Neon vs Supabase 2026: Pricing, Free Tiers and Which Costs Less

For a database that stays on all month, Neon is cheaper only at the smallest size. At 1 GB of memory, Neon Launch costs $21.10 a month with 5 GB of data, against $25 for Supabase Pro. From 2 GB up, Supabase is cheaper, and at 8 GB it is $125 against $156.51 on Neon. If the database is awake only eight hours a day, Neon is cheaper at every size.

Prices were checked on each vendor's pricing page and billing docs on October 10, 2026. Toolradar data: the managed databases ranking, updated October 2026, evaluated 23 tools and names both Neon and Supabase among the specialists.

The scenario table

Neon bills the compute hours your database runs, plus storage. Supabase bills a plan fee plus the compute size you pick, for every hour the project runs. The table prices one project with 5 GB of data, except the free row, which is a smaller prototype that fits both Free plans.

Memory is the matching key. Neon documents each compute unit (CU) at about 4 GB of RAM, so 0.25 CU is 1 GB, 0.5 CU is 2 GB, 1 CU is 4 GB and 2 CU is 8 GB. Supabase's Micro, Small and Medium run on shared CPU, and Large is dedicated with 2 vCPU. The two are comparable on memory, not on processor.

Each product has its own page: the Neon review, the Supabase review and the Supabase pricing breakdown. Toolradar also has a tool record for Neon and one for Supabase.

Why the order flips at 2 GB

A 0.25 CU compute that runs all month uses 182.5 CU-hours, which is 730 hours times 0.25. At $0.106 per CU-hour that is $19.35, and 5 GB of storage at $0.35 per GB adds $1.75. The total is $21.10.

Supabase's smallest instance, Micro at $10, is covered by the $10 compute credit that comes with Pro, so the bill stays at the plan fee. Step up to 2 GB and Neon's compute doubles to 365 CU-hours, which is $38.69 before storage. Supabase's Small costs $15, the credit takes $10 off it, and the bill is $30.

The gap is widest at 8 GB. Neon runs 1,460 CU-hours there, $154.76 in compute. Supabase's Large costs $110, the credit takes $10 off, and with the plan fee the bill is $125. Neon's autoscaling lets a database rise and fall between sizes, so the always-on rows assume one size all month, which is the high end for a spiky workload. Supabase bills the size you choose for each hour the project runs, and a paused project carries no compute charge.

Awake eight hours a day

Many databases behind a side project or a staging copy sit idle most of the day. Assume the database is awake eight hours a day for 30 days, which is 240 hours. On Neon that is 60 CU-hours at 1 GB, 120 at 2 GB, 240 at 4 GB and 480 at 8 GB. The bills are $8.11, $14.47, $27.19 and $52.63 with storage included.

Supabase's bill does not move with usage. It stays at $25, $30, $75 and $125 for the same memory sizes. Neon wins every size in this profile. From 2 GB up, the gap widens with memory, and the Neon bill rises with every hour the database stays awake.

Free plans: more room on Neon, a longer leash on Supabase

Neon's Free plan allows 100 projects and 10 branches per project. Each project gets 1 GB of storage, 100 CU-hours of compute a month and 5 GB of public network transfer. All Free projects together are capped at 20 GB of storage. Supabase's Free plan gives one project a 500 MB database, 50,000 monthly active users and 5 GB of egress, and it allows two active projects at a time.

The idle rules are the real difference. Neon suspends compute five minutes after the last query and cannot switch that off on Free. The next query wakes it in a few hundred milliseconds. Supabase pauses a free project after one week without activity. A paused project is not charged, but it does not serve requests while it is paused.

When a Neon project uses its 100 CU-hours, or its 5 GB of transfer, compute stays suspended until the next billing period or until you upgrade. Neon says those limits never delete data. A database awake eight hours a day at 1 GB of memory uses 60 CU-hours, inside the allowance, so a side project with up to 1 GB of data fits Neon Free with no bill. For the other backends that offer a free tier, see best backend-as-a-service platforms, and for free database hosts alone, see best free database hosting.

Where the bill moves besides compute

Auth. Supabase Pro includes 100,000 monthly active users, then charges $0.00325 each. At 200,000 users that adds $325 to the plan fee. Neon's managed auth covers 60,000 users on Free and up to 1 million on Launch. It is built on Better Auth, not Supabase Auth, so price the auth your app would actually use.

