Supabase Edge Functions Has a Free API That Lets You Run Server-Side TypeScript at the Edge

Most serverless functions run in a single region. Supabase Edge Functions run on Deno Deploy's global network — your code executes in 30+ regions, closest to your users. And the free tier gives you 500,000 invocations/month.

Here's why this matters and how to use it.

What Are Supabase Edge Functions?

Edge Functions are server-side TypeScript functions that run on Deno — globally distributed, with zero cold starts on warm instances. They integrate natively with Supabase Auth, Database, and Storage.

import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"

serve(async (req) => {
  const { name } = await req.json()
  return new Response(
    JSON.stringify({ message: \`Hello \${name}!\` }),
    { headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" } }
  )
})

Quick Setup

npm install -g supabase
supabase init
supabase functions new my-function
supabase functions serve
supabase functions deploy my-function

Real-World: Webhook Handler with Database Access

import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std@0.168.0/http/server.ts"
import { createClient } from "https://esm.sh/@supabase/supabase-js@2"

serve(async (req) => {
  const supabase = createClient(
    Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_URL")!,
    Deno.env.get("SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY")!
  )
  const payload = await req.json()
  const { error } = await supabase
    .from("webhooks")
    .insert({ event: payload.event, data: payload.data })
  if (error) return new Response(JSON.stringify({ error }), { status: 500 })
  return new Response(JSON.stringify({ received: true }), { status: 200 })
})

Free Tier Limits

Feature	Free	Pro ($25/mo)
Invocations	500K/month	2M/month
Script size	10MB	50MB
Execution time	150s	400s

Edge Functions vs. AWS Lambda vs. Cloudflare Workers

Feature	Supabase Edge	AWS Lambda	CF Workers
Runtime	Deno	Node/Python/etc	V8 isolates
Cold start	~50ms	100-500ms	~0ms
Global edge	Yes	Per-region	Yes
Native DB	Supabase	DynamoDB	D1/KV
Free tier	500K/mo	1M/mo	100K/day

Supabase Edge Functions win when you already use Supabase — the native integration with Auth, Database, and Storage means zero config for common patterns.

Pro Tips

1. Use secrets for API keys: supabase secrets set MY_KEY=value\
2. Share code between functions: put shared modules in supabase/functions/_shared/\
3. CORS handling: add CORS headers in a shared utility

---

Need to automate data collection or build custom scrapers? Check out my Apify actors for ready-made tools, or email [e-mail] for custom solutions.