Neon

Serverless Postgres With Git-Style Branching

United States
Category
Managed DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Plan Usage-based
Pricing Examples
Free: $0/month Launch: pay-as-you-go (no minimum) Scale: pay-as-you-go (no minimum) Enterprise: custom

Overview

Category
Managed DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Plan Usage-based
Pricing Examples
Free: $0/month Launch: pay-as-you-go (no minimum) Scale: pay-as-you-go (no minimum) Enterprise: custom

What is Neon?

Neon is a serverless Postgres platform founded in 2021 by Nikita Shamgunov (formerly of Microsoft SQL Server and SingleStore), Heikki Linnakangas, and Stas Kelvich. It separates compute from storage, allowing databases to scale to zero when idle and branch like a Git repository. Its architecture is built on a custom storage engine that pages data between a shared disk layer and stateless compute endpoints. In 2025, Databricks acquired Neon for roughly $1 billion to power serverless Postgres for AI agents; Neon continues to run as a standalone product at neon.com.

Use Cases

  • Serverless Applications — Pay-per-use Postgres with auto-suspend for cost efficiency
  • Development Branches — Instant database branching for preview environments
  • CI/CD Pipelines — Ephemeral database replicas for testing
  • Multi-Tenant — Database-per-branch isolation for SaaS applications

Branching and Scale-to-Zero

Neon’s key differentiator is Postgres branching: you can create a copy-on-write branch of any database in seconds, without duplicating storage. This makes it practical to give every developer their own isolated database for testing. Combined with automatic scale-to-zero (compute suspends after 5 minutes of inactivity on Free), idle databases cost almost nothing — you keep paying only for storage.

Pricing

Neon is usage-based. There is a permanent free tier (0.5 GB storage and 100 compute-hours per project per month), and the Launch and Scale plans have no monthly minimum. Compute is billed per CU-hour (a CU is roughly 1 vCPU + 4 GB RAM): $0.106/CU-hour on Launch and $0.222/CU-hour on Scale. Storage is billed separately at $0.35/GB-month. The gotcha is that compute is only free while scaled to zero — an always-on database runs the compute meter around the clock. After the Databricks acquisition, storage was cut to $0.35/GB-month, compute rates dropped 15–25%, and the Scale plan gained SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA eligibility.

Database Compatibility

Fully Postgres-compatible (no fork or middleware). Supports all standard Postgres extensions including PostGIS, pgvector, and pg_partman. Connection pooling via PgBouncer included.

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Features

Category

Managed
DBaaS
API Gateway

Integrations

Databricks
Drizzle
Netlify
Prisma
Railway
Render
Vercel

Pricing

Plans

Neon is usage-based: you pay separately for compute (billed per CU-hour) and storage (billed per GB-month). Compute autoscales and scales to zero when idle, so an idle database costs almost nothing. Launch and Scale have no monthly minimum and no fixed base fee — the gotcha is that an always-on database that never scales to zero runs the compute meter 24/7. After Databricks acquired Neon (2025), storage was cut to $0.35/GB-month and compute rates dropped 15–25%.

Free

$ 0 per month

  • 0.5 GB storage per project
  • 100 CU-hours compute per project / month
  • Up to 100 projects
  • 10 branches per project
  • Autoscaling up to 2 CU (8 GB RAM)
  • Scale-to-zero after 5 min (always on)
  • 6-hour point-in-time restore
  • Community support

Launch

$ Pay as you go per month

  • No monthly minimum
  • Compute $0.106 / CU-hour
  • Storage $0.35 / GB-month
  • Up to 100 projects
  • 10 branches included, then $1.50 / branch-month
  • Autoscaling up to 16 CU
  • Configurable scale-to-zero
  • Up to 7-day point-in-time restore
  • Billing support

Scale

$ Pay as you go per month

  • No monthly minimum
  • Compute $0.222 / CU-hour
  • Storage $0.35 / GB-month
  • Up to 1,000 projects
  • 25 branches included, then $1.50 / branch-month
  • Autoscaling up to 16 CU or fixed sizes to 56 CU
  • Configurable scale-to-zero (1 min to always-on)
  • Up to 30-day point-in-time restore
  • SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA eligible
  • Standard / Business / Production support tiers

