Manage Confluent Platform Licenses

This topic lists the license type that applies to each Confluent or Apache Kafka® component and how to configure the license for manual deployments of Confluent Platform components. For information on how to configure licenses in automated deployments of Confluent Platform with Confluent for Kubernetes, see Configure licenses with Confluent for Kubernetes.

License types

The following table lists the Kafka and Confluent features and whether they are covered under the Enterprise license , a Community license or an Apache Kafka 2.0 license. For more information, see the Community license FAQ.

Confluent Enterprise License for Confluent Platform subscription
Auto Data Balancer
Confluent for Kubernetes
Confluent Replicator
Confluent Server Cluster Linking
Multi-Region Clusters
Role-based Access Control
Schema Registry Security Plug-in
Schema Validation
Secrets Protection
Self-Balancing Clusters
Structured Audit Logs
Tiered Storage
Control Center
Health+
Kafka Connect Commercial Connectors
Premium Connectors
MQTT Proxy
Schema Linking
Confluent Enterprise License for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription
Kafka Connect Worker Commercial Connectors
Control Center
Operator (k8s)
Replicator
Confluent Community License
Admin REST API
Confluent CLI
Kafka Connect Community-licensed Connectors
ksqlDB
REST Proxy
Schema Registry
Apache 2.0 License
Apache Kafka (with Connect and Streams)
Ansible Playbooks
Apache ZooKeeper
Confluent Clients
Open Source Connectors

Enterprise License subscription

An enterprise license provides access to the Confluent commercial features for a production environment. An enterprise license is a paid subscription that expires at an interval determined by the subscription contract. The software ceases to function after the license expires. For details, see Renew licenses.

Enterprise License for Confluent Platform subscription

The following Confluent Platform components are under the Confluent Enterprise license for Confluent Platform subscription:

Enterprise License for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription

This Enterprise license only supports self-managed components connecting with Confluent Cloud.

Note

Starting October 1st, 2025, a new Enterprise license key for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription is being introduced. This new license key entitles you to use self-managed Confluent Platform components exclusively with Confluent Cloud services.

Prerequisites for installing the license key

  1. Ensure all your self-managed components are connected with Confluent Cloud and used for Confluent Cloud broker-related use cases. Confluent does not provide support for any self-managed Confluent Platform components that are used exclusively for Confluent Platform broker use cases under the Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription.
  2. You must upgrade Confluent Platform to the recommended minimum patch version for each minor version of Confluent Platform, as shown in the table below:
Confluent Platform version Recommended minimum patch version
7.3.x 7.3.14
7.4.x 7.4.11
7.5.x 7.5.10
7.6.x 7.6.7
7.7.x 7.7.5
7.8.x 7.8.4
7.9.x 7.9.3
8.0.x 8.0.1

All Confluent Platform versions from 8.1.x support the Enterprise license key for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription.

Warning

Applying a new Enterprise license key to Confluent Platform components or Control Center before upgrading them causes the license key update to fail. The failure is recorded as an error in the component logs, and it is shown on the Control Center if the license key was applied using Control Center.

If you are an existing customer, your existing license key will continue to function until its expiration date.

To ensure everything works correctly, your license key must be configured across all required self-managed Confluent Platform components. If you are using Control Center, apply the license key in Control Center UI (recommended). For more information, see Manage Confluent Platform Licenses using Control Center.

Alternatively, you can configure the license key for each Confluent Platform components. For more details, see Configure component licenses.

The following Confluent Platform components are under the Confluent Enterprise license for Customer-managed Confluent Platform for Confluent Cloud subscription:

Commercial features
Kafka Connect Worker Commercial Connectors
Control Center
Operator (k8s)
Replicator
Community features
Kafka Connect Worker Community-licensed Connectors
REST Proxy
ksqlDB
Schema Registry

Community license

The following Confluent Platform components are under the Confluent Community license:

Apache 2.0 license

The following features are covered by the Apache 2.0 license.

