Neon vs Supabase vs PlanetScale vs AWS: what Postgres costs in 2026

Every database pricing page uses different units, so I priced the same six workloads on AWS (RDS and Aurora Serverless v2), Neon, PlanetScale and Supabase, with Convex on the side.

Prices come from the official pricing pages on October 6, 2026 (AWS us-east-1). Sources are at the bottom.

TL;DR

Monthly cost, cheapest first. "Aurora" means Aurora Serverless v2.

• Side project (0.8 GB, ~4 h/day): Neon $0 · PlanetScale $5 · Aurora ~$7 · RDS ~$18 · Supabase $25
• SaaS busy in business hours (10 GB, 4 GB RAM): Neon ~$27 · PlanetScale $28 · RDS ~$53 · Aurora ~$54 · Supabase $75
• Mostly quiet with daily spikes to 16 GB RAM: Neon ~$50 · PlanetScale ~$97 · Aurora ~$99 · Supabase $225
• A database for every PR (40 PRs a month): Neon ~$3 · PlanetScale ~$20 · Supabase ~$39
• 50 mostly idle per-customer databases: Neon ~$17 · Aurora ~$31 · PlanetScale $250 · Supabase $515 · RDS ~$700
• Steady 24/7 load (4 GB RAM, 50 GB): PlanetScale $33 · RDS ~$57 · Supabase ~$82 · Neon ~$95 · Aurora ~$180

Usage-based databases (Neon, Aurora) win when the database has idle time. Fixed instances (PlanetScale, RDS) win when it's busy 24/7.

How each one charges

• AWS RDS: fixed instance per hour, from $0.016/hr. Always on.
• Aurora Serverless v2: $0.12 per ACU-hour (1 ACU ≈ 2 GB RAM). Scales to zero and wakes up in about 15 seconds.
• Convex: per function call, GB stored and GB transferred. Not Postgres.
• Neon: $0.106 per CU-hour (1 CU ≈ 4 GB RAM). Scales to zero and wakes up in a few hundred milliseconds.
• PlanetScale: fixed clusters from $5/month. Always on.
• Supabase: $25/month for Pro, plus about $10/month per project (the first one is covered). Always on.

Free tiers

• AWS: $100–200 in credits, and the Free plan ends after 6 months. Card required.
• Convex: 0.5 GB and 1M function calls a month. No card.
• Neon: 1 GB per project (up from 0.5 GB on October 2), 100 projects, auth and storage included. No card.
• PlanetScale: no free tier. Plans start at $5/month.
• Supabase: 500 MB, 2 projects, auth and storage included. Pauses after 7 days without activity. No card.

The scenarios

Setups are matched by RAM, and a month is 730 hours. Open "Show the math" under each one for the full calculation.

1. Side project

0.8 GB of data, used about 4 hours a day.

Free tiers decide this one. It fits in Neon's 1 GB free plan but not in Supabase's 500 MB.

Show the math

• Neon: $0. 120 h × 0.25 CU = 30 CU-hours, inside the free 100.
• PlanetScale: $5. PS-5 single node.
• Aurora: ~$7. 120 h × 0.5 ACU × $0.12, plus $0.10 storage.
• RDS: ~$18. db.t4g.micro $11.68 + 20 GB storage $2.30 + public IPv4 $3.65.
• Supabase: $25. Over the 500 MB free limit, so Pro. The $10 credit covers the instance.

2. SaaS busy in business hours

10 GB of data and 4 GB RAM, busy 10 hours a day on weekdays.

Neon and a PlanetScale single node tie at $27–28. Everything else costs 2–3× more.

Show the math

• Neon: ~$27. 220 h × 1 CU × $0.106 + 10 GB × $0.35. The Launch plan has no SLA. The Scale plan, with a 99.95% SLA, makes it ~$52.
• PlanetScale: $28. PS-40 single node, no SLA. The 3-node version is $83.
• RDS: ~$53. db.t4g.medium $47.45 + storage $2.30 + IPv4 $3.65.
• Aurora: ~$54. 220 h × 2 ACU × $0.12 + $1 storage, pausing outside business hours.
• Supabase: $75. Pro $25 + Medium (4 GB) $60 − $10 credit.

3. Mostly quiet with daily spikes to 16 GB RAM

20 GB of data. Light load for 22 hours a day, then a 2-hour spike that needs 16 GB RAM.

Fixed instances have to be sized for the spike all month. Autoscaling databases pay for it only while it lasts.

