---
title: "Managing Kafka topics"
sidebar_label: "Managing topics"
sidebar_position: 7
description: "How to create a topic, define the number of partitions in a topic, and delete a topic"
toc_max_heading_level: 2
---

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# Managing Kafka topics

The distributed Kafka system uses a model of topics and partitions to organize data.

A topic is a grouping principle for a stream of messages by category. Multiple [producers and consumers](/managed-databases/kafka/manage-users.mdx#user-roles) granted access can work with a topic independently.

## Partitions \{#partitions}

Each topic can have multiple partitions—physical units for data storage. Partitions are used for parallel data processing and system scaling. Each message is written to a specific topic partition. All messages within a single partition maintain their order.

When [creating a topic](#create-topic), you can define the number of partitions. After a topic is created, you can only increase the number of partitions.

## Create a topic \{#create-topic}

1. In the [Dashboard](https://my.selectel.ru/vpc/default/dbaas/), on the top menu, click **Products** and select **Managed Databases**.
2. Open the **Active** tab.
3. Open the cluster page → **Topics** tab.
4. Click **Create topic**.
5. Enter a topic name.
6. Enter the number of partitions. The maximum number of partitions is 4 000. You cannot decrease the number of partitions after a topic is created.
7. Click **Create**.

## Delete a topic \{#delete-topic}

1. In the [Dashboard](https://my.selectel.ru/vpc/default/dbaas/), on the top menu, click **Products** and select **Managed Databases**.
2. Open the **Active** tab.
3. Open the cluster page → **Topics** tab.
4. In the <MoreVerticalIcon /> topic menu, select **Delete**.
5. Enter the topic name to confirm the deletion.
6. Click **Delete**.

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