TiDB Cloud

MySQL-Compatible Distributed SQL, Now Serverless

United States
Category
Managed Self Hosted DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Plan Usage-basedSubscriptionSelf-hosted
Pricing Examples
Starter: $0/month (free quota, pay-per-RU after) Essential: from ~$400/month (2,000 RCU minimum) Dedicated: from ~$0.44/hour per node Self-Managed: $0 (open source)

Overview

Category
Managed Self Hosted DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Plan Usage-basedSubscriptionSelf-hosted
Pricing Examples
Starter: $0/month (free quota, pay-per-RU after) Essential: from ~$400/month (2,000 RCU minimum) Dedicated: from ~$0.44/hour per node Self-Managed: $0 (open source)

What is TiDB Cloud?

TiDB Cloud is PingCAP’s managed cloud service for TiDB, an open-source distributed SQL database that is MySQL-compatible. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, PingCAP built TiDB to combine the horizontal scaling of NoSQL systems with the ACID compliance and SQL interface of traditional relational databases. TiDB has been adopted at scale by companies including Pinterest, Databricks, Block (Square), and Bolt.

Use Cases

  • MySQL Scaling — Drop-in replacement that scales horizontally past a single server
  • HTAP Workloads — Transactional (TiKV) and analytical (TiFlash) on the same cluster
  • Global Deployments — Multi-AZ and multi-region with strong consistency
  • AI Applications — Vector search support built into recent versions

MySQL Compatibility

TiDB is wire-compatible with the MySQL protocol. Most existing MySQL applications, ORMs, and tools work without modification, which makes it a common migration target for MySQL databases that have outgrown a single server. It is not 100% identical — some MySQL features and storage engines behave differently because TiDB is distributed underneath — so treat it as a target you test, not a guaranteed drop-in.

Tiers and Pricing

In August 2025 PingCAP renamed “TiDB Cloud Serverless” to TiDB Cloud Starter. It is the consumption-priced entry tier: a free monthly quota (5 GiB row storage, 5 GiB columnar storage, and 50 million Request Units per instance, up to five free instances per organization), then pay-per-RU and per-GiB-month after. Standard US regions cost $0.10 per 1M RUs and $0.20/GiB-month for row storage; premium regions (Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt) cost more.

Essential is the next tier up, with provisioned Request Capacity Units (RCUs) and a 2,000-RCU minimum — roughly $400/month on AWS Oregon before any data. Dedicated clusters are node-based and billed hourly, starting around $0.44/hour for a 4 vCPU node and available on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Self-Managed TiDB is open source under Apache-2.0 and free to run on your own infrastructure.

The thing to watch on Starter is that compute (RUs) and storage (GiB-month) are metered separately, and Request Units are consumed by every read, write, and even data transfer (1 KiB over the public endpoint equals 1 RU). A small app stays comfortably inside the free quota; scan-heavy or high-throughput workloads burn through it quickly.

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Features

Category

Managed
Self Hosted
DBaaS
API Gateway

Container Deployment

Kubernetes
Managed Kubernetes

Integrations

Airbyte
Alibaba Cloud
AWS
Azure
Cloudflare
Datadog
dbt
Google Cloud
Grafana
Prometheus
Vercel

Pricing

Plans

TiDB Cloud has four tiers. Starter (formerly Serverless, renamed August 2025) is the auto-scaling, consumption-priced entry tier with a free monthly quota and pay-per-Request-Unit billing after. Essential adds provisioned Request Capacity Units (RCUs) with a 2,000-RCU minimum, so it starts around $400/month before you store any data. Dedicated and Premium are node-based clusters billed hourly. The gotcha: Starter bills you per RU (compute) AND per GiB-month (storage) separately, and storage and RU prices are higher in premium regions like Tokyo and Frankfurt.

Starter

$ 0 per month

  • Formerly 'TiDB Cloud Serverless'
  • Free quota: 5 GiB row + 5 GiB columnar storage + 50M RUs per instance / month
  • Up to 5 free instances per organization (25 GiB row + 25 GiB columnar + 250M RUs total)
  • Pay-per-RU after free quota: $0.10 per 1M RUs (standard regions)
  • Row storage $0.20/GiB-month, columnar $0.05/GiB-month (standard)
  • Auto-scaling, scale-to-zero
  • MySQL-compatible, vector search built in
  • No credit card required to start
  • Auto-billing kicks in at $500/month usage

Essential

$ Variable per month

  • Provisioned Request Capacity Units (RCUs)
  • Minimum 2,000 RCUs per instance (~$400/month on AWS Oregon)
  • RCU price: $0.20/RCU-month (AWS Oregon/Virginia), up to $0.28 (Frankfurt)
  • Throttles when workload exceeds provisioned RCU capacity
  • Advanced security features
  • Available on AWS and Alibaba Cloud

