If you’re wondering how to get started with Supabase, you’ll find it’s a genuinely capable starting point in 2026 for building a full backend without managing servers. The free tier offers a generous set of tools for prototypes and learning, but there are two key limitations to plan for.
StacksFree Verdict: 8/10 — The free tier is a strong starting point for prototypes/learning at $0 and with no credit card, but it lacks automatic backups and has only 1-day log retention, so plan your data safety accordingly.
How This Guide Was Built
This guide is based on official documentation, pricing pages, and changelog reports — we did not run the tool hands-on. We sourced information from Supabase’s official pricing page, getting-started documentation, API guides, and relevant changelog entries, and verified the free tier limits, signup flow, first-project setup steps, and platform availability as of August 2026. Last verified: August 2026.
What Is Supabase, and What Does It Replace?
Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL that combines database, auth, storage, realtime, and edge functions in one platform. It provides a managed service that replaces the need to stitch together separate providers for your database (Supabase Docs), authentication, file storage (Supabase Docs), and serverless functions (Supabase Docs).
How Do I Get Started with Supabase?
You get started with Supabase by signing up for an account on their dashboard, creating a new project, and then connecting to it via the provided API keys. After creating your project, you should immediately enable Row Level Security (RLS) on your database tables and never expose your service_role key in any client-side code; use the anonymous key for public access instead. The platform pricing page confirms no credit card is required.
What’s Included in the Supabase Free Tier in 2026?
The Supabase free tier in 2026 provides a dedicated Postgres database with 500 MB of space, unlimited API requests, and up to two active projects. It includes a generous auth system with 50,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU) plus 50,000 third-party MAU, anonymous sign-ins, social OAuth, and basic MFA. You also get 5 GB of egress, 1 GB of file storage with a 50 MB max upload, 2 million Realtime messages per month, and 500,000 Edge Function invocations per month (Supabase Pricing).
Free Tier Limits at a Glance
Here is the full free tier limit table so you can plan capacity before you start (Supabase Pricing):
| Resource | Free Tier Limit |
|---|---|
| Postgres database size | 500 MB |
| Active projects | 2 |
| API requests | Unlimited |
| Auth MAU | 50,000 + 50,000 third-party |
| Egress | 5 GB |
| File storage | 1 GB (50 MB max upload) |
| Realtime messages | 2 million / month |
| Edge Function invocations | 500,000 / month |
| Log retention | 1 day |
| Automatic backups | Not included |
The two limits that surprise most beginners are the 500 MB database ceiling and the 1-day log retention. A 500 MB Postgres database fits a lot of row-based data — typically millions of rows for a small SaaS — but it fills up fast if you store large JSON payloads or binary blobs in the database instead of the 1 GB file storage bucket.
What’s Not Included on the Free Tier?
The free tier does not include automatic backups or point-in-time recovery (PITR), meaning you are responsible for your own data backup strategy. It also excludes Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality. Custom SMTP is supported on all plans, but new free projects can no longer customize the default auth email templates — bring your own SMTP provider if you need branded emails. Logs have a 1-day retention period, and support is limited to community channels (Supabase Pricing).
What Changed on the Free Tier in 2026?
Two significant changes occurred for the free tier in 2026. First, starting June 3, 2026, new free projects can no longer customize authentication email templates using the default email provider as an anti-phishing measure; you must bring your own SMTP service to customize them (Supabase Changelog). Second, as of July 9, 2026, the log_connections setting is now off by default on both Free and Pro plans.
How Do I Keep My Supabase Project Secure?
Securing your Supabase project primarily involves enabling Row Level Security (RLS) and managing your keys correctly. RLS is off by default, so you must create policies to control which users can access which rows in your database (Supabase Docs). You should use the public anon key in your client-side application and reserve the service_role key for trusted server-side environments only, as it bypasses all security rules.
How Does Supabase Compare to Other Free-Tier Databases?
Supabase’s free tier is best compared against other managed Postgres options like Neon and MongoDB Atlas. Neon’s free tier offers a branching workflow and a separate compute/storage model, which is attractive if you want database branching for preview environments, while MongoDB Atlas appeals to teams that prefer a document model over SQL. Supabase stands out when you want the full backend bundle — database, auth, storage, and realtime — from a single provider, whereas Neon is a leaner Postgres-only experience (Neon free tier guide). If you need an embedded SQLite database at the edge instead of a hosted Postgres cluster, Turso is a different trade-off altogether, trading relational features for per-tenant database isolation (Turso free tier guide). For most full-stack prototypes, Supabase’s 500 MB database plus auth and storage beats assembling the same stack from separate providers.
Common Mistakes Beginners Make
Beginners often forget to enable Row Level Security, leaving their database data publicly readable and writable. Another common mistake is using the service_role key in client-side code, which completely disables security policies and exposes your data. Not planning for the 1-week inactivity project pause can also lead to unexpected downtime if you are developing slowly.
FAQ
Do I need a credit card for Supabase’s free tier?
No, you do not need a credit card to sign up for or use the Supabase free tier. The platform allows you to create a project and access all free-tier features without providing any payment information, as confirmed on their pricing page.
What happens when my free project is paused?
Your project is paused after one week of inactivity. While paused, your project is not accessible, but the data is retained. You can manually unpause it from the dashboard, and paused projects do not count toward your two-project limit (Supabase Docs).
Can I upgrade to a paid plan later?
Yes, you can upgrade from the free tier to a paid plan like Pro ($25/month) or Team ($599/month) at any time directly from your project dashboard. Upgrading increases your resource limits and adds features like daily backups and higher egress caps (Supabase Pricing).
Does the 500 MB database limit reset if I upgrade?
No. Your existing data continues to count toward the database size when you upgrade, so the 500 MB usage you accumulated on the free tier carries over to your new plan. Upgrading does not erase data; it raises the ceiling so you can keep growing past 500 MB without migrating (Supabase Docs).
What counts toward the 50,000 Monthly Active Users?
A monthly active user is counted the first time they make an authenticated request in a given month. Recurring sessions from the same user do not multiply the count, and unauthenticated traffic does not consume MAU at all. This makes the free tier surprisingly workable for small production apps, since only authenticated, active users count toward the limit (Supabase Auth).
Can I pause my project manually?
Yes. You can pause a project from the dashboard at any time rather than waiting for the automatic one-week inactivity pause. Manual pausing is useful when you are not actively developing, because paused projects do not count toward the two-project limit, giving you headroom to spin up a second project without upgrading (Supabase Docs).
Where to Go Next
Now that you understand the Supabase free tier, you can begin building. Consult the official getting-started guide to create your first table and API. For a comparative look, see our guides on other database providers like the Neon free tier guide, the MongoDB Atlas free tier guide, and the Turso free tier guide. For web hosting, explore our Firebase Hosting free tier guide. Find more details in the full Supabase directory entry.
References
[1] Supabase Pricing page [2] Supabase Getting Started docs [3] Supabase Storage docs [4] Supabase Edge Functions docs [5] Supabase Row Level Security docs [6] Supabase Billing & projects docs [7] Supabase Auth docs [8] Supabase Changelog — email template changes