Check the console: the plan table says 1 free database and the FAQ says up to 10. Upstash sells serverless Redis. This listing covers its Redis pricing. The Free plan costs $0 and includes 250 MB of data, 10 GB of monthly bandwidth and 500K commands a month. Pay as you go is $0.20 per 100K commands, $0.25 per GB of storage (first 1 GB free) and bandwidth free up to 200 GB then $0.03 per GB, with a 100 GB data limit. Fixed plans run from $10 a month for 250 MB up to $1,500 a month for 500 GB, with no per-command billing. The FAQ says a POST to upstash.com/start-redis returns a free Redis database with no signup, card or API key, deleted after 3 days unless you claim it. Forum discussion centers on whether the free tier suffices for rate limiting and on command costs. I found no G2 or Trustpilot listing for Upstash itself.
Free tier quotas
Data size
250 MB
Monthly commands
500K
Monthly bandwidth
10 GB
Databases
The plan table shows 1 free database, while the FAQ says up to 10 databases for free. Confirm in the console
Card
The FAQ says entering a card upgrades the database to pay as you go, which implies Free needs none
Instant database
A POST to upstash.com/start-redis returns a free Redis database with no signup, card or API key. It is deleted after 3 days unless you claim it
Upgrade
Pay as you go is $0.20 per 100K commands. Paid databases do not get a free 250 MB and 500K commands
Last sniffed Oct 18, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+The Free plan needs no card, based on the FAQ's wording that adding a card is what upgrades a database to pay as you go.
+The no-signup start-redis endpoint gives you a throwaway Redis database in one POST request, which is handy for demos and tests.
+Pay as you go is simple and published: $0.20 per 100K commands, $0.25 per GB of storage with the first GB free, and bandwidth free to 200 GB.
+Fixed plans have no command-count billing. You pay for data size, bandwidth and throughput limits instead, so a heavy-traffic app gets a predictable bill from $10 a month.
+A commenter on r/vercel said Upstash uses HTTP, which suits serverless functions that cannot hold open TCP connections.
+An r/nextjs thread on rate limiting says the free tier might be enough to start, depending on how aggressive your limits are and how much traffic you have.
👎 Watch out
−500K commands a month can run out quickly. A r/nextjs thread says whether the free tier is enough for rate limiting depends on traffic.
−Command-based billing worries people. An r/nextjs post titled around Upstash rate limiting being expensive points to the $0.20 per 100K commands rate, and an r/redis poster reported command usage incrementing unexpectedly.
−A paid pay-as-you-go database does not get a free first 250 MB and 500K commands, per the FAQ. Free applies only to the Free plan.
−The pricing page shows both 1 free database and up to 10 free databases, so the actual free database limit is unclear.
−Fixed plans jump from $10 for 250 MB to $20 for 1 GB and $100 for 5 GB, and each read region adds to the bill, from $5 a month on the $10 plan to $750 on the $1,500 plan.
−I found no G2 or Trustpilot listing for Upstash, so independent evidence is forum threads.
The catch
The Free plan is a prototype tier: 250 MB, 500K commands and 10 GB of bandwidth a month. Whether it covers rate limiting depends on traffic, per a r/nextjs thread, so measure before relying on it.
The pricing page contradicts itself on database count. The plan table says 1 free database, while the FAQ says up to 10 databases for free, then $0.50 each up to 100. A paid pay-as-you-go database does not receive the free 250 MB and 500K commands.
Card handling is inferred. The FAQ says entering a card upgrades a free database to pay as you go, so Free appears to need none, but I did not see a direct statement, so I list it as unknown. I found no G2 or Trustpilot listing, and I could not confirm commercial terms for Free.
What’s included
✓Serverless Redis with an HTTP API
✓Free, pay as you go and fixed plans
✓Read regions as a paid add-on
✓Instant free database through start-redis
✓100 GB maximum data size on pay as you go
✓10 MB maximum request size
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
500K Redis commands and 250 MB a month
Feature parity
Pay as you go raises data to 100 GB. Fixed plans start at $10 and remove per-command billing.
Screenshots
HomepagePricing page
Paid plans
Pay as you go
$0.20 per 100K commands, $0.25 per GB of storage with the first GB free, bandwidth free up to 200 GB then $0.03 per GB. Maximum data size 100 GB, request size 10 MB, record size 100 MB.
Fixed 250 MB to 1 GB
$10 a month for 250 MB with 50 GB of bandwidth, and $20 a month for 1 GB. No command-count billing. An extra read region adds $5 a month on the $10 plan and $10 on the $20 plan.
Fixed 5 GB to 500 GB
$100 (5 GB), $200 (10 GB), $400 (50 GB), $800 (100 GB) and $1,500 (500 GB) a month. No command-count billing.
Enterprise, custom
Custom pricing with up to 10 TB of data.
Common questions
How many free commands does Upstash give?
500K commands a month, with 250 MB of data and 10 GB of bandwidth.
How do I upgrade from Free?
Enter a credit card and the database is upgraded to pay as you go with updated limits.
Do paid databases keep the free allowance?
No. The FAQ says a paid database's first 250 MB and 500K commands are not free.
Do fixed plans charge per command?
No. Fixed plans bill for data size, bandwidth and throughput limits, not per command.
Can I get a Redis database without signing up?
Yes. A POST to upstash.com/start-redis returns a free database with no signup, card or API key. It is deleted after 3 days unless claimed.
Change history
Checked October 22, 2026
Redis pricing page and FAQ read. No G2 or Trustpilot listing for Upstash found; the G2 results were for Redis products. Reddit threads read as excerpts. Free database count conflicts on the page. Commercial terms unknown.
