# Get Started with Confluent Cloud on the Azure Marketplace with Pay As You Go To use Confluent Cloud with pay-as-you-go billing through the Azure Marketplace, subscribe to the **Confluent Cloud - Pay As You Go** plan in Azure and link or create a Confluent Cloud organization. With this billing model, you pay only for what you use and get billed directly through Azure. If you prefer a usage-based commitment with discounts, see [Get Started with Confluent Cloud on the Azure Marketplace with Commitments](ccloud-azure-ubb.md#ccloud-azure-market-ubb). When you sign up through the Azure Marketplace, you can create a new Confluent organization or link to an existing Confluent Cloud account. ## Prerequisites - An Azure Marketplace account. With Azure Marketplace, you can use Confluent Cloud and get billed directly through Azure. #### IMPORTANT You cannot sign up for Confluent Cloud through a Microsoft Solutions Provider. - Confluent Cloud currently requires your email address to be unique across all organizations. If you already used your Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) email address to sign up for Confluent Cloud, you must first remove yourself as a user from the Confluent Cloud organization where you signed up earlier, so you can use your Microsoft Entra email for single sign-on (SSO). One option is to invite an alternate email that you own as a user to the old organization, and then delete the user associated with your Microsoft Entra email from the old organization. This way, you can sign up using SSO. As another option, a different user in the old organization can delete your Microsoft Entra user ID. To find the email address associated with your Microsoft Entra account, follow these steps: 1. Go to the [Azure Active Directory portal](https://portal.azure.com/#blade/Microsoft_AAD_IAM/ActiveDirectoryMenuBlade/Overview). 2. Click the **More Info** link in the **Tenant Information** section. 3. Click **View profile** under **My feed**. Your Microsoft Entra email address appears in the **Identity** section under **User Principal Name**. Also check the **Alternate email** entry in the **Contact info** section. - To buy a subscription, sign in to the [Azure Marketplace](https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/). You must have permission to purchase, which means you must be the subscription owner or you must have contributor permissions. For more information, see [Azure Marketplace purchasing](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/azure-purchasing-invoicing) in the Azure documentation. - Your Azure policy must allow you to provision resources in the region where you choose to set up the Confluent resource. - If you are using Microsoft Entra ID (the default SSO) and you want to enable Confluent SSO, a Global Administrator for the tenant must grant you user consent. For more information, see [Configure how end-users consent to applications](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/manage-apps/configure-user-consent) in the Azure documentation. ## Subscribe to Confluent Cloud through the Azure Marketplace 1. Navigate to the [Azure Marketplace](https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/) and search for “Apache Kafka® on Confluent Cloud.” 2. Find the Confluent Cloud tile and click it. ![Confluent Cloud tile in the Azure Marketplace search results.](images/_billing/azure-marketplace-tile.png) 3. Select the **Pay As You Go** plan and click **Subscribe**. ![Azure Marketplace Pay As You Go subscribe button.](images/_billing/azure-pay-as-you-go-subscribe.png) 4. Choose the correct subscription and either choose an existing resource group or create a new one. 5. In the **Instance Details** section, enter the **Region** where you want to launch your Azure resource and choose your **Plan** (**Confluent Cloud - Pay As You Go**). #### NOTE The region you select does not need to match the region where you run your Confluent Cloud clusters. Confluent Cloud uses the selected region to store metadata for this resource group, and you are not charged for this metadata storage. 6. Under **Confluent Organization details**, choose **Create a new Confluent organization** or **Link to an existing organization**. If you link to your existing Azure Marketplace subscription, Confluent Cloud prompts you for your account credentials. ### Create a new Confluent Cloud organization Enter the name for your new Confluent organization. ![Options to create a new or link an existing Confluent Cloud organization in the Azure Marketplace.](images/_billing/create-a-confluent-org.png) After you complete the Azure deployment, Confluent creates the new organization and links it to your Azure subscription. ### Link to an existing Confluent Cloud organization 1. Click **Link to an existing organization** to navigate to the Confluent Cloud login page. ![Confluent Cloud organization details in the Azure Marketplace with the option to link to an existing organization.](images/_billing/link-existing-confluent-org.png) 2. Sign in with your existing Confluent Cloud credentials. 3. On the **Confirm billing updates** page, check each box to confirm that you understand the terms of service, billing terms, and SSO settings for both sections: - **Current billing info** shows the billing information before account linking. - **Updated billing with Azure** shows the new payment method for the account after linking. ![Confirm billing updates page with the current billing and updated billing sections and consent checkboxes.](images/_billing/azure-confirm-billing-updates.png) 4. Click **Choose this organization**. After confirmation, the linked organization name appears next to **Confluent Organization Name** in the Azure portal. #### IMPORTANT Linking to an existing organization automatically cancels any active commit subscription on that organization. Before you link, verify that the target organization has no active commit subscription. Watch the following video for a walkthrough of linking an existing Confluent Cloud organization from the Azure Marketplace. 