Starts from $0 / month
Autoscaling, multi-tenant database for variable workloads.
- Scales down to zero
- Usage-based billing beyond free quotas
- Spend limits
TiDB Cloud Pricing, Features & Alternatives
Managed MySQL-compatible distributed SQL clusters for transactional and analytical workloads across supported cloud regions.
TiDB Cloud is PingCAP’s managed service for TiDB, a MySQL-compatible distributed SQL database for transactional and analytical workloads. Its Starter, Essential, and Dedicated offerings have different infrastructure, scaling, recovery, and billing characteristics. Autoscaling depends on Cloud tier; Starter database branching is in public preview, while PITR applies to the documented Essential and Dedicated paths. High-availability and backup behavior also vary by tier and configuration.
Best for
MySQL-compatible applications that need distributed SQL, horizontal scalability, high availability, vector search, and combined transactional and analytical workloads.
Watch out for
TiDB Cloud has multiple deployment tiers with different billing, cloud-provider, regional, scaling, networking, security, and capacity characteristics.
- Workloads
- Backend Services
- Data Processing
- Real-Time Applications
- Web Applications
- Services
- Managed Databases
- Delivery
- Managed
Development & Execution
Supported platform capabilities, execution environments, development technologies, deployment models, integrations, and triggers.
Database support
- MySQL
Capabilities
- Compute Autoscaling
- Storage Autoscaling
- Automatic Failover
- Database Branching
- Point-in-Time Recovery
- Automated Backups
Client languages
- C#
- Go
- Java
- JavaScript
- Kotlin
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
- Rust
- TypeScript
Framework compatibility
- Django
- Express.js
- Fastify
- Laravel
- Next.js
- Nuxt
- Ruby on Rails
- Spring Boot
- SvelteKit
Integrations
- Datadog
- GitHub
- Terraform
Deployment model
- Serverless (Managed Runtime)
Pricing
Published pricing structure, representative costs, and material billing factors.
- Free Tier
- Recurring free allowances
- Self-Hosted
- Self-hosted pricing available
- Commitment
- Usage-based billing
- Starting Price
- Starts from $0 / month
TiDB Cloud Plans
Managed TiDB offerings for variable, production, and dedicated workloads.
Usage-based
Autoscaling provisioned compute for production workloads.
- Typical small production workload: approximately $20 per day
- Provisioned Request Capacity Units
- Up to 30-day backup retention
From $1,800 / month
Autoscaling service for mission-critical workloads.
- Unlimited growth with autoscaling
- Multi-zone protection
- Private networking and CMEK
From $0.22 / hour
Dedicated clusters for predictable traffic and advanced requirements.
- 4 to 32 vCPU per node
- Cross-zone high availability
- AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure
TiDB Cloud Usage Additional Usage Cost
Representative Starter and Essential rates in standard US regions; other regions can cost more.
| Resource | Billing Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Request Units | per 1 million RUs | $0.10 |
| Starter row storage | per GiB-month | $0.20 |
| Starter columnar storage | per GiB-month | $0.05 |
| Essential Request Capacity Units | per RCU-month | $0.20 |
| Essential changefeed capacity | per CCU-hour | $0.1307 |
Free Tier
No card requiredRecurring Starter quotas across the first five eligible instances in an organization.
- Row storage: 25 GiB per month
- Columnar storage: 25 GiB per month
- Request Units: 250 million RUs per month
Self-Hosted Pricing
TiDB Community is free open-source software; infrastructure and operations are billed separately.
Enterprise Pricing
Pricing for TiDB Self-Managed and higher-capacity requirements is available by request.
Billing Commitment
Usage-based billing; Dedicated clusters require a payment method.
Infrastructure & Availability
Where workloads run, how deployment is scoped, and what underlying infrastructure the platform depends on.
TiDB Cloud region availability varies by plan and cloud provider. Starter, Essential, and Premium use the AWS and Alibaba Cloud provider family, while Dedicated uses AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud; exact region inventories remain plan-specific.
Starter, Essential & Premium
Starter, Essential, and Premium are available on AWS and Alibaba Cloud, but their exact region inventories are maintained per plan. srvrlss therefore does not publish one combined region count for these plans.
Applies to
- TiDB Cloud Starter
- TiDB Cloud Essential
- TiDB Cloud Premium
Deployment model
- Managed cloud
Deployment scope
- Regional
Infrastructure providers
- Amazon Web Services
- Other
- Alibaba Cloud
Dedicated
TiDB Cloud Dedicated is available on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud and maintains a different availability footprint from Starter, Essential, and Premium.
Applies to
- TiDB Cloud Dedicated
Deployment model
- Managed cloud
Deployment scope
- Regional
Infrastructure providers
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
Availability reviewed
Resource & Execution Limits
Row size
6-120 MiB
Configurable
Index length
3,072 bytes
Per index
Security & Compliance
Security Controls
- Access Control
- Organization, project, and cluster roles TiDB Cloud
- Single Sign-On
- Eligible TiDB Cloud organizations
- Encryption in Transit
- TLS TiDB Cloud connections
- Encryption at Rest
- Dual-layer encryption; customer-managed keys optional Essential default, Dedicated always, Starter default off; CMEK for supported Dedicated AWS/Azure deployments
- IP Allow List
- TiDB Cloud public endpoints
- Private Networking
- Private endpoints; VPC peering Cloud/tier restrictions apply; VPC peering on Dedicated
- Audit Logging
- Console management events and database access activity Console logs all tiers when enabled; database auditing varies by tier and some configurations remain preview
Audits & Certifications
- SOC Reports
- SOC 1, SOC 2 Type II, and SOC 3 TiDB Cloud
- ISO Certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 and 27701 TiDB Cloud service boundary
- PCI DSS
- TiDB Cloud service boundary
Compliance
- HIPAA
- Eligible use Signed BAA and customer safeguards required
FAQ
Is TiDB Cloud Starter the same as Serverless?
Yes. TiDB Cloud Starter is the new name for TiDB Cloud Serverless. The rename did not change existing clusters, pricing, features, connection details, or data.
What is a Request Unit in TiDB Cloud?
A Request Unit (RU) measures how much database work a request consumes. Reads, writes, SQL processing, and network egress contribute to RU usage, so heavier requests consume more RUs. TiDB Cloud Starter bills for the total RUs used after the free quota.
Is TiDB Cloud MySQL compatible?
Yes. TiDB supports the MySQL protocol and most MySQL 5.7 and 8.0 syntax, so standard MySQL clients and tools generally work. It does not support every MySQL feature, including stored procedures, triggers, events, and user-defined functions.
How much does TiDB Cloud cost?
TiDB Cloud ranges from Starter, which can begin at $0 within free quotas, to usage-based Essential and higher-cost Premium or Dedicated options. Premium starts at $1,800 per month and Dedicated from $0.22 per hour.
What are the TiDB Cloud Starter free tier limits?
Across the first five eligible Starter instances in an organization, the current free quotas include 25 GiB of row storage, 25 GiB of columnar storage, and 250 million Request Units per month.
Does TiDB Cloud require a credit card for the free tier?
No. The current TiDB Cloud Starter free tier does not require a credit card. Dedicated clusters and other paid usage require a payment method.
Is self-hosted TiDB free?
Yes. TiDB Community is free open-source software that you can self-host. You still provide and pay for the infrastructure, operations, backups, monitoring, and scaling around it.