Xata

One Postgres, Thousands of Branches

United Kingdom
Category
Managed Self Hosted DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Trial Usage-basedBYOS
Pricing Examples
Open Source: free self-hosted Xata Cloud: $0.012/hr (micro) + $0.28/GB/mo storage $100 onboarding credit (first 14 days) BYOC: custom pricing

Overview

Category
Managed Self Hosted DBaaS API Gateway
Pricing Model
Open Source Free Trial Usage-basedBYOS
Pricing Examples
Open Source: free self-hosted Xata Cloud: $0.012/hr (micro) + $0.28/GB/mo storage $100 onboarding credit (first 14 days) BYOC: custom pricing

What is Xata?

Xata is a Postgres platform built around copy-on-write branching. Founded in 2020 by Monica Sarbu and Tudor Golubenco, Xata launched in 2022 as an Airtable-style serverless data platform with a built-in REST API, full-text search, and file attachments. Over 2024-2025 the company rebuilt the product from the ground up: today Xata is 100% vanilla Postgres with branching implemented at the storage layer, available as a managed cloud, a self-hosted open source project (Apache-2.0), or BYOC in your own cloud account.

The 2025 Pivot

If you remember Xata for its spreadsheet-like UI, built-in search engine, and file attachments, that was the original product. Xata deprecated that data platform and rebuilt around standard Postgres. The new platform positions itself for Postgres branching at scale and agentic workloads, and the old flat free tier was retired in the process. This page reflects the current product as of 2026.

Use Cases

  • Preview & CI Environments — each branch is an isolated, sub-second clone of production
  • AI Agents — an isolated Postgres branch per agent session, with PII anonymization
  • Database Development — branch, test schema changes, and discard without touching prod
  • Postgres at Scale — thousands of branches sharing copy-on-write storage

Branching Model

Xata implements copy-on-write branching at the storage layer rather than inside Postgres itself. Branches clone in under a second regardless of database size, share the parent’s data, and only store their changes. This lets you create hundreds of branches for CI/CD, preview environments, or per-agent sandboxes without multiplying storage cost. Idle branches scale to zero. The storage layer is a distributed block system exposed over NVMe/TCP, giving each branch near-local disk latency while keeping compute and storage decoupled.

Pricing Model

Xata Cloud is pay-as-you-go with no flat plan: you pay per compute-hour by instance class (from ~$0.012/hr for micro) plus $0.28/GB/month for storage, prorated to each branch’s lifetime. Compute scales to zero, so ephemeral branches cost cents. There is no permanent free tier anymore — only a $100 onboarding credit for the first 14 days on Cloud, or self-hosting the open source core for free.

Open Source & BYOC

Xata’s core is open source under Apache-2.0, so you can self-host the full Postgres branching platform on your own infrastructure. Managed Xata Cloud runs in AWS us-east-1 and eu-central-1. For other regions or clouds, Xata offers BYOC, installing into your own AWS, Azure, GCP, or Hetzner account in any region you choose.

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Features

Category

Managed
Self Hosted
DBaaS
API Gateway

Integrations

Aurora
AWS
Azure
Cloud SQL
GCP
Hetzner
Neon
RDS
Vercel

Pricing

Plans

Xata is no longer the Airtable-style serverless data platform it launched in 2022. After a 2024-2025 rebuild, it is now a Postgres platform with copy-on-write branching at the storage layer (vanilla Postgres over NVMe/TCP, no forks). Billing is pure usage-based: you pay per compute-hour for the instance class plus $0.28/GB/month for storage. There is no flat free plan anymore - the old free tier was retired with the platform pivot. Free options today are self-hosting the Apache-2.0 open source core, or a $100 onboarding credit on Cloud for the first 14 days.

Open Source

$ 0 per month

  • Self-hosted, free forever
  • Apache-2.0 licensed core
  • Copy-on-write branching
  • Scale-to-zero (~10s wake-up)
  • Community support
  • You run/maintain the infrastructure

Xata Cloud

$ Usage per month

  • Fully managed, pay-as-you-go
  • $0.012/hr+ compute, $0.28/GB/mo storage
  • $100 onboarding credit, first 14 days only
  • Copy-on-write branching + data anonymization
  • Scale-to-zero (~1s wake-up)
  • Standard support
  • SOC 2, GDPR
  • AWS us-east-1 and eu-central-1

BYOC

$ Custom per month

  • Deploy in your own cloud account
  • AWS, Azure, GCP, Hetzner - any region
  • Dedicated Postgres clusters
  • HIPAA available
  • 24/7 dedicated support

Resource Pricing

Storage is metered separately from compute on Xata Cloud, billed per GB-month and prorated to the lifetime of each branch. Copy-on-write branching means branches share their parent’s data and only store the changes, so hundreds of branches do not multiply your storage bill. There are no per-branch, per-database, or per-seat fees.

