Upstash Redis Has a Free API — Serverless Redis with HTTP and REST Interface

What if you could use Redis from Cloudflare Workers, Vercel Edge, or any serverless function — without TCP connections?

Upstash Redis is a serverless Redis service with an HTTP/REST API. It works everywhere, including environments that do not support TCP.

Why Upstash Redis

• HTTP-based — no TCP connections, works in edge/serverless
• Pay per request — $0 when idle, no fixed costs
• Global replication — multi-region read replicas
• Redis compatible — all Redis commands via REST or SDK
• Durable — data persists, unlike in-memory Redis
• Free tier — 10K commands/day, 256MB storage

Quick Start

npm install @upstash/redis

import { Redis } from "@upstash/redis";

const redis = Redis.fromEnv(); // Reads UPSTASH_REDIS_REST_URL and TOKEN

// All standard Redis operations
await redis.set("user:123", { name: "Alice", plan: "pro" });
const user = await redis.get("user:123");

// Rate limiting
const requests = await redis.incr("ratelimit:ip:1.2.3.4");
await redis.expire("ratelimit:ip:1.2.3.4", 60);

if (requests > 100) {
  return new Response("Rate limited", { status: 429 });
}

Rate Limiting Library

import { Ratelimit } from "@upstash/ratelimit";
import { Redis } from "@upstash/redis";

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

// In your API handler
const { success, limit, remaining } = await ratelimit.limit("user:123");
if (!success) return new Response("Too many requests", { status: 429 });

Real Use Case

A Vercel Edge Function needed session caching. Traditional Redis requires TCP — not available on the edge. Upstash Redis works over HTTP — the Edge Function stores sessions with sub-millisecond reads from the nearest region. No infrastructure change, just npm install and go.

When to Use Upstash Redis

• Edge/serverless environments needing Redis
• Rate limiting and session management
• Caching for serverless APIs
• Any Redis use case where you want zero ops

Get Started

Visit upstash.com/redis — free tier, global, serverless.

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