Enterprise

$ Custom per month

  • Everything in Scale
  • Volume / committed-use discounts
  • Dedicated support and custom SLAs
  • Advanced compliance and security review
  • Custom limits and onboarding

Resource Pricing

Neon meters compute and storage separately. A CU (Compute Unit) is ~1 vCPU + ~4 GB RAM; databases autoscale between a minimum and maximum CU and bill per CU-hour of actual usage. Storage is billed per GB-month. The part people miss: compute is only free while scaled to zero — an always-on database bills CU-hours around the clock.

  • Compute (Launch)

    per CU-hour

    $0.106

  • Compute (Scale)

    per CU-hour

    $0.222

  • Storage

    per GB-month

    $0.35

  • Extra branches

    per branch-month

    $1.50

  • Egress (public)

    per GB beyond 500 GB included

    $0.10

  • Private networking

    per GB (Scale only)

    $0.01

Find the full pricing details on the official Neon

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Neon Regions

Neon runs on AWS regions worldwide; each project is deployed to a single region. Neon’s earlier Azure regions (azure-eastus2, azure-westus3, azure-gwc) are deprecated — existing projects keep running, but new projects can only be created on AWS.
Neon's 8 datacenter locations by region. (June 18, 2026) - Map by d3js.org

8 Neon datacenter locations and IDs per region

Source: https://neon.com/docs/introduction/regions

Location

Region

ID

US East (N. Virginia)North Americaaws-us-east-1
US East (Ohio)North Americaaws-us-east-2
US West (Oregon)North Americaaws-us-west-2
São PauloSouth Americaaws-sa-east-1
FrankfurtEuropeaws-eu-central-1
LondonEuropeaws-eu-west-2
SingaporeAsia Pacificaws-ap-southeast-1
SydneyAsia Pacificaws-ap-southeast-2
Last updated: June 18, 2026

*Information is subject to change. Verify with the official Neon website.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Neon

Neon starts free, and the Launch and Scale plans have no monthly minimum — you pay only for usage. The part people miss is that there are two meters: compute at $0.106/CU-hour on Launch ($0.222 on Scale) and storage at $0.35/GB-month. A small app that scales to zero is nearly free; an always-on database runs the compute meter 24/7.

Neon Free gives you 0.5 GB of storage and 100 compute-hours per project per month, across up to 100 projects with 10 branches each. The limits that matter are storage size, the monthly compute-hour cap, autoscaling capped at 2 CU, and only a 6-hour point-in-time restore window.

A CU is roughly 1 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. Your database autoscales between a minimum and maximum CU and you are billed per CU-hour of actual compute used. When traffic stops, Neon scales compute to zero and you stop paying for compute — you keep paying only for storage.

Yes. Databricks acquired Neon in 2025 for around $1 billion to power serverless Postgres for AI agents. Neon still runs as a standalone product at neon.com. Since the acquisition, storage dropped to $0.35/GB-month, compute rates fell 15–25%, and the Scale plan added SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA eligibility.

Neon lets you branch a database like a Git repository: a copy-on-write branch is created in seconds without duplicating storage. That makes a database-per-pull-request or a per-developer copy practical. Free includes 10 branches per project; beyond the included count, extra branches cost $1.50/branch-month.

No, you can sign up and use Neon’s Free plan without a credit card. Billing starts to matter when you move to Launch or Scale, where compute and storage are metered with no monthly minimum.

Neon supports HIPAA, but only on the Scale plan and above, which also carries SOC 2 Type 2. Treat it as a paid-plan and paperwork question: you need the right plan, a signed BAA, and the relevant compliance setup — it is not available on Free or Launch.

For serverless or managed Postgres, compare Supabase, PlanetScale, CockroachDB, and Xata. The right choice depends on whether you want pure serverless Postgres with branching, a full backend-as-a-service, or a distributed SQL database.