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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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CockroachDB Has a Free API: Distributed SQL That Survives Anything

#cockroachdb #database #sql #api

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database that survives datacenter failures without manual intervention. It's PostgreSQL-compatible and offers a free Serverless tier with 10 GiB storage and 50M Request Units/month.

Why CockroachDB?

  • Distributed by default — data automatically replicated across nodes
  • PostgreSQL compatible — use any Postgres driver or ORM
  • Survives failures — automatic failover, zero downtime
  • Free Serverless tier — 10 GiB, 50M RU/month, no credit card

Quick Start: CockroachDB Serverless 

# Sign up at cockroachlabs.cloud (free tier)
# Get your connection string, then:

# Connect with psql
psql 'postgresql://user:pass@free-tier.cockroachlabs.cloud:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full'

# Or use cockroach CLI
curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/cockroach-latest.linux-amd64.tgz | tar xz
./cockroach sql --url 'postgresql://...'
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SQL API (It's Just Postgres!) 

-- Create a multi-region table
CREATE TABLE users (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
    email STRING UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    name STRING NOT NULL,
    region STRING NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT now()
);

-- CockroachDB-specific: locality-aware index
CREATE INDEX idx_users_region ON users (region, email);

-- Insert data
INSERT INTO users (email, name, region) VALUES
    ('alice@example.com', 'Alice', 'us-east'),
    ('bob@example.com', 'Bob', 'eu-west');

-- Distributed joins work seamlessly
SELECT u.name, COUNT(o.id) as order_count
FROM users u JOIN orders o ON u.id = o.user_id
GROUP BY u.name;
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REST API via CockroachDB Cloud 

# Cluster info
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $COCKROACH_API_KEY" \
  https://cockroachlabs.cloud/api/v1/clusters

# SQL over HTTP (Serverless)
curl -X POST 'https://your-cluster.cockroachlabs.cloud:8080/api/v2/sql' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"statements": [{"sql": "SELECT count(*) FROM users"}]}'
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Python Example 

import psycopg2

conn = psycopg2.connect(
    'postgresql://user:pass@free-tier.cockroachlabs.cloud:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full'
)
cur = conn.cursor()

# Works like Postgres — with distributed magic underneath
cur.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE region = %s", ('us-east',))
for row in cur.fetchall():
    print(row)

conn.close()
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Key Features

Feature Details
Compatibility PostgreSQL wire protocol
Distribution Automatic sharding + replication
Consistency Serializable isolation (strongest)
Survival Node, zone, region failure
Free tier 10 GiB, 50M RU/month
Scaling Automatic on Serverless

When to Choose CockroachDB

  • Multi-region apps needing low-latency reads globally
  • Financial systems requiring serializable consistency
  • Apps that cannot tolerate any downtime
  • Teams that want Postgres compatibility without managing replication

Resources

Building data-intensive applications? I create custom data pipelines, scrapers, and integrations. Check out my tools on Apify or reach out at spinov001@gmail.com.

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