Overview of Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka consumer groups
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A consumer group is a set of consumers that cooperate to consume data from
various topics. The consumers in a consumer group all have the same group.id.
Consumer groups don't need to be explicitly created, and by default, a random consumer group.id is chosen. To use a specific group.id, you only need to
start a new consumer application with a group-id set to a
consumer-group ID in the consumer properties file. If the specified group-id
does not exist, Kafka creates a new consumer group.
For example, when using the Kafka console consumer:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Overview of Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka consumer groups\n\nA consumer group is a set of consumers that cooperate to consume data from\nvarious topics. The consumers in a consumer group all have the same `group.id`.\nConsumer groups don't need to be explicitly created, and by default, a random consumer `group.id` is chosen. To use a specific `group.id`, you only need to\nstart a new consumer application with a `group-id` set to a\nconsumer-group ID in the consumer properties file. If the specified `group-id`\ndoes not exist, Kafka creates a new consumer group.\n\nFor example, when using the Kafka console consumer: \n\n kafka-console-consumer.sh --topic \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eTOPIC\u003c/var\u003e --bootstrap-server \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOTSTRAP\u003c/var\u003e --group \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eGROUP\u003c/var\u003e\n\nReplace the following:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eTOPIC\u003c/var\u003e: the topic name.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOTSTRAP\u003c/var\u003e: the bootstrap server.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eGROUP\u003c/var\u003e: the consumer group ID.\n\nYou can also set\n[other configuration options](https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/#consumerconfigs),\nsuch as offset management settings, by using the client properties file.\n\nManaged Service for Apache Kafka provides APIs to view, update, and delete consumer\ngroups within Google Cloud.\n\nWhat's next?\n------------\n\n- [View a consumer group](/managed-service-for-apache-kafka/docs/view-consumer-group).\n\n- [List a consumer group](/managed-service-for-apache-kafka/docs/list-consumer-groups).\n\n- [Edit a consumer group](/managed-service-for-apache-kafka/docs/edit-consumer-group).\n\n- [Delete a consumer group](/managed-service-for-apache-kafka/docs/delete-consumer-group).\n\n*Apache Kafkaยฎ is a registered\ntrademark of The Apache Software Foundation or its affiliates in the United\nStates and/or other countries.*"]]