Dedicated

$ Variable per month

  • Node-based, hourly billing
  • From ~$0.44/hour per node (4 vCPU, 16 GiB, AWS Oregon)
  • 4–32 vCPU per node, dedicated isolation
  • Multi-AZ high availability, VPC peering / private endpoints
  • Available on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure
  • Storage, backup, and data transfer billed separately

Self-Managed

$ 0 per month

  • Open source (Apache-2.0), free to run yourself
  • Full control over infrastructure
  • Community support
  • You manage compute, storage, ops, and upgrades

Resource Pricing

TiDB Cloud Starter meters compute as Request Units (RUs) and storage per GiB-month, billed separately. Reads and writes consume RUs; data transfer over the public endpoint also costs 1 RU per 1 KiB (4 KiB per RU on private endpoints). Prices are higher in premium regions (Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt).

  • Request Units (standard regions)

    per 1M RUs (Oregon, N. Virginia)

    $0.10

  • Request Units (premium regions)

    per 1M RUs (Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt)

    $0.12

  • Row storage (standard)

    per GiB-month

    $0.20

  • Row storage (premium)

    per GiB-month

    $0.24

  • Columnar storage (standard)

    per GiB-month

    $0.05

  • Columnar storage (premium)

    per GiB-month

    $0.06

  • Essential RCU (provisioned)

    per RCU-month (AWS Oregon, 2,000 min)

    $0.20

Find the full pricing details on the official TiDB Cloud

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TiDB Cloud Regions

TiDB Cloud Starter and Essential run on AWS (Starter is AWS-only; Essential adds Alibaba Cloud). The node-based Dedicated tier also runs on Google Cloud and Azure. The serverless tiers offer five AWS regions, split into standard (US) and premium (Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt) pricing zones.
TiDB Cloud's 5 datacenter locations by region. (June 18, 2026) - Map by d3js.org

5 TiDB Cloud datacenter locations and IDs per region

Source: https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/serverless-limitations/

Location

Region

ID

US West (Oregon)North Americaaws / us-west-2
US East (N. Virginia)North Americaaws / us-east-1
FrankfurtEuropeaws / eu-central-1
SingaporeAsia Pacificaws / ap-southeast-1
TokyoAsia Pacificaws / ap-northeast-1
Last updated: June 18, 2026

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

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Best TiDB Cloud Alternatives

Alternatives to TiDB Cloud by matching platform type, use cases, supported runtimes and deployment options.
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Frequently Asked Questions about TiDB Cloud

TiDB Cloud Starter (formerly Serverless) starts free with a monthly quota, then bills per Request Unit and per GiB of storage. The part people miss is that compute and storage are metered separately: $0.10 per 1M RUs and $0.20/GiB-month for row storage in standard US regions, and both cost more in premium regions like Tokyo and Frankfurt. Essential is a different model: it requires a 2,000-RCU minimum, so it starts around $400/month before you store a byte.

They are the same product. PingCAP renamed ‘TiDB Cloud Serverless’ to ‘TiDB Cloud Starter’ on August 12, 2025 because users found ‘serverless’ confusing. Your connection strings, endpoints, and data stayed the same. The Essential tier is the next step up, with provisioned capacity instead of pure consumption pricing.

Each Starter instance gets a free monthly quota of 5 GiB row storage, 5 GiB columnar storage, and 50 million Request Units. You can run up to five free instances per organization, totaling 25 GiB row storage and 250M RUs. The limits that matter are RUs (every read and write burns them) and storage, since you pay per GiB-month the moment you cross the quota.

A Request Unit (RU) is TiDB’s abstract metering unit for compute: every query, read, and write consumes RUs based on how much work it does. Data transfer also counts: 1 KiB over the public endpoint is 1 RU. This is similar to CockroachDB’s RUs or DynamoDB capacity units. A small app stays inside the free 50M RU quota easily, but high-throughput or scan-heavy workloads can burn through it fast.

No, you can start a TiDB Cloud Starter instance without a credit card and stay within the free quota. Billing only begins when you exceed the free RU or storage allowance, and Starter auto-charges once monthly usage reaches $500.

Yes. TiDB is open source under Apache-2.0, so you can run it yourself for free. Your costs move to your own servers, storage, and the operational burden of running a distributed SQL database (TiDB, TiKV, and TiFlash nodes). That is real work, and it is not the same as the managed TiDB Cloud experience.

Yes, TiDB speaks the MySQL wire protocol, so most MySQL applications, ORMs, and tools connect without code changes. It is not 100% identical: some MySQL features, functions, and storage engines behave differently because TiDB is a distributed system underneath. Treat it as a migration target you test, not a guaranteed drop-in.

For MySQL-compatible serverless, compare PlanetScale. For distributed SQL with RU-based pricing, look at CockroachDB. For Postgres-first serverless, see Neon and Supabase. The right choice depends on whether you need MySQL compatibility, horizontal scale, or a full backend platform.