Billing Examples in Confluent Cloud

The following worked examples show how Confluent Cloud bills specific dimensions in practice, using example rates, not current prices. For current prices, see the Confluent Cloud pricing page.

Confluent support plans

This example illustrates how Confluent support billing works: you pay the higher of a monthly minimum or a percentage of your usage costs. For details, see Confluent support plans.

Consider the following examples for Developer support with a monthly minimum of $29 or a rate of 5% of usage costs (whichever is greater):

Scenario	Monthly usage	Support cost	Total
5% of usage is at or below the $29 minimum	$580	$29 (the minimum applies)	$609
5% of usage is more than the $29 minimum	$1,000	$50 (5% of $1,000)	$1,050

The breakeven is at $580 of usage: 5% × $580 = $29 (the monthly minimum).

Cluster Linking

These examples illustrate Cluster Linking billing for common configurations, using internet-networked clusters only. For billing details, see Cluster Linking Billing. For current prices, see the Confluent Cloud pricing page.

One cluster link in an active-passive setup

One cluster link connects a source cluster to a destination cluster:

• The source cluster is charged $0.25/hour plus $0.25/GB sent.

• The destination cluster is charged $0.25/hour plus $0.01/GB received, its own CLUSTER_LINKING_WRITE rate.

Two cluster links in an active-active setup

Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 are linked in both directions, using two cluster links:

• Each cluster is charged $0.50/hour, $0.25 for each of the two links it’s part of, plus $0.25/GB it sends.

• Cluster 1 is charged $0.04/GB it receives, and Cluster 2 is charged $0.01/GB it receives. Each cluster’s CLUSTER_LINKING_WRITE rate depends on its cluster type, so the two rates differ.

Hybrid cloud or migration with one link writing to a Confluent Cloud cluster

An external, non-Confluent Cloud cluster sends data to a Confluent Cloud cluster over one cluster link:

• The Confluent Cloud cluster is charged $0.25/hour plus $0.01/GB received, its own CLUSTER_LINKING_WRITE rate.

• The external cluster accrues no Confluent Cloud charges, though its cloud provider might charge it an egress fee to send the data.

Flink SQL

Data streaming is a real-time business, and data streams oscillate on a minute-by-minute basis, creating peaks and troughs of utilization. The following examples show how Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink® bills only for the processing power you actually use. For billing details, see Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink Billing.

Data exploration and discovery

Most SQL queries are short-running, interactive queries that help software and data engineers understand the streams they have access to. Querying the streams directly is an important and necessary step in the iterative development of applications and pipelines.

In the following example, one user executes five different queries. Unlike other Flink offerings, Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink’s serverless architecture charges you only for the five minutes when these queries run, with all users able to share the resources of a single compute pool. It doesn’t matter whether the same person executes these queries, whether five different people execute them at the same time, or whether (as shown in the following diagram) the queries run at different points in the hour.

Example pricing calculation

• Number of queries executed = 5

• Total CFU-minutes consumed = 5

• Total charge: 5 CFU-minutes x $0.0035/CFU-minute = $0.0175

Note: The charge appears on the invoice as “0.083 CFU-hours x $0.21/CFU-hour”.

Many data streaming applications and statements

A data streaming architecture comprises many applications, each with its own workload requirements. An architecture can be a mix of interactive, terminating statements and continuous, streaming statements. Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink automatically scales the processing power of the Flink compute pool up and down in real time so that your applications have the processing power they need, while charging only for the minutes you use.

In the following example, five streaming statements run in a single compute pool. The data streams oscillate, and you can see spikes of utilization for short periods within the hour. Each statement attracts a minimum price of 1 CFU-minute ($0.0035 in this example), and Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink automatically scales the statement up and down on a per-minute basis as needed.

Statement	CFU-minutes	Statement Type
Q1	5	Interactive
Q2	60	Streaming
Q3	110	Streaming
Q4	10	Interactive
Q5	124	Streaming
Total	309

Example pricing calculation

• Number of statements executing = 5

• Total CFU-minutes consumed = 309

• Total charge: 309 CFU-minutes x $0.0035/CFU-minute = $1.0815

Note: The charge appears on the invoice as “5.15 CFU-hours x $0.21/CFU-hour”.

Cost allocation

This example shows how Confluent Cloud allocates costs across principals, using usage-proportional splits for usage-driven metrics and weighted averages for shared or fixed costs. For background on the underlying export mechanism, including owner_id and chargeback_cost, see Cost Allocation in Confluent Cloud.

A Confluent Cloud environment incurs $33 in a month, across one Apache Kafka® cluster (lkc-123), one Connect cluster (lcc-456), one Flink SQL compute pool (lfcp-789), and Confluent Support. Four service accounts (sa-abc, sa-def, sa-ghi, sa-jkl) are active during the month.

This is how cost allocation is distributed across rows with owner_id values:

• The $2 of CKU cost on lkc-123 is split across the four service accounts (owner_id = sa-abc / sa-def / sa-ghi / sa-jkl) using the read/write weighted ratio.

• The $6 of write throughput is split between the two accounts that wrote (sa-abc, sa-def).

• The $15 of read throughput is split between the two accounts that read (sa-ghi, sa-jkl).

• The $4 of Connect tasks is attributed to the Kafka cluster that owns the connector (owner_id = lkc-123). The internal pipeline maps that cluster to its owning team.

• The $3 of Flink cost is attributed to the environment (owner_id = env-xxx).

• The $1 of Cluster Linking cost is attributed to the source Kafka cluster (owner_id = lkc-123).

• The $1 of Schema Registry base cost is attributed to the Kafka cluster (owner_id = lkc-123).

• The $1 of Confluent Support is allocated last, in proportion to each entity’s share of the other metrics.

The sum of every chargeback_cost value is $33, the original usage charge.

Related content

• Manage Billing in Confluent Cloud

• Billing Dimensions in Confluent Cloud

• Cluster Linking Billing

• Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink Billing

• Cost Allocation in Confluent Cloud

• FAQ for Confluent Cloud Billing