Egress. Neon Launch includes 500 GB of public network transfer per project, then $0.10 per GB. Supabase Pro includes 250 GB per organization, then $0.09 per GB. Neon's allowance renews for each project. Supabase's is shared by everything in the organization, so several projects there draw on one pool. Object storage has its own rates on both, and the object storage pricing comparison covers the S3-style options.

Spend control. Supabase Pro turns on a spend cap by default. Usage stops at the plan's quotas until you switch the cap off. Neon's documented control is an email at 80% and 100% of a threshold you set, on Launch and Scale. The plans page lists no spend cap, so the email is the control you have.

History and backups. Neon bills instant-restore history at $0.20 per GB-month on Launch, for up to seven days. That charge is not in the table, and it grows with write volume. Supabase Pro includes seven days of daily backups in the plan fee. Point-in-time recovery is a separate $100 monthly add-on per seven days of retention.

Branches. Neon includes 10 branches per project on Free and Launch, and 25 on Scale. Extra branches cost $1.50 a month each. Supabase charges $0.01344 per branch per hour on Pro, so a branch left open for a full 730-hour month costs $9.81.

Compliance. SOC 2 and an uptime SLA sit on Neon's Scale plan, which charges $0.222 per CU-hour. Supabase's SOC 2 starts on Team at $599 a month.

Which one to pick

Pick Neon for a database per pull request, a staging copy that sleeps, or a bursty app that is awake a few hours a day. A child branch stores nothing until you write to it, and the bill follows the hours your compute runs. The weakness is that the bill is hard to predict from the plan name, the always-on rows show the worst case, and the only spend control is an alert.

Pick Supabase for an always-on app that needs 2 GB of memory or more, or when auth, storage and a spend cap belong on one fixed bill. For other managed Postgres hosts, see best Postgres hosting. If the choice is between backends rather than databases, read Supabase vs Firebase. The weakness is the plan fee, which you pay before the first query, and compute steps that are coarse: Micro, Small, Medium, then Large at $110. A free project also pauses after a week of quiet.

How we compared

Prices were read on October 10, 2026, from Neon's pricing page and plans documentation, and from Supabase's pricing page and billing FAQ. Every paid scenario uses one project and 5 GB of data. The always-on scenarios run 730 hours a month, and the awake scenarios 240 hours (8 hours a day for 30 days). We left out of the totals Neon's instant-restore history, Supabase's add-ons (point-in-time recovery, custom domains, extra projects), egress above the included allowance, support plans and taxes. The Toolradar count comes from its managed databases ranking, updated October 2026.

Cite this: Devshot, "Neon vs Supabase 2026: Pricing, Free Tiers and Which Costs Less", October 2026.

FAQ

Is Neon or Supabase cheaper in 2026?

Neon is cheaper for a database that is awake part of the day, at every size in this comparison. For an always-on database at 1 GB of memory, Neon Launch costs $21.10 a month against $25 for Supabase Pro. From 2 GB up, Supabase is cheaper: $30 against $40.44 at 2 GB, and the gap widens at 8 GB.

Does Neon's free plan beat Supabase's?

It has more room. Neon gives 1 GB of storage per project against Supabase's 500 MB, 100 projects against two active ones, and 100 CU-hours of compute a month. Supabase keeps a free project up for a week of quiet before pausing it. Neon sleeps compute after five minutes and wakes it in a few hundred milliseconds. Neither free plan charges a suspended or paused project.

What does Neon cost for a database awake eight hours a day?

At 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB of memory, with 5 GB of data, it costs $8.11, $14.47, $27.19 and $52.63 a month. Those are the CU-hours at $0.106 plus $1.75 of storage. Supabase Pro costs the same whether the database is busy or idle, because it bills the size you pick for every hour the project runs.

Do Neon and Supabase include authentication?

Both do, with different limits. Supabase Pro includes 100,000 monthly active users, then charges $0.00325 each. Neon's managed Better Auth covers 60,000 users on Free and up to 1 million on Launch. The two auth products differ, since Neon's is built on Better Auth rather than Supabase Auth, so price the one your app would use.

Can a side project run for free on Neon or Supabase?

Yes on both, within limits. A database awake eight hours a day at 1 GB uses 60 CU-hours on Neon, inside the 100 CU-hour allowance, and Neon Free has no monthly charge. On Supabase Free the project runs until a week without activity, then pauses, and only two projects can be active. When Neon's CU-hours or transfer run out, compute stays suspended until the next billing period or an upgrade, and the data is kept.

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