Kafka throughput & storage

Reference scenarios

Calculated using the default assumptions above, varying the first input only.

How this estimate works

Ingress equals event rate times average payload. Retained bytes equal ingress times retention seconds times replication factor. Broker count is at least the replication factor and must satisfy both storage and leader-ingress constraints. Replication traffic estimates the additional replica copies; consumer egress is excluded. Values use decimal KB, MB and TB. Compression, protocol overhead, partition balance, compaction, rack placement, disk headroom and fault recovery can materially change capacity requirements. Benchmark your broker configuration before provisioning.

Start with your measured workload, adjust one assumption at a time, and compare the resulting capacity. Save the scenario link to return to these inputs or share it with your team. Reference scenarios remain fixed so you can compare against a consistent baseline.