Other license types

Following are some additional licenses with limited scope.

Developer license

A developer license allows full use of Confluent Platform features free of charge for an indefinite duration. However, the license is limited to a single broker configuration per cluster. The developer license gives developers the freedom to try the Confluent Platform commercial features available in a non-production setting.

The developer license also accommodates multiple single-broker clusters so that developers can try the Replicator between those instances, or develop failover applications, for example. Those multiple single-broker clusters share the same license.

Warning

Adding a broker starts a trial license that expires in 30 days. You cannot revert from a trial back to a developer license.

Trial (Evaluation) license

A trial (evaluation) license allows a free trial of commercial features in a production setting. Expires after 30 days. The trial license is governed by the Confluent evaluation licenses agreement. The software ceases to function when the license expires. For details, see Renew licenses.

Configure component licenses

You must configure a license for each individual Confluent Platform commercial component as described in the following sections.

Each licensed component requires a valid license key to start up. After the component starts up, it checks the license topic to use the latest valid license key.

There are two main topics that store license details of Confluent Platform components.

_confluent-command

Confluent Control Center (Legacy), Connect, and Replicator use the _confluent-command internal topic on the same Confluent Server cluster to store and look up their license.

For example, if you use Control Center (Legacy) to update the license, all other licensed components that use the same _confluent-command license topic will be governed by that new license.

Each of these components have an option to specify a license key in their respective properties file to be evaluated on startup. See below for the component properties files. The components store this key on the _confluent-command topic.

When applying an updated license in Confluent Control Center (Legacy), you must also provide an updated license key in the Confluent Server configuration file (/etc/kafka/server.properties). The updated license is evaluated against the current license information that is present in the _confluent-command topic. If necessary, that original license is updated to the newly submitted license, and the updated license is applied when the brokers restart.

Note

The _confluent-command internal topic is available as the preferred alternative to the _confluent-license topic for components such as Schema Registry, REST Proxy, and Confluent Server (which were previously using _confluent-license). Both topics will be supported going forward. Here are some guidelines:

  • New deployments (Confluent Platform 6.2.1 and later) will default to using _confluent-command as shown below.
  • Existing clusters will continue using the _confluent-license unless manually changed.
  • Newly created clusters on Confluent Platform 6.2.1 and later will default to creating the _confluent-command topic, and only existing clusters that already have a _confluent-license topic will continue to use it.
_confluent-license
Confluent Server brokers can use the _confluent-license topic to store and look up the license. This was the only option previous to Confluent Platform 6.2.1. The _confluent-command topic is preferred, but both will be supported going forward.

For more information about managing licenses in Confluent Control Center (Legacy), see Manage Confluent Platform Licenses Using Control Center (Legacy).

Confluent Control Center (Legacy)

For Control Center (Legacy), the license key can be entered in the Control Center license tab, or in the confluent.license parameter in the /etc/control-center/control-center.properties file.

Confluent Replicator

Configure the parameter confluent.license in various Replicator .properties files. For more information, see Confluent Platform license in Replicator Configuration Reference for Confluent Platform.

Confluent Server

Configure the parameter confluent.license in the /etc/kafka/server.properties file. For more information, see Migrate Confluent Platform to Confluent Server.

Confluent Schema Registry

A license is required only when using the Schema Registry Security Plugins and Schema Linking. For more information, see Authentication Mechanisms in the Security Plugins documentation and Schema Linking.

Note

Enterprise support is not provided unless the confluent-security package is installed on all nodes and a valid Enterprise license key is configured.

Confluent Auto Data Balancer

A license is required only when using multiple broker configurations. Configure the parameter confluent.license in the Kafka server.properties file. For more information, see Configure license for rebalancer.

Confluent MQTT Proxy

Configure the parameter confluent.license in the MQTT Proxy etc/confluent-kafka-mqtt/kafka-mqtt-production.properties file. For more information, see Configure license for MQTT.

