0.21 per CFU-hour calculated by the minute, with prices varying by region.[7] ksqlDB is charged per Confluent Streaming Unit (CSU) per hour. Managed and custom connectors are charged per task per hour plus throughput, and Dedicated clusters also pay an hourly charge for a dedicated Connect cluster. Cluster Linking is charged per link per hour plus GB moved, and Tableflow per topic-hour plus GB processed.[1] Catalog: Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink (CFU).
Metrics
| Unit | Catalog row | Counting basis |
|---|---|---|
| eCKU | eCKU | Elastic capacity; per hour, the peak eCKUs used, up to a ceiling set at cluster creation.[1] |
| CKU | CKU | Pre-allocated capacity set at cluster creation, charged whether used or not.[1] |
| Ingress and egress | Data transfer | Per GB written or read, including every request type.[1] |
| Storage | Kafka storage | Per GB stored per hour, after replication.[1] |
| CFU | CFU | Flink compute per minute in a compute pool.[7] |
| CSU | CSU | ksqlDB per CSU per hour.[1] |
| Connect task | Connect task | Per task per hour, plus throughput on decompressed data.[1] |
| CCU | Confluent Consumption Unit | Marketplace billing unit calculated from ingress, egress and storage.[3] |
Every dimension appears as a line type in the Costs API, for example KAFKA_NUM_CKUS, KAFKA_NETWORK_WRITE and FLINK_NUM_CFUS. That lets a cost reconciliation map invoice lines to metrics.[1]
Counting / floors
Hourly accrual. Each component accrues charges hourly. A part hour is billed as a full hour, all calculations use UTC, and invoices are generated monthly in arrears.[3] Unless a written Order sets other rates, the fee schedule shown in the Confluent Cloud user interface applies.[6] Catalog: Confluent Cloud usage accrues hourly and part hours bill as full hours; Confluent Cloud usage is billed monthly in arrears at the user-interface rates.
eCKU peaks and minimums. For each hour, the customer is billed for the highest number of eCKUs used. Usage that moves between 2 and 3 eCKUs within an hour is billed as 3.[1] Several factors drive eCKU consumption: throughput, leader partitions, client connections, connection attempts and requests. Each cluster type sets a per-eCKU limit for each of these.[2] A minimum charge applies as soon as any capacity is used. A cluster with no topics, partitions or traffic costs nothing.[1] A customer can set a lower maximum eCKU to cap cost. The cluster may then be throttled at that cap.[2] Catalog: eCKU is billed on the hourly peak; Elastic clusters bill a minimum capacity once used, nothing at zero consumption.
CKUs. Dedicated clusters pay for the configured CKUs every hour, whether the capacity is used or not. After a resize, the new CKU count is billed from the next hour.[1] A multi-zone Dedicated cluster needs at least 2 CKUs.[2] Catalog: Dedicated clusters bill the configured CKUs every hour.
Data and storage. All data transfers are charged, including requests made when the Cloud Console displays messages. Ingress and egress then get a regional multiplier for the cloud region.[1] Storage is charged on the volume after replication. Confluent stores three copies, so billed storage is typically about three times the data written. All volumes are measured in binary gigabytes (GiB).[1] Catalog: All produce, consume and other requests count as billed data transfer; Storage is billed on the post-replication volume.
Flink. Each Flink statement consumes at least one CFU-minute. The customer cannot choose how many CFUs a statement uses. The MAX_CFU setting caps a compute pool, and it cannot be lowered below its initial value. A Baseline CFU makes a statement billable at that floor even when the statement is idle.[7] Catalog: Each Flink statement consumes at least one CFU-minute.
Paused is not stopped. Pausing a managed connector does not stop its hourly task charges; only deleting it does.[1] Deleting services also does not end a customer’s committed payments.[6] Catalog: Deleting Cloud resources does not end committed payment obligations.
Legacy organizations. Since 2024-04-16, Basic and Standard clusters have been priced on eCKUs instead of a base fee plus partitions. The change applies only to organizations created on or after that date. Older organizations keep the legacy model, which charges for partitions above 10 on Basic and above 500 on Standard.[1] Catalog: Organizations created before 2024-04-16 keep the legacy Basic and Standard pricing.
Virtualization & partitioning
No processor or virtualization rule applies, because Confluent runs the infrastructure. Kafka partitions are not charged on eCKU or Dedicated clusters, but they count towards eCKU limits. Only leader partitions visible in the Cloud Console count. Internal topics of self-managed Connect workers count; the internal state of fully managed connectors does not.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Marketplaces. Confluent Cloud can be bought pay as you go or on commitment through AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure; Azure also lists Jio commitments.[3] A marketplace customer’s data plane must run in that same cloud, and marketplace listings meter usage in CCUs.[3] Marketplace Orders follow both the Confluent agreement and the marketplace terms. Discounted Orders do not auto-renew, even if the marketplace renewal box is checked.[6] Catalog: Cloud marketplace billing; Marketplace billing ties all data plane resources to that cloud provider; Discounted marketplace Orders do not auto-renew. See license portability across clouds.