  • Storage

    per GB / month (prorated, NVMe Xatastor)

    $0.28

  • Branching

    copy-on-write, no per-branch fee

    $0

Instances Pricing

Xata Cloud compute is billed per hour by instance class (shown here as approximate monthly equivalents if run 24/7). Compute scales to zero when idle, so ephemeral dev/CI branches are minute-billed and cost very little. EU regions carry a ~1.15x multiplier. Storage is billed separately at $0.28/GB/month and is prorated, so a branch that lives 3 days costs roughly 1/10th of a full month.

  • micro

    <=2 vCPU | 1 GB RAM | $0.012/hr

    9 /month (est)

  • small

    <=2 vCPU | 2 GB RAM | $0.024/hr

    18 /month (est)

  • medium

    <=2 vCPU | 4 GB RAM | $0.048/hr

    35 /month (est)

  • large

    2 vCPU | 8 GB RAM | $0.096/hr

    70 /month (est)

  • xlarge

    4 vCPU | 16 GB RAM | $0.192/hr

    140 /month (est)

  • 2xlarge

    8 vCPU | 32 GB RAM | $0.384/hr

    280 /month (est)

  • 4xlarge

    16 vCPU | 64 GB RAM | $0.768/hr

    561 /month (est)

  • 8xlarge

    32 vCPU | 128 GB RAM | $1.536/hr

    1121 /month (est)

Find the full pricing details on the official Xata

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Xata Regions

The current Xata Postgres platform (rebuilt in 2024-2025) runs its managed Xata Cloud in two AWS regions: us-east-1 (N. Virginia) and eu-central-1 (Frankfurt). More classes, versions and regions are rolling out. For anything outside those two regions, Xata’s model is BYOC - it installs into your own AWS, Azure, GCP, or Hetzner account in whatever region you choose, rather than offering a long managed region list.
Xata's 2 datacenter locations by region. (June 18, 2026) - Map by d3js.org

2 Xata datacenter locations and IDs per region

Source: https://xata.io/blog/postgresql-dedicated-clusters-beta

Location

Region

ID

US East (N. Virginia)North Americaus-east-1
FrankfurtEuropeeu-central-1
Last updated: June 18, 2026

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

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Frequently Asked Questions about Xata

Xata has no flat monthly plan. Xata Cloud is pay-as-you-go: roughly $0.012/hr for a micro instance (about $9/month if run 24/7) plus $0.28/GB/month for storage. The part people miss is that compute and storage are metered separately and compute scales to zero, so a small staging setup can land around $25-30/month while idle dev branches cost cents.

No. The old free tier (15 GB storage, search and file APIs) was retired when Xata pivoted off its original data platform. Today the free options are self-hosting the open source core or a $100 onboarding credit on Xata Cloud that only lasts the first 14 days. After that, it is pure usage-based billing.

No, and this is the big 2026 gotcha. The product Xata launched in 2022 - a spreadsheet-like data platform with a built-in REST API, full-text search, and file attachments - was rebuilt. Xata is now a vanilla Postgres platform with copy-on-write branching at the storage layer. If you remember Xata for its search and file features, that is the old product.

Xata does copy-on-write branching at the storage layer, not inside Postgres. Any branch clones in under a second regardless of size, shares its parent’s data, and only stores changes. That means you can spin up hundreds of branches for CI, previews, or per-agent sandboxes without multiplying storage cost. Branches also scale to zero when idle.

Yes. The Xata core is open source under Apache-2.0, so you can run the full Postgres branching platform yourself for free. Your costs move to your own infrastructure and the work of operating a distributed NVMe storage system. It is the same engine as Cloud, but you own the ops.

Managed Xata Cloud currently runs in two AWS regions, us-east-1 and eu-central-1, with more planned. If you need other regions or clouds, Xata’s answer is BYOC: it installs into your own AWS, Azure, GCP, or Hetzner account in any region you pick, rather than offering a long managed-region list.

To use managed Xata Cloud you set up billing, since there is no permanent free plan to fall back on - usage is metered from the start aside from the 14-day $100 credit. If you want to avoid billing entirely, self-host the open source version on your own hardware.

For Postgres with branching and scale-to-zero, compare Neon and Supabase. For a managed Postgres app platform, look at Railway and Render. The right choice depends on whether you want database branching specifically, a full Postgres backend, or a flat-priced managed plan instead of pure usage metering.