Upstash Has a Free API That Gives You Serverless Redis and Kafka

Upstash is the serverless data platform for Redis, Kafka, and QStash. Pay per request, scale to zero, use from edge functions — no server management.

What Is Upstash?

Upstash provides serverless Redis, Kafka, and a message queue (QStash) — all accessible via HTTP REST API, perfect for edge deployments.

Serverless Redis

import { Redis } from '@upstash/redis'

const redis = new Redis({
  url: process.env.UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL!,
  token: process.env.UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_TOKEN!,
})

// Basic operations
await redis.set('user:123', { name: 'Alice', plan: 'pro' })
const user = await redis.get('user:123')

// Rate limiting
import { Ratelimit } from '@upstash/ratelimit'

const ratelimit = new Ratelimit({
  redis,
  limiter: Ratelimit.slidingWindow(10, '10 s'), // 10 requests per 10 seconds
})

const { success, limit, remaining } = await ratelimit.limit('user:123')
if (!success) return new Response('Too many requests', { status: 429 })

REST API

export UPSTASH_URL="https://your-endpoint.upstash.io"
export UPSTASH_TOKEN="your-token"

# SET
curl -s "$UPSTASH_URL/set/mykey/myvalue" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPSTASH_TOKEN"

# GET
curl -s "$UPSTASH_URL/get/mykey" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPSTASH_TOKEN" | jq '.result'

# Pipeline (multiple commands in one request)
curl -s -X POST "$UPSTASH_URL/pipeline" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UPSTASH_TOKEN" \
  -d '[["SET","counter","0"],["INCR","counter"],["INCR","counter"],["GET","counter"]]'

QStash (Message Queue)

import { Client } from '@upstash/qstash'

const qstash = new Client({ token: process.env.QSTASH_TOKEN! })

// Send message to be processed
await qstash.publishJSON({
  url: 'https://my-app.com/api/process',
  body: { orderId: 'order-123', action: 'fulfill' },
  retries: 3,
})

// Schedule message
await qstash.publishJSON({
  url: 'https://my-app.com/api/report',
  body: { type: 'daily' },
  cron: '0 9 * * *', // 9 AM daily
})

// Delayed message
await qstash.publishJSON({
  url: 'https://my-app.com/api/reminder',
  body: { userId: 'user-123', message: 'Your trial ends tomorrow' },
  delay: 86400, // 24 hours
})

Serverless Kafka

import { Kafka } from '@upstash/kafka'

const kafka = new Kafka({
  url: process.env.UPSTASH_KAFKA_REST_URL!,
  username: process.env.UPSTASH_KAFKA_REST_USERNAME!,
  password: process.env.UPSTASH_KAFKA_REST_PASSWORD!,
})

// Produce
const producer = kafka.producer()
await producer.produce('events', JSON.stringify({ type: 'click', page: '/pricing' }))

// Consume
const consumer = kafka.consumer()
const messages = await consumer.consume({ consumerGroupId: 'my-group', topic: 'events', autoCommit: true })
messages.forEach(m => console.log(JSON.parse(m.value)))

Free Tier

Service	Free Tier
Redis	10K commands/day, 256MB
QStash	500 messages/day
Kafka	10K messages/day

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