BYOC Service. In the Bring Your Own Cloud Service, Confluent provides a software-as-a-service control plane, and software agents run in the customer’s own cloud environment.[10] The agents are licensed royalty-free, but only for use with the BYOC Service.[10] Its rate card is published at warpstream.com. Each BYOC cluster accrues in 15-minute increments, and only Business and Premier support plans are offered.[5] Write throughput is metered on uncompressed data in tiers that start at USD 0.01 per GiB.[11] Catalog: BYOC Service (WarpStream); BYOC clusters accrue in 15-minute increments; Uncompressed GiB written (BYOC).
Self-managed components for Confluent Cloud. Customer-Managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud packages license self-managed Connect workers, connectors, Control Center, Operator and Replicator. They must be bought with or alongside a Confluent Cloud commitment and used only with Confluent Cloud, not with self-managed Kafka brokers. The Small, Medium and Large packages bundle 5, 10 or 20 add-on Nodes with 1, 2 or 3 connector packs. Development Nodes do not count.[12] Catalog: Customer-Managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud - Small Package; Customer-Managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud - Medium Package; Customer-Managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud - Large Package; Customer-Managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud cannot support self-managed brokers.
Programs
Pay as you go. This is the default for organizations that sign up directly with Confluent. It is billed monthly in arrears to a credit card, a US bank account or a cloud provider; prepaid cards are not accepted. Being invoiced instead requires a minimum annual commitment.[3]
Annual commitment. A commitment is a minimum spend over a fixed term in exchange for volume discounts. It can be spent across cluster types, ksqlDB, connectors and support. Usage above the commitment continues without interruption at the discounted rate.[3] In contract terms, usage draws down the Total Available Balance. The Net Payable Amount equals that balance unless the Order says otherwise. Only usage in the account named in the Order receives the discount.[5] New components added during the term are charged at published prices without the discount.[5] Catalog: Commitment usage draws down the Total Available Balance; overage is billed; New Cloud components are charged at published rates without the Order discount. See consumption credits and prepaid capacity.
Cloud Parent ID and child organizations. An Order can share one balance across several Confluent Cloud organizations. Overages are then billed monthly in arrears for each child organization. A new child organization must be requested at least two months before the term ends, and adding one does not extend the term.[5] Catalog: New child organizations must be requested at least two months before term end.
Trial Usage. New sign-ups receive USD 400 of free credit.[3] Usage paid for with coupons or credits, and Proof of Concept Orders, count as Trial Usage. Trial Usage ends when the customer signs a commitment of at least one year, or after three consecutive months at non-discounted rates. It is limited to non-production evaluation, with no support, SLA or indemnity, and production data may not be sent into the service.[6] Catalog: Cloud Trial Usage is limited to non-production evaluation.
Support plans. Confluent Cloud offers Developer, Business and Premier support.[9] Developer costs the greater of USD 29 per month or 5% of usage. Business costs the greater of USD 1,000 or a tiered share of usage, from 10% of the first USD 50,000 down to 3% above USD 1 million. Premier is priced on request.[8] Support fees draw down a commitment but are not discounted. Premier must be kept for the whole Order Term.[5] Catalog: Developer support plan (Confluent Cloud); Business support plan (Confluent Cloud); Confluent Cloud support is charged as a minimum or a percentage of usage; Premier support must be kept for the whole Order Term.
Service Credits. If a service misses its uptime level, the customer can claim a credit. The claim must be made within five calendar days after the end of the month. Credits are the sole remedy, can only be used against future bills and expire twelve months after issue.[13] Catalog: Confluent Cloud SLA credits are the sole remedy and expire after 12 months.
Contract terms and compliance
The customer may not resell, sublicense, rent or lease the Cloud Service, or make it available to anyone other than its Users. It also may not use technical means to get around use limits such as access and storage restrictions.[6] Fees are due within 30 days of invoice. If a charge is 30 days or more overdue, Confluent may suspend the service, unless the customer is disputing the charge in good faith.[6] The agreement has no separate audit clause, because the service meters usage itself. Compliance work therefore means reconciling Costs API line items with the Rate Card and the Order. Catalog: Confluent Cloud may not be resold or made available to third parties.
Out of scope
- Negotiated rate cards, discounts and private marketplace offers.
- Stream Governance, Tableflow, Cluster Linking and Unified Stream Manager pricing in detail.
- Confluent Platform subscriptions, covered in Confluent Platform subscription licensing.
- Security, privacy and data processing addenda.