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 providerId: confluent generated: '2026-08-27' method: searched source: https://www.confluent.io/pricing/ created: '2026-05-04' modified: '2026-08-27' supersedes: >- A 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep scaffold that invented three generic API tiers (1,000 requests/month free, 10 req/min) bearing no relation to anything Confluent sells. Confluent does not meter its platform in API requests at all — it meters eCKU-hours, GB transferred and GB stored. The scaffold values are removed. tags: [Pricing, Plans, Confluent Cloud] description: >- Confluent Cloud pricing is consumption-based on serverless cluster types, not on API call volume. The unit is the eCKU (Elastic Confluent Unit for Kafka) charged per eCKU-hour, plus data in/out per GB and data stored per GB-month. The APIs themselves — the Cloud API, Metrics API, Kafka REST v3, Schema Registry — carry no separate price; they are the control plane for the cluster you are already paying for. currency: USD billing_model: consumption metered_units: [eCKU-hour, GB ingress/egress, GB-month stored] plan_count: 5 plans: - id: basic name: Basic tier_family: General Purpose price_entry: '$0/Month' starting_cost_monthly: 0 description: Start small with no risk. Easily get started with your test cases. entries: - {name: ecku_hour, label: eCKU, metric: ecku-hour, price: '0.14', unit: eCKU-hour, note: 'First eCKU free, then $0.14'} - {name: data_transfer, label: Data In/Out (Ingress/Egress), metric: gb, price: '0.05', unit: GB} - {name: data_stored, label: Data Stored, metric: gb-month, price: '0.08', unit: GB-month} limits: uptime_sla: 99.5% throughput_ingress_mbps: 250 throughput_egress_mbps: 750 partition_limit: 1500 storage_limit: 5 TB api_keys_per_cluster: 50 features: - Serverless, fully managed clusters with zero ops - Autoscaling Kafka resources - 80+ fully managed connectors - Security and governance essentials - Multicloud across AWS, Azure, and GCP - Secure public endpoints - id: standard name: Standard tier_family: General Purpose price_entry: '~$385/Month' starting_cost_monthly: 385 description: Great for most production-ready use cases with an extended feature set. entries: - {name: ecku_hour, label: eCKU, metric: ecku-hour, price: '0.75', unit: eCKU-hour} - {name: data_transfer, label: Data In/Out (Ingress/Egress), metric: gb, price_min: '0.035', price_max: '0.050', unit: GB} - {name: data_stored, label: Data Stored, metric: gb-month, price: '0.03', unit: GB-month} limits: uptime_sla: '99.9% (1 eCKU) / 99.99% (2+ eCKUs)' partition_limit: 2500 storage_limit: Infinite api_keys_per_cluster: 250 features: - Everything in Basic - High availability with 99.99% uptime SLA - Infinite storage - Audit logs to detect security threats - 30%+ throughput savings that scale with usage - id: enterprise name: Enterprise tier_family: General Purpose price_entry: '~$895/Month' starting_cost_monthly: 895 description: Ideal for mission-critical use cases and sensitive data at GBps+ scale. entries: - {name: ecku_hour, label: eCKU, metric: ecku-hour, price_min: '1.75', price_max: '2.25', unit: eCKU-hour} - {name: data_transfer, label: Data In/Out (Ingress/Egress), metric: gb, price_min: '0.020', price_max: '0.050', unit: GB} limits: uptime_sla: 99.99% throughput_ingress_mbps: 1920 throughput_egress_mbps: 5760 partition_limit: 96000 storage_limit: Infinite api_keys_per_cluster: 2500 features: - Everything in Basic and Standard - Private networking (Private Link / Private Service Connect) - GBps+ autoscaling - Enhanced partition limits - 60%+ throughput savings - id: freight name: Freight tier_family: Specialty price_entry: '$2,300/Month' starting_cost_monthly: 2300 description: >- Cost-efficient for high scale logging and observability use cases with relaxed latency requirements. latency: Relaxed entries: - {name: ecku_hour, label: eCKU, metric: ecku-hour, price: '2.25', unit: eCKU-hour, note: 'minimum 2 eCKUs'} - {name: data_transfer, label: Data In/Out (Ingress/Egress), metric: gb, price_min: '0.014', price_max: '0.030', unit: GB, note: 'Freight delivers direct-to-object storage; price shown is an effective pre-replication price'} limits: uptime_sla: 99.99% throughput_ingress_mbps: 9120 throughput_egress_mbps: 27360 partition_limit: 50000 api_keys_per_cluster: 2500 features: - Private networking only - id: dedicated name: Dedicated tier_family: Pre-provisioned price_entry: contact-sales starting_cost_monthly: null description: >- Pre-provisioned capacity for use cases with distinct networking and throughput requirements. Priced per CKU rather than per eCKU. Confluent directs buyers to contact sales, so no public per-unit price is available. limits: api_keys_per_cluster: 20000 ckus_per_cluster_default: 24 features: - Self-balancing clusters - VPC/VNet peering - AWS Transit Gateway - Customer managed keys (BYOK) notes: - Prices shown are pre-replication. - >- Confluent states discounts scale with usage — the more you use, the more you save — so the published per-unit rates are list prices, not the rates a committed customer pays. - >- A free trial exists (https://www.confluent.io/confluent-cloud/tryfree/) and Confluent advertises the first eCKU free on Basic, which is the closest thing to a free tier. free_tier: available: true url: https://www.confluent.io/confluent-cloud/tryfree/ http_status: 200 description: First eCKU free on Basic clusters, plus a signup trial credit. pricing_url: https://www.confluent.io/pricing/ cost_estimator: https://www.confluent.io/pricing/