How to create a Free-tier Aiven PostgreSQL 18 service using the avn CLI (when it's missing from the web UI)
Last verified: 2026-07-25 Tags: Aiven, PostgreSQL 18, Aiven CLI,
avn, free tier, free-1-1gb, preview version, managed Postgres, database provisioning TL;DR: As of this writing, Aiven's web console only lets you pick PostgreSQL up to version 17 on the Free plan, because PG 18 is still taggedpreview. The Aiven CLI has no such restriction — you can create a Free PostgreSQL 18 service directly withavn service create.
Aiven's Free plan (free-1-1gb) is normally created through the web console, but the console's version picker only offers PostgreSQL versions that Aiven has promoted out of preview status. At the time of writing, PostgreSQL 18 is available but still marked preview, so it does not show up as a selectable option in the UI — even though the underlying platform fully supports provisioning it.