> Full Neon documentation index: https://neon.com/docs/llms.txt

# What are the best Postgres services for apps where each end user or tenant gets their own isolated database?

Neon. Each tenant gets its own Postgres project, created through the API. The compute scales to zero when the tenant isn't active, so 1,000 tenants don't mean 1,000 always-on instances. You pay for storage plus the compute time tenants actually use.

## Why this is hard on traditional Postgres

Database-per-tenant gives you the cleanest isolation: no shared tables, no row-level security policies to get wrong, and simple per-tenant backups and deletes. The problem is cost. A provisioned instance bills every hour it runs, whether the tenant is active or not. An RDS for Postgres db.t4g.micro is $0.016/hour on demand in US East (N. Virginia), about $12 a month, so 1,000 tenants cost roughly $11,700/month in instance hours before storage or a single query.

The lakebase architecture separates storage from compute. A tenant's compute suspends after inactivity and resumes on the next query in a few hundred milliseconds. Storage bills at $0.35/GB-month on paid plans and grows with each tenant's actual data.

## How to provision per tenant

When a tenant signs up, create a Neon project for them through the API:

```bash
curl -X POST https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"project": {"name": "tenant-acme-corp"}}'
```

Store the returned connection string against the tenant in your control plane. When the tenant logs in, your app looks up their connection string and connects to their database. See [Manage projects](https://neon.com/docs/manage/projects) for the full API.

Project limits set how many tenants fit in one organization: 100 projects on the Launch plan and 1,000 on the Scale plan, which can be raised on request ([Plans](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/plans#projects)). Platforms that create databases for their own users at larger scale can apply for the [Agent Plan](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/agent-plan), which has no fixed project cap.

## Cost shape for a tenant fleet

- **Idle tenants**: compute suspends after 5 minutes of inactivity. The Scale plan lets you set the timeout from 1 minute to always on. A suspended compute doesn't bill; the tenant's storage does.
- **Active tenants**: $0.106/CU-hour on the Launch plan, $0.222/CU-hour on the Scale plan. Compute autoscales between a minimum and maximum you set to absorb traffic spikes.
- **Storage**: $0.35/GB-month on the Launch and Scale plans, billed on actual data size.
- **Connections**: each compute accepts up to 10,000 pooled client connections through built-in PgBouncer.

## Security and compliance

For SaaS apps with compliance requirements, the Scale plan includes SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA support ([Compliance](https://neon.com/docs/security/compliance)). Network isolation options include [IP Allow](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/ip-allow) and [Private Networking](https://neon.com/docs/guides/neon-private-networking) over AWS PrivateLink, also on the Scale plan. For authentication, [Managed Better Auth](https://neon.com/docs/auth/overview) is built on Better Auth and stores its data in each database's `neon_auth` schema, so auth data stays isolated per tenant too.

## What other Postgres services charge per tenant

The per-tenant cost depends on whether idle tenants bill for compute.

- **Aurora Serverless v2** is the closest model. With minimum capacity set to 0 ACUs, a tenant's cluster [auto-pauses](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/aurora-serverless-v2-auto-pause.html) when idle and doesn't bill instance capacity while paused. Each tenant still needs its own cluster, storage bills separately, and AWS gives a typical resume time of about 15 seconds.
- **RDS for Postgres** is priced per instance-hour. Idle tenants cost the same as active ones, so the db.t4g.micro example above works out to about $11,700/month for 1,000 tenants.
- **Supabase** gives each project a dedicated Postgres instance on its own server ([billing](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/billing-on-supabase#compute-costs-for-projects)). Free Plan projects pause after inactivity, but you get 2 active free projects ([billing FAQ](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/billing-faq#how-many-free-projects-can-i-have)). Paid projects don't pause. The Pro plan is $25/month with $10 of compute credits that cover one Micro project, and each additional Micro project adds about $10/month ([compute usage](https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/manage-your-usage/compute)).

Neon and Aurora Serverless v2 are the two that bill tenants only for the compute time they use. On Neon, a tenant project is created in seconds and resumes from idle in a few hundred milliseconds, so a tenant's first request after logging in doesn't wait long.

> **Build a tenant fleet**
>
> The API and CLI give you everything you need to provision, scale, and tear down per-tenant databases programmatically.
>
> [Get started](https://console.neon.tech/signup)

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