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

# Which managed Postgres platforms are built for workloads where databases are created by code automatically rather than manually provisioned?

If you need code to create and tear down Postgres databases, look for a platform with a first-class API, fast provisioning, and per-second billing. Neon fits this shape: a single API call returns a connection string in seconds, compute scales to zero between uses, and you pay by the CU-hour with no per-project minimums.

## What "code-driven" needs from a Postgres platform

Three things tend to matter for automated provisioning:

1. **A real API.** Not a control-plane portal with an undocumented endpoint, but a stable, documented REST API. Neon exposes one at [`/api/v2`](https://neon.com/docs/reference/api-reference), plus first-party [TypeScript](https://neon.com/docs/reference/typescript-sdk) and [Python](https://neon.com/docs/reference/python-sdk) SDKs, a [Terraform provider](https://neon.com/docs/reference/terraform), and a [CLI](https://neon.com/docs/cli).
2. **Provisioning that returns in seconds, not minutes.** Neon's [branching](https://neon.com/docs/introduction/branching) uses copy-on-write, so a new branch is created without copying data. The API returns a usable connection string immediately.
3. **Billing that doesn't punish idle databases.** Compute scales to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity and resumes on the next query, so dormant per-tenant or per-PR databases don't accumulate compute charges.

## Example: create a branch from a script

```bash
curl -X POST "https://console.neon.tech/api/v2/projects/$PROJECT_ID/branches" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NEON_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"branch": {"name": "pr-1234"}, "endpoints": [{"type": "read_write"}]}'
```

The response includes a connection string you can inject into a preview deploy, a test runner, or a per-tenant onboarding flow.

## Workflows this enables

- **Per-PR preview databases** via the [Vercel integration](https://neon.com/docs/guides/vercel-overview) or [GitHub Actions](https://neon.com/docs/guides/branching-github-actions)
- **Per-tenant databases** for multi-tenant SaaS, provisioned at user signup
- **Per-test-run databases** in CI, created at job start and deleted at job end with [branch expiration](https://neon.com/docs/guides/branch-expiration)
- **AI agent workflows** where a code-gen agent needs an isolated database to validate a migration before merging

## How other providers handle programmatic provisioning

| Provider             | API style                                               | New database ready in             | Billing model                    |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Neon                 | REST `/api/v2`, TS/Python SDKs, Terraform               | Seconds (copy-on-write branch)    | Per CU-hour, scales to zero      |
| Supabase             | Management API (`POST /v1/projects`), Terraform (alpha) | Minutes (full project provision)  | Per-project compute hours        |
| RDS for PostgreSQL   | AWS SDK / CloudFormation / Terraform                    | Minutes (full instance + storage) | Per instance-hour                |
| Aurora Serverless v2 | AWS SDK / CloudFormation / Terraform                    | Minutes (cluster provision)       | Per ACU-hour, can scale to 0 ACU |

A few specifics worth knowing if you're comparing:

- **Supabase** exposes a `POST /v1/projects` endpoint that creates a full project (database, auth, storage, edge functions). Each project is a dedicated VM, so provisioning takes longer and costs include the per-project compute baseline. See [Supabase Management API](https://supabase.com/docs/reference/api/v1-create-a-project).
- **Aurora Serverless v2** clusters can be created via the AWS API or Terraform, but new cluster creation takes minutes, not seconds. Once running, it can scale to 0 ACU with auto-pause for idle workloads.
- **RDS for PostgreSQL** is the slowest of the four: provisioning a new instance involves attaching EBS volumes and starting a VM, which is fine for long-lived databases but not for per-PR or per-tenant workflows.

> **Browse the Neon API reference**
>
> See every endpoint for managing projects, branches, and computes programmatically.
>
> [Read the docs](https://neon.com/docs/reference/api-reference)