Streaming

Redpanda Licenses and Enterprise Features

Redpanda, Redpanda Console, and Redpanda Connect are available in community and enterprise editions. Each product has a single binary that supports both editions.

Go to the Redpanda Streaming quickstart to set up a local Redpanda cluster and try the Enterprise Edition free for up to 60 days.

Redpanda Cloud is a managed deployment of Redpanda Enterprise Edition. To learn more about Redpanda Cloud, see the Redpanda Cloud Overview.

Community Edition

The Community Edition is licensed with the Redpanda Business Source License (BSL). These core features are free and source-available.

Restrictions and licensing terms

  • Users cannot provide Redpanda as a commercial streaming or queuing service to others.

  • The BSL code converts to Apache 2.0 licensing four years after each code merge.

Enterprise Edition

The Enterprise Edition is licensed with the Redpanda Community License (RCL). It includes the free features licensed under the Redpanda BSL, as well as enterprise features. You can also generate a Trial license for the Enterprise Edition.

Trial license

All new Redpanda clusters automatically receive a trial license valid for 30 days. To extend this trial for 30 days, use the rpk generate license command, or request a new trial license key. This extended evaluation period begins after you apply the trial license to your cluster using the --apply flag. After this period expires, inactive enterprise features are disabled, and active features enter a restricted state.

Only one trial license is permitted per email and business domain. Attempts to generate multiple trial licenses from the same email or business domain result in a license error. To get a permanent license, contact Redpanda Sales.

To generate and apply a 30-day trial license for Enterprise Edition:

rpk generate license --apply
First Name: <your_first_name>
Last Name: <your_last_name>
Company name: <your company name>
Business Email: <your business email address>
To activate the trial license, you must apply it to your cluster using the --apply flag. The trial license is saved in your working directory or the specified path, based on the --path flag.

Example output:

Successfully saved license to "/home/<your local directory>/code/rp/redpanda/src/go/rpk/redpanda.license".

Upload this license in Redpanda Console, or run:
  rpk cluster license set --path /home/<your local directory>/rp/redpanda/src/go/rpk/redpanda.license

This license expires on 2025-05-07.

For more information, see:
  xref:streaming:get-started:licensing/overview.adoc#license-keys[License keys]

License keys

Enterprise features require an Enterprise Edition license key, sometimes called enterprise license, license key, or license.

  • Redpanda: Starting with version 24.3, new Redpanda clusters automatically receive a trial license that’s valid for 30 days, allowing unrestricted use of enterprise features. This evaluation period begins when the cluster is created for the first time. After this period expires, inactive enterprise features are disabled, and active features enter a restricted state.

    To extend your trial license see Trial license, request a new trial license key, or upgrade to Redpanda Enterprise.

    Redpanda blocks upgrades to new feature releases if enterprise features are active without a valid license. Ensure compliance by obtaining a license to maintain access to the latest features and updates.

    To avoid startup issues with Redpanda Console when a trial or Enterprise license expires, use Redpanda Console v2.8.3 or later with clusters running Redpanda 24.3 or later.

  • Redpanda Connect: To evaluate enterprise features in Redpanda Connect, you must apply a trial license key. After the 30-day evaluation period, you are blocked from using enterprise connectors unless you upgrade to an Enterprise Edition license.

Redpanda Enterprise Edition features

The following table lists the enterprise features for Redpanda and how Redpanda behaves upon license expiration when each enterprise feature is enabled.

  • Upon license expiration:

    • The cluster continues to operate without data loss, but the further use of enterprise features is restricted (see the table 1).

    • Configuration of enterprise features remains unchanged, allowing you to add a new license and continue using enterprise features as before expiration. For instructions, see Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda

  • After license expiration: You cannot enable enterprise features without a valid license.

Table 1. Enterprise features in Redpanda
Feature Description Behavior Upon Expiration

Audit Logging

Records detailed logs of cluster activities for compliance and monitoring.

Read access to the audit log topic is denied, but logging continues.

Continuous Data Balancing

Automatically balances partitions across a cluster to optimize resource use and performance.

Continuous balancing is disabled, reverting to node_add.

Iceberg Topics

Enables Iceberg integration for Redpanda topics.

Topics cannot be created or modified with the redpanda.iceberg.mode property.

Preview Beta Feature (beta)

Fixture for the beta release status. Available to readers, still changing.

The feature is disabled.

Tiered Storage

Enables data storage in cloud object storage for long-term retention and retrieval.

Topics cannot be created or modified to enable Tiered Storage features.

Topic Deletion Control (delete_topic_enable)

Prevents all users, including superusers, from deleting topics through the Kafka DeleteTopics API.

Topic deletion reverts to enabled (true).

Redpanda Console enterprise features

The following enterprise features for Redpanda Console are activated with a valid Enterprise Edition license key:

Table 2. Enterprise features in Redpanda Console
Feature Description Restrictions Without Valid License

Redpanda Connect enterprise features

The following enterprise features are available with a valid Enterprise Edition license.

Table 3. Enterprise features in Redpanda Connect
Feature Description Restrictions Without Valid License

Enterprise connectors

Additional inputs, outputs, and processors available only to enterprise customers.

All enterprise connectors are blocked.

Redpanda Operator enterprise features

The Redpanda Operator gates the following Kubernetes features on a valid Enterprise Edition license. In both cases, the operator reads the license from a Secret referenced by the enterprise.licenseSecretRef values in the operator Helm chart.

Table 4. Enterprise features in the Redpanda Operator
Feature Description Restrictions Without Valid License

Stretch Clusters (StretchCluster resource) (beta)

A single logical Redpanda cluster distributed across multiple Kubernetes clusters.

The multicluster operator requires a valid license to start.

Manage licenses for Redpanda

Redpanda offers multiple ways to manage your license depending on your deployment method. Proper license management ensures access to advanced enterprise features and avoids restrictions when licenses are invalid or expired.

See Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda.

Manage licenses for Redpanda Console

Redpanda Console offers two methods for applying or updating a license, depending on your setup:

Manage licenses for Redpanda Connect

Redpanda Connect offers multiple ways to apply or update your license. See Apply a license key to Redpanda Connect.

Manage licenses for the Redpanda Operator

The Redpanda Operator reads its license from a Kubernetes Secret referenced by the enterprise.licenseSecretRef values in the operator Helm chart:

kubectl create secret generic redpanda-license \
  --from-file=license=<path-to-license-file> \
  --namespace <namespace>

helm upgrade --install redpanda-operator redpanda/operator \
  --namespace <namespace> \
  --set enterprise.licenseSecretRef.name=redpanda-license \
  --set enterprise.licenseSecretRef.key=license

This operator-level license gates the operator’s own enterprise features, such as the multicluster operator and the Connect controller. The clusters that the operator manages are licensed independently: set the enterprise.license or enterprise.licenseSecretRef field in a Redpanda or StretchCluster resource, and the operator applies that license to the cluster for you. See Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda in Kubernetes.

Next steps