7. Optionally enter **Tags** for your project. 8. Click **Review and create**. 9. After organization validation completes, you can create the resource. Review the terms of your plan and click **Create**. ![Review and create page for the Confluent resource in the Azure portal.](images/_billing/azure-create-org-review-create.png) Your deployment starts. This could take up to a minute. ![Azure deployment in progress message.](images/_billing/azure-deployment-in-progress.png) 10. After Azure deploys your resources, a confirmation message appears. Click **Go to resource** to view the deployed resource on the Azure portal. ![Deployed Confluent resource page in the Azure portal.](images/_billing/azure-resource-deployed.png) 11. Click the **Confluent SSO URL** link or the **Launch** button to sign in to Confluent Cloud using your Microsoft Entra account. You might be asked to choose an account for SSO. If you want to enable Confluent SSO instead of the default Microsoft Entra ID SSO, a Global Administrator for the tenant must grant you user consent. 12. If you are using Microsoft Entra ID (the default SSO), click **Accept** to grant permission for Confluent Cloud. You are signed in. ![Microsoft SSO permissions requested dialog.](images/_billing/microsoft-sso-permissions-requested.png) You can now manage your resources on Confluent Cloud. 13. You can invite more users to your organization by creating a Confluent Cloud account. Use a Microsoft Entra user, or a non-SSO user with an email address and password. For more information, see [Add a local user account](../security/authenticate/user-identities/user-accounts/manage-local-user-accounts.md#add-local-user-console) and [Add an SSO user](../security/authenticate/user-identities/user-accounts/manage-sso-user-accounts.md#add-an-sso-user). #### IMPORTANT Microsoft Entra ID is the default SSO identity provider when you subscribe to Confluent Cloud through the Azure Marketplace. To change your SSO identity provider, see [Use Single Sign-On with Azure Marketplace on Confluent Cloud](../security/authenticate/user-identities/user-idps/sso/az-oidc-sso.md#az-oidc-sso) and [Switch from Azure Marketplace SSO to SAML SSO](../security/authenticate/user-identities/user-idps/sso/az-oidc-sso.md#edit-sso-settings). ## Manage Confluent Cloud from Azure After you create or link a Confluent Cloud organization, you can manage access and resources: - Manage Kafka clusters in Confluent Cloud. For more information, see [Create a Kafka Cluster](../clusters/create-cluster.md#cloud-create-cluster) in the Confluent Cloud documentation. - Enable single sign-on (SSO) for your organization. For more information, see [Single sign-on](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/manage?tabs=azure-portal) in the Azure documentation. - Enable just-in-time (JIT) user provisioning to automatically create Confluent Cloud user accounts in Azure. For more information, see [Support for Azure Marketplace organizations](../security/authenticate/user-identities/user-idps/sso/jit-user-provisioning.md#jit-user-provisioning-az). - Add users and assign permissions to your Confluent Cloud organization from within Azure. For more information, see [Use Confluent Access Management in the Azure Portal](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/manage-access) in the Azure documentation. - Use Azure Functions and Azure Cosmos DB connectors. For more information, see [Connect a Confluent Organization to Azure Compute Services](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/add-connectors) in the Azure documentation. - Manage Confluent connectors from the Azure portal. For more information, see [Use Confluent Connectors in Azure (preview)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/add-confluent-connectors) in the Azure documentation. - Use the Azure CLI to manage your Confluent Cloud organization. For more information, see [az confluent command reference](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/confluent?view=azure-cli-latest) in the Azure documentation. For more information about managing and using Confluent Cloud resources with Azure, see [Apache Kafka & Apache Flink on Confluent Cloud, an Azure Native Integrations service](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/) in the Azure documentation. #### IMPORTANT To manage Confluent Cloud users from within Azure, your Azure user account must be a member of at least the Azure RBAC Contributor role, in the Confluent Cloud organization linked to the Azure account, and using the same email address on Confluent Cloud as in Azure. For more information, see the [Azure documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/partner-solutions/apache-kafka-confluent-cloud/manage-access#prerequisites). ## Next steps To create a Kafka cluster and start producing and consuming messages, see the [Quick Start for Confluent Cloud](../get-started/index.md#cloud-quickstart). For help with sign-up, linking, and subscription issues, see [Troubleshoot Confluent Cloud Billing](troubleshoot-billing.md#cloud-billing-troubleshoot).