Show the math

• Neon: ~$50. (0.25 CU × 22 h + 4 CU × 2 h) × 30 days = 405 CU-hours × $0.106, plus 20 GB × $0.35.
• PlanetScale: ~$97. PS-160 single node (16 GB) $96 + $1.25 extra storage.
• Aurora: ~$99. (0.5 × 22 + 8 × 2) × 30 = 810 ACU-hours × $0.12, plus $2 storage.
• Supabase: $225. XL (16 GB) $210 + Pro $25 − $10 credit. No autoscaling.
• RDS: not priced. It has the same problem as PlanetScale and Supabase.

4. A database for every PR

40 pull requests a month, each with its own database for 3 days.

Neon branches cost almost nothing while idle. Supabase and PlanetScale branches bill every hour they exist, and AWS has no built-in branching.

Show the math

• Neon: ~$3. 40 × 3 active hours × 0.25 CU × $0.106. Branches share storage with their parent.
• PlanetScale: ~$20. $5/month per dev branch, prorated: 40 × 72/730 × $5.
• Supabase: ~$39. A Micro instance per branch: 40 × 72 h × $0.01344.
• AWS: no built-in branching. You can script snapshot restores or Aurora clones yourself.

5. 50 mostly idle per-customer databases

50 databases of 200 MB each, each active about 10 hours a month. If you put every customer in one shared database, see scenario 2 instead.

Idle databases cost only storage on Neon and Aurora. On fixed instances you pay for 50 servers.

Show the math

• Neon: ~$17. 50 × 10 h × 0.25 CU × $0.106 + 10 GB × $0.35.
• Aurora: ~$31. 50 × 10 h × 0.5 ACU × $0.12 + $1 storage.
• PlanetScale: $250. 50 × $5.
• Supabase: $515. 50 × $10 + Pro $25 − $10 credit.
• RDS: ~$700. 50 × (db.t4g.micro $11.68 + storage $2.30).

6. Steady 24/7 load

50 GB of data and 4 GB RAM, busy around the clock.

Fixed instances win. If your database is busy more than about 61% of the month, a fixed RDS instance beats Neon on compute.

Show the math

• PlanetScale: $33. PS-40 single node $28 + 40 GB × $0.125. High availability costs $98, because storage is billed on all 3 nodes.
• RDS: ~$57. db.t4g.medium $47.45 + 50 GB × $0.115 + IPv4 $3.65.
• Supabase: ~$82. Pro $25 + Medium $60 − $10 credit + 52 GB extra disk × $0.125.
• Neon: ~$95. 730 h × 1 CU × $0.106 + 50 GB × $0.35.
• Aurora: ~$180. 730 h × 2 ACU × $0.12 + $5 storage.

Where Convex fits

Convex is a reactive document database you query with TypeScript functions instead of SQL. It bills per function call ($2.20 per million after the free 1M), so a small app can cost pennies. Pro is $25 per developer per month.

Hidden costs

• AWS: $3.65/month per public IPv4 address. RDS Proxy on Aurora costs at least ~$88/month and blocks scale-to-zero.
• Convex: hitting the team spending limit disables every project in the team.
• Neon: no hard spending cap, only email alerts. Persistent connections stop compute from scaling to zero.
• PlanetScale: high-availability storage is billed on all 3 nodes.
• Supabase: every project and branch pays for compute 24/7, and the spend cap doesn't cover compute.

Which one should you pick?

For most startups: Neon

• $0 to start: 1 GB per project, 100 projects, no credit card.
• You pay for usage: ~$27/month for a business-hours SaaS (scenario 2).
• Cheap previews: ~$3/month for a database per PR (scenario 4).
• A full backend: auth, storage, functions and a Data API that branch with the database.

Revisit the choice once your database is busy around the clock (scenario 6).

Everything else

• AWS RDS: steady 24/7 load, or you need to stay inside AWS.
• Aurora Serverless v2: inside your AWS VPC with idle time, if 15-second cold starts are fine.
• Convex: a reactive TypeScript app that doesn't need SQL.
• PlanetScale: the cheapest fixed instance for steady load.
• Supabase: auth, storage, functions and realtime on one platform at a fixed monthly price.

Sources

Prices checked October 6, 2026.

• AWS: RDS for PostgreSQL, Aurora, Free Tier
• Convex: pricing
• Neon: pricing, plans, backend launch
• PlanetScale: pricing, Postgres pricing
• Supabase: pricing, compute billing