Confluent JMS Client

Configure the parameter confluent.license in the Kafka server.properties file. For more information, see Configure license for JMS Client.

Confluent REST Proxy

A license is required only when using the REST Proxy Security Plugins. For more information, see REST Proxy Authentication.

Note

Enterprise support is not provided unless the confluent-security package is installed on all nodes and a valid Enterprise license key is configured.

Confluent for Kubernetes

Add the license key for Confluent Platform components as described in Confluent for Kubernetes license.

Confluent Platform commercial connectors

The Confluent Platform commercial connectors can be used on an unlimited basis with the developer license for single-broker clusters. Multi-broker clusters can use these commercial connectors for a 30-day trial without an enterprise license key. After the trial period expires, Confluent Platform software ceases to function.

Note

Enterprise support is not provided for the Confluent Community licensed distributions of Kafka Connect workers (CCS, cp-kafka-connect, or cp-kafka-connect-base). Confluent recommends using the Confluent Enterprise distribution of Kafka Connect workers (CE or cp-server-connect or cp-server-connect-base).

You must purchase an enterprise license to continue using commercial connectors in a multi-broker cluster.

Note

If you are using Control Center, apply the license key in Control Center (recommended). For more information, see Manage Confluent Platform licenses using Control Center.

Alternatively, you can configure the confluent.license parameter in the Connect worker configuration, or at the individual connector level for enterprise support of connectors and Connect workers. For more information, see Centralized License in the Kafka Connect Worker. Confluent recommends validating in lower environments before production upgrades.

Refer to the individual connector documentation for the specific license requirements.

Configure license clients to authenticate to Kafka

When enabled with role-based access control (RBAC) or Kafka REST Security plugins, license clients must be explicitly configured to authenticate to Apache Kafka®. For example, if a Kafka REST client talks to Kafka over a SASL_SSL enabled listener, the configuration may look like this:

confluent.license.security.protocol=SASL_SSL
confluent.license.ssl.truststore.location=/var/ssl/private/kafka_rest.truststore.jks
confluent.license.ssl.truststore.password=confluent
confluent.license.ssl.keystore.location=/var/ssl/private/kafka_rest.keystore.jks
confluent.license.ssl.keystore.password=confluent
confluent.license.ssl.key.password=confluent
confluent.license.sasl.mechanism=OAUTHBEARER
confluent.license.sasl.login.callback.handler.class=io.confluent.kafka.clients.plugins.auth.token.TokenUserLoginCallbackHandler
confluent.license.sasl.jaas.config=org.apache.kafka.common.security.oauthbearer.OAuthBearerLoginModule required \
username="...." \
password="...." \
metadataServerUrls="....";

To learn more, see Encrypt and Authenticate with TLS in Confluent Platform and Deploy Secure Standalone REST Proxy in Confluent Platform.

Renew licenses

When you renew your license subscription, you will receive a new license key with a new expiration date. You should purchase and configure configure a new license key before your old license expires.

Following is a list of proprietary components and their behavior when you restart them after your license expires:

Component Restart reaction after license expiration
Control Center (Legacy) Fails to start.
Replicator Fails to start and throws an exception. (May also fail immediately when the license expires, even if Replicator is running.)
Connectors Fails to start and throws an exception.
JMS client Fails to connect to any brokers and issues a license expiration message.
ADB Fails to calculate the rebalance plan and issues a license expiration message.
MQTT Proxy Fails to start.
Security plugins Fails to start.
Confluent Server Confluent Server starts, but generates frequent errors until a new license is provided. Note Confluent Server is the default broker found in the enterprise confluent-<version>.tar.gz download. To migrate from Confluent Server to Kafka, see Migrating from confluent-server to confluent-kafka.
CFK Starts up, but only allows you to delete Confluent Platform component clusters.

Developer licenses never expire.