# Get Started with Confluent Cloud on the Azure Marketplace
You can use Confluent Cloud through the Azure Marketplace with pay-as-you-go billing,
where you pay only for what you use, or with a usage-based commitment, where
you pre-commit to a minimum spend in exchange for a discount on your committed
usage. You can also subscribe with a commitment on the Jio Marketplace, and
purchase Confluent Professional Services as a private offer on the Azure
Marketplace.
## Pay As You Go on the Azure Marketplace
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
[Commitments on the Azure Marketplace](#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.
3. Select the **Pay As You Go** plan and click **Subscribe**.
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.
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.
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.
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**.
Your deployment starts. This could take up to a minute.
10. After Azure deploys your resources, a confirmation message appears. Click **Go
to resource** to view the deployed resource on the Azure portal.
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.
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).
## Commitments on the Azure Marketplace
A usage-based billing commitment lets you pre-commit to a minimum spend on
Confluent Cloud through the Azure Marketplace in exchange for a discount on your
committed usage. This topic shows you how to sign up.
### Prerequisites
- An Azure Marketplace account. 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 **Profile** under **Manage** in the navigation menu. Your
Microsoft Entra email address appears in the **Identity** section under
**User Principal Name**.
- To accept an offer, you must sign in to the
[Azure Marketplace](https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/)
and you must have Owner access to the billing account.
- To subscribe to an offer, you must sign in to the
[Azure Marketplace](https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/)
and you must have Owner access to the subscription you are using to sign up
(the one linked to the billing account).
- Your Azure policy must allow you to provision resources in the region where
you choose to set up the Confluent resource.
### Subscribe to a Confluent Cloud private offer on the Azure Marketplace
To subscribe to a Confluent Cloud private offer on the Azure Marketplace, you must
accept the offer and then subscribe to it. The purchase takes place only after
you complete both steps.
#### Step 1: Accept the offer
Accepting an Azure private offer creates a contractual agreement between you and
Confluent. You must accept the offer before you can subscribe to it. The
agreement includes the following components:
- Your name or the name of the legal entity to which the offer applies.
- Public plans included in the offer.
- Private offer price.
- Custom legal terms for the offer, if applicable.
- Start and end dates when the discount applies to the offer.
- Expiration date for the offer. You must accept the offer before this date.
Confluent creates the offer and sends you an email. Use the following
procedure to accept the offer:
1. Click the link in the email to go to the offer.
#### NOTE
If you don’t see the email, check your spam filter.
2. Review the offer and select **Accept Private Offer**.
Accepting the offer does not complete the purchase. You must also subscribe to
the offer to provision your Confluent Cloud resource and finish the transaction. By
accepting the offer, you agree to the terms and prices that Confluent listed.
#### Step 2: Subscribe to the offer
After you or someone in your organization accepts the private offer from
Confluent, subscribe to the offer to provision your Confluent Cloud resource:
1. Sign in to the [Azure portal](https://portal.azure.com/) and under
**Azure services**, select **Marketplace**.
2. In the navigation menu, under **My Marketplace**, select **Private
products**.
3. Select the Confluent Cloud tile.
4. From **Plan**, select **Annual Commit** and click **Subscribe**. You might
have multiple plans available. To see a list of available plans and plan
details, select **Plans+Pricing**.
5. For **Resource group**, choose **Create new** and enter a **Name**.
6. In **Region**, under **Instance details**, select a region for the resource.
#### 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.
7. 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.
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.
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.
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.
8. (Optional) Click the **Tags** tab to create tags for your project.
9. Click **Review and create**.
10. After validation completes, you can create the resource. Review the terms of
your plan and click **Create**. Your deployment starts. This can take up to a
minute.
11. After Azure deploys your resources, a confirmation message appears. Click **Go
to resource** to view the deployed resource on the Azure portal.
12. Click the Confluent SSO URL **Manage on Confluent Cloud** to sign in to
Confluent Cloud using your Microsoft Entra account. You might be asked to choose
an account for SSO. Grant permission to the Confluent application on
the Consent screen by clicking **Accept**. You are now signed in and can
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 only supported SSO identity provider when you
subscribe to Confluent Cloud through the Azure Marketplace.
## Commitments on the Jio Marketplace
A usage-based billing commitment lets you pre-commit to a minimum spend on
Confluent Cloud through the Jio Marketplace in exchange for a discount on your
committed usage. This topic shows you how to sign up.
### Prerequisites
- A Jio Marketplace account. You can use Confluent Cloud and get billed directly
through Jio.
- Confluent Cloud currently requires your email address to be unique across all
organizations. If you already used your Jio 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. For detailed steps on resolving email
conflicts, see [Commitments on the Azure Marketplace](#ccloud-azure-market-ubb).
- To subscribe to an offer, you must sign in to the
[Azure Marketplace](https://marketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/)
with your Jio account ID.
- You must have Owner access to the subscription linked to the billing account.
- Your Jio policy must allow you to provision resources in the region where
you choose to set up the Confluent resource.
### Subscribe to a Confluent Cloud private offer on the Jio Marketplace
Follow these steps to subscribe to Confluent Cloud on the Jio Marketplace under a
private offer.
1. Sign in to the [Azure portal](https://portal.azure.com/) with your Jio
account.
2. Select the Confluent Cloud tile.
3. From **Plan**, select the required plan (**Annual Commit** or **One-time
Commit**) and click **Subscribe**. You might have several plans available.
To view a list of available plans and plan details, select
**Plans+Pricing**.
#### NOTE
You can view the private offer pricing when selecting the Public Commit.
The Private offer icon should also appear for public commit or the plan
selected.
4. For **Resource group**, choose **Create new** and enter a **Name** or select
any existing resource group.
5. In **Region**, under **Azure Resource Details**, select a Jio region for the
software-as-a-service (SaaS) resource.
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.
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.
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.
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. (Optional) Click the **Tags** tab to create tags for your project.
8. Click **Review and create**.
9. After validation completes, you can create the resource. Review the terms of
your plan and click **Create**. Your deployment starts. This can take up to a
minute.
10. After Azure deploys your resources, a confirmation message appears. Click **Go
to resource** to view the deployed resource on the Azure portal.
11. Click the Confluent SSO URL **Manage on Confluent Cloud** to sign in to
Confluent Cloud using your Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory)
account. You might be asked to choose an account for SSO. Grant
permission to the Confluent application on the Consent screen by
clicking **Accept**. You are now signed in and can manage your resources
on Confluent Cloud.
#### NOTE
Before SSO users can sign in, a Global Administrator must grant
permissions to the Confluent app.
12. 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).
## Professional Services on the Azure Marketplace
Purchase Confluent Professional Services on the Azure Marketplace as a private
offer from Confluent.
### Prerequisites
- To purchase Confluent Professional Services, you must be the subscription
owner or have contributor permissions for the subscription. For more
information, see
[Purchase in Azure Marketplace](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/azure-purchasing-invoicing) in
the Azure documentation.
### Purchase Professional Services on the Azure Marketplace
To purchase Confluent Professional Services:
1. Sign in to the
[Azure Marketplace](https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/marketplace/).
2. In **Private Offer Management**, click **Purchase**.
3. In **Purchase details**, select **Choose an existing Azure subscription** or
**Create a new Azure billing subscription for me**.
4. To start the deployment, click **Purchase**.
When the deployment succeeds, a success screen appears:
## 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 Apache 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).