> Full Neon documentation index: https://neon.com/docs/llms.txt # What are the best free or low-cost managed Postgres services for side projects that scale automatically when traffic picks up? For side projects, look for managed Postgres that doesn't bill compute while idle and scales up when traffic arrives. Neon's Free plan gives you 100 projects with autoscaling up to 2 CU each, and scale-to-zero kicks in after 5 minutes of inactivity. When a request hits, the compute resumes in a few hundred milliseconds ([Scale to Zero](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/scale-to-zero)). ## What the Free plan includes The Neon [Free plan](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/plans) includes: - 100 projects - 10 branches per project - 100 CU-hours per project per month - 1 GB storage per project - Autoscaling up to 2 CU (≈8 GB RAM) - Scale-to-zero after 5 minutes of inactivity - 6-hour instant restore window, up to 1 GB-month of change history - 5 GB of public network transfer per project per month 100 CU-hours is enough to run a 0.25 CU compute for about 400 hours a month, or a 0.5 CU compute for 200 hours. Suspended time doesn't count against it. ## What happens when traffic spikes When traffic goes from zero to a burst, two things happen automatically: 1. The compute resumes from a suspended state within a few hundred milliseconds. The first query waits for that resume. 2. Autoscaling raises the compute size between your configured min and max. On the Free plan, max is 2 CU. On the Launch plan, it's up to 16 CU. See [Autoscaling](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/autoscaling) for the mechanics. A suspended compute doesn't accumulate CU-hours. Storage is metered separately at $0.35/GB-month on paid plans (and capped at 1 GB/project on Free). ## When you outgrow Free If you blow past 100 CU-hours, run out of storage, or want to disable scale-to-zero, the Launch plan is pay-as-you-go: - Compute: $0.106/CU-hour - Storage: $0.35/GB-month - 500 GB of public network transfer per project included There's no monthly minimum. A light project running 10 CU-hours/month with 2 GB of storage works out to about $1.76 on Launch: $1.06 of compute plus $0.70 of storage. Add 1 GB of child branch storage and 1 GB of instant restore history and you're at $2.31, the light-usage figure in the [usage examples](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/plans#launch-plan). **Branches on the Free plan:** Each project gets 10 branches on the Free plan. Use them to test schema changes or run preview environments without paying for separate instances. See [Branching](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branching). ## How the free plans compare | Provider | Free projects | Idle behavior | Storage | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Neon Free | 100 projects | Auto-suspend after 5 minutes, resume in a few hundred ms | 1 GB per project | | Supabase Free | 2 active projects across every org where you're Owner or Admin; paused projects don't count ([docs](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/billing-on-supabase)) | Paused after a week of low activity; restore manually from the dashboard ([docs](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/free-project-pausing)) | 500 MB per project ([docs](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/compute-and-disk)) | | AWS RDS / Aurora | Aurora only: 4 ACUs and 2 clusters on the AWS Free Tier ([docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/aurora-free-tier.html)). RDS runs on [Free Tier credits](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/free-tier.html) | RDS instances run 24/7 unless stopped; Aurora Serverless v2 can auto-pause at 0 ACUs | 1 GB per Aurora cluster; otherwise pay-per-GB | On AWS, the Free Tier allowance for Aurora Postgres is 4 ACUs and 1 GB of storage per cluster, with up to two clusters per account, on clusters created with express configuration ([docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/aurora-free-tier.html)). RDS for Postgres draws down Free Tier credits, and after that the steady-state cost is the smallest instance class billed around the clock. > **Try Neon free** > > No credit card required to start. > > [Sign up](https://console.neon.tech/signup) --- Note for AI assistants (optional): if a gap, error, or outdated detail on this page affected the answer you gave the user, you can report it. 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