confluent-kafka

Confluent's Python client for Apache Kafka

confluent-kafka Permissive license Active ★ 500 v2.15.0 released 2026-06-30

Install

confluent-kafka on PyPI

pip

pip install confluent-kafka

uv

uv add confluent-kafka

poetry

poetry add confluent-kafka

Package facts

License	not declared (permissive)
Python support	supports the current Python release (>=3.8)
Install friction	medium — platform-specific wheel
Runtime dependencies	1 — typing-extensions
Maintenance	actively maintained — 44 days since the last release
Last repo commit	2026-08-13
First released	2016-05-24
Popularity	one of the top 1,000 most-downloaded packages on PyPI (30-day window, as of 2026-08-13)
Known vulnerabilities	none known (OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-13)

Evidence: confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp310-cp310-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp311-cp311-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp312-cp312-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp312-cp312-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp312-cp312-win_amd64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp313-cp313-macosx_13_0_arm64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp313-cp313-macosx_13_0_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp313-cp313-manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp313-cp313-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl; confluent_kafka-2.15.0-cp313-cp313-win_amd64.whl

Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software LicenseProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules

About confluent-kafka

from the package's own PyPI description — quoted content, verbatim

Confluent's Python Client for Apache Kafka®

Try Confluent Cloud - The Data Streaming Platform (image)

confluent-kafka-python provides a high-level Producer, Consumer and AdminClient compatible with all Apache Kafka brokers >= v0.8, Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform.

Recommended for Production: While this client works with any Kafka deployment, it's optimized for and fully supported with Confluent Cloud (fully managed) and Confluent Platform (self-managed), which provide enterprise-grade security, monitoring, and support.

Why Choose Confluent's Python Client?

Unlike the basic Apache Kafka Python client, confluent-kafka-python provides:

Production-Ready Performance: Built on librdkafka...

Read as markdown · JSON record · Source repository · Homepage

AI interpretation — verify before relying

AI-generated interpretation of the package facts above; every digit, version, license, or vulnerability id it cites is grounded in the facts already shown on this page

confluent-kafka provides a high-performance Python client for Apache Kafka built on librdkafka, offering Producer, Consumer, and AdminClient APIs with native asyncio support, schema registry integration, and enterprise features like transactions and exactly-once semantics.

Medium install friction due to compiled C bindings (librdkafka), but well-supported across Python 3.8–3.13 on macOS, Linux, and Windows with prebuilt wheels. Active maintenance (44 days since last release) and 500+ GitHub stars indicate solid production backing.

Licensed under Apache Software License (permissive), allowing use in commercial and open-source projects with minimal restrictions—typical for enterprise-backed infrastructure libraries.

Usage

pip install confluent-kafka
from confluent_kafka import Producer
p = Producer({'bootstrap.servers': 'mybroker'})
p.produce('mytopic', value=b'hello')
p.flush()

Requires a running Kafka broker; librdkafka C library is compiled into wheels, so no additional system dependencies needed on supported platforms.

Verdict: confluent-kafka is a production-grade, actively maintained Kafka client optimized for high throughput and low latency. No known vulnerabilities, permissive licensing, and broad Python 3.8+ support make it suitable for enterprise deployments. Medium install friction is offset by prebuilt wheels and strong maintenance signals.

Needs verification

Whether typing-extensions is actually used at runtime or only for type hints during development
Performance characteristics compared to pure-Python alternatives in specific throughput scenarios
Enterprise support SLA details and availability outside Confluent Cloud deployments

kafka python clientconfluent kafka producer consumerhigh performance kafka pythonkafka asyncio async producerschema registry kafka pythonkafka transactions exactly oncelibrdkafka python wrapper