Serverless Postgres on Koyeb. One free instance with 0.25 vCPU, 1 GB RAM and 5 compute hours a month.
Sniffed 2d ago Card required#postgresql#database#serverless#pgvector#managed-database#koyeb#scale-to-zero
Five compute hours a month fits a quick prototype, not an always-on app. Koyeb Postgres is the serverless database service inside the Koyeb platform. Every plan can deploy one free instance with 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM. The free instance gets 5 hours of compute a month and 1 GB of stored data, and it goes to sleep after 5 minutes without activity, then wakes on the next query with a small delay. Paid sizes start at Small, with the same 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM, for $29.76 a month, with storage at $0.50 per GB a month and billing by the second. Compute charges pause while a database sleeps, but storage charges continue. Regions are Frankfurt, Washington D.C. and Singapore, and the docs list extensions such as pgvector and PostGIS. I found no reviews of the database on its own. The platform has G2 4.9 from 20 and Trustpilot 2.4 from 9, and the Trustpilot complaints center on ID verification blocks.
Free tier quotas
Free instance
One free-type instance on every plan
Free instance size
0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM
Compute time
5 hours a month
Stored data
1 GB maximum
Sleep behavior
Sleeps after 5 minutes of inactivity and wakes on the first query
Regions
Frankfurt, Washington D.C. and Singapore
Connection limit
About 112 connections on 1 GB of RAM
Extensions
pgvector 0.8.0, PostGIS, pg_trgm, pg_search, pg_graphql and TimescaleDB (Apache-2 features only), among others
First paid size
Small at $29.76 a month with storage at $0.50 per GB a month
Last sniffed Oct 23, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+Every Koyeb plan can deploy one free instance of 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM, which is enough to run a real Postgres for a demo or a small side project.
+Compute billing pauses while a database sleeps. The docs give a worked example: a Medium instance running 4 hours a day with 10 GB of storage comes to $14.60 a month.
+The extension list is long. It includes pgvector 0.8.0, PostGIS, pg_trgm, pg_search, pg_graphql and TimescaleDB (Apache-2 features only).
+The connection limit is derived from the instance RAM, which is 112 connections on 1 GB, so the limit is documented instead of left to guesswork.
+Roles and logical databases you create directly in Postgres sync back to the Koyeb dashboard about every ten minutes, and you can also manage roles and logical databases from the dashboard.
+The platform that hosts it has a G2 rating of 4.9 from 20 reviews, and the database uses the same account and console.
+An r/node commenter in a 2024 thread about Railway's free plan suggested trying Koyeb and called it a nice platform.
👎 Watch out
−The free instance has only 5 hours of compute a month, so it suits demos and tests, not an always-on app. It sleeps after 5 minutes of inactivity and the first query wakes it with a delay.
−Only three regions are available: Frankfurt, Washington D.C. and Singapore.
−The jump to paid is steep. Small costs $29.76 a month for the same 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM, and storage is billed at $0.50 per GB a month even when the database sleeps.
−The docs disagree with themselves on versions. The create form lists PostgreSQL 14 to 17, and the limitations section says 14 to 16. Check what the console offers.
−Parts of the docs come from Neon's. The extension table includes neon and neon_utils entries and a connection errors link points to Neon's docs, so you may land on pages written for another product.
−Account friction on Koyeb is a risk. Five of the nine Trustpilot reviews describe blocked accounts or ID verification demands on the same Koyeb account the database would live in.
−I found no independent reviews of Koyeb Postgres itself. An r/SpringBoot commenter said the Koyeb app they tried still went to sleep after inactivity, and the pricing page shows a banner saying Koyeb is joining Mistral AI with no detail on the roadmap.
The catch
Every Koyeb plan can deploy a single database of the free type. It has 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM, a cap of 5 hours of compute a month and a 1 GB limit on stored data. After 5 minutes of inactivity the compute sleeps, and it wakes at the first new query with a minor delay.
The paid sizes start at Small, which has the same 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB RAM for $29.76 a month. Medium is $59.52, Large is $119.04, XLarge is $238.08, 2XLarge is $476.16 and 3XLarge is $952.32. Storage on Small and above is $0.50 per GB a month. Billing is by the second, instance charges pause while a database sleeps, and storage charges keep running. The docs example: a Medium instance running 4 hours a day with 10 GB of storage costs $14.60 a month.
Regions are Frankfurt, Washington D.C. and Singapore. Koyeb as a whole has Trustpilot complaints about accounts blocked until the owner passes an ID check, which would affect the database too because it lives in the same account. The pricing page also shows a banner saying Koyeb is joining Mistral AI. The docs page I read was last updated May 27, 2026. I did not find statements about credit cards or commercial use for the free instance, so both are unknown.
What’s included
✓Serverless PostgreSQL clusters with multiple logical databases
✓Scale to zero after 5 minutes of inactivity
✓Per-second billing
✓PostgreSQL versions 14 to 17 (the docs disagree on 17)
✓pgvector, PostGIS and TimescaleDB extensions
✓Role and logical database management from the dashboard
✓Sync with Postgres about every ten minutes
✓Instance sizes from 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB to 8 vCPU and 32 GB
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
One free instance: 0.25 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB storage, 5 compute hours a month
Feature parity
The free type matches Small on CPU and RAM but caps compute at 5 hours and data at 1 GB.
