Aiven Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Aiven costs Free to $1.9K per varies as of May 2026. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Yes, Aiven offers a free trial plan as of May 2026. The free tier includes 5 features with limits on usage. Paid plans start at $35/user/month (Developer). Pricing verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Aiven's free offering is a time-limited trial to test the full product.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Up to 250 KiB/s throughput
- Retention up to 3 days
- Up to 5 topics with 2 partitions each
- Schema Registry and REST proxy included
- Support via documentation
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- Up to 1 MB/s throughput
- Up to 20 topics (max 100 partitions)
- Kafka Connect compatible
- $0.05/hour billing
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like Up to 1 MB/s throughput or Up to 20 topics (max 100 partitions)
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- Credits are finite; no ongoing free tier after they are exhausted
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Free vs Developer Plan Comparison
| Free $0 | Developer $35/user/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 5 included | 6+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Aiven branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Evaluation and small experiments with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Valkey, or Kafka | Development and test environments |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Aiven free?
Yes, Aiven offers a free trial plan with 5 core features included. However, there are limits on users and features that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Aiven's free plan?
Aiven's free plan includes: Up to 250 KiB/s throughput, Retention up to 3 days, Up to 5 topics with 2 partitions each, Schema Registry and REST proxy included, Support via documentation. Key limits include basic usage caps.
03 What's NOT included in Aiven's free plan?
The free plan excludes: Up to 1 MB/s throughput, Up to 20 topics (max 100 partitions), Kafka Connect compatible, $0.05/hour billing. You'll also have Aiven branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Aiven's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like Up to 1 MB/s throughput or Up to 20 topics (max 100 partitions), require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $35/user/month.
05 Is Aiven's free plan really free forever?
Aiven's free offering is actually a time-limited trial, not a forever-free plan. After the trial period, you'll need to subscribe to a paid plan to continue using the service.