specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: Confluent | the Data Streaming Platform
providerId: confluent-the-data-streaming-platform
generated: '2026-09-05'
method: searched
source: https://www.confluent.io/pricing/
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-09-05'
plan_count: 5
description: >-
  Confluent Cloud is priced on consumption, not on API calls. The unit is the eCKU
  (elastic Confluent Kafka Unit) charged per hour, plus per-GB data in/out and per-GB-month
  storage; the cluster TYPE is the plan. This artifact replaces a 2026-05-04 scaffold
  that invented request-quota tiers (1,000 requests/month free, 100 requests/minute
  professional) which Confluent has never published — those figures were bulk-sweep
  defaults, not provider values, and are removed here.
pricing_model: consumption
billing_units: [eCKU-hour, GB data in/out, GB-month storage]
currency: USD
free_trial:
  credit_usd: 400
  duration_days: 30
  detail: sandbox/confluent-the-data-streaming-platform-sandbox.yml
plans:
- id: confluent-cloud-basic
  name: Basic
  type: freemium
  category: General Purpose cluster
  self_serve: true
  starting_cost: $0/month
  entries:
  - label: eCKU
    metric: eCKU-hour
    price: '0.14'
    currency: USD
    note: First eCKU free, then $0.14 per eCKU-hour
  - label: Data In/Out
    metric: GB
    price: '0.05'
    currency: USD
  - label: Storage
    metric: GB-month
    price: '0.08'
    currency: USD
- id: confluent-cloud-standard
  name: Standard
  type: paid
  category: General Purpose cluster
  self_serve: true
  starting_cost: ~$385/month
  entries:
  - label: eCKU
    metric: eCKU-hour
    price: '0.75'
    currency: USD
  - label: Data In/Out
    metric: GB
    price: 0.035 - 0.050
    currency: USD
  - label: Storage
    metric: GB-month
    price: '0.08'
    currency: USD
- id: confluent-cloud-enterprise
  name: Enterprise
  type: paid
  category: General Purpose cluster
  self_serve: true
  starting_cost: ~$895/month
  entries:
  - label: eCKU
    metric: eCKU-hour
    price: 1.75 - 2.25
    currency: USD
  - label: Data In/Out
    metric: GB
    price: 0.020 - 0.050
    currency: USD
  - label: Storage
    metric: GB-month
    price: '0.08'
    currency: USD
- id: confluent-cloud-freight
  name: Freight
  type: paid
  category: Specialty cluster
  self_serve: true
  starting_cost: $2,300/month
  entries:
  - label: eCKU
    metric: eCKU-hour
    price: '2.25'
    currency: USD
    note: Minimum 2 eCKUs
  - label: Data In/Out
    metric: GB
    price: 0.014 - 0.030
    currency: USD
  - label: Storage
    metric: GB-month
    price: '0.03'
    currency: USD
- id: confluent-platform
  name: Confluent Platform / Confluent Private Cloud
  type: enterprise
  category: self-managed
  self_serve: false
  starting_cost: contact sales
  entries: []
  note: No published pricing; contact-sales only.
api_pricing:
  metered: false
  note: >-
    The Confluent Cloud REST API, Kafka REST, Schema Registry, Connect, Flink SQL and
    the MCP servers are not separately metered. They are governed by rate limits (see
    rate-limits/) and by the consumption of the underlying resources they operate on.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com