Xata

What it is for

Xata is a hosted Postgres-branch desk: you open Projects, and Cloud starts at $0.012 / hour (micro) plus $0.28 / GB-month. Use it when the job is copy-on-write branches you start without a per-branch fee, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Xata Projects list (demo org, staging 89d / prod 89d rows, Create project) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The rows themselves are ops of Projects. Xata bills instance-hours + GB, not seats or branches (“We don't bill you per user or per branch” on the page we fetched).

Key features

• Projects — a database workspace that holds branches (cover still; docs; pricing). One project. Cover staging / prod and Create project are ops of this.
• Branches — a copy-on-write Postgres you spin from a project (pricing Branching; video). A branch, not a project. Scale-to-zero and wake-up (~1s on Cloud) sit here. No per-branch fee.
• Query insights — pg_stat_statements stats you sort on a branch (docs; slow-query tutorial). A query desk, not a branch. Total / Avg / Max columns sit here.
• Organizations — the billing and member folder above projects (cover demo; docs). An org, not a project. Invites, API keys, and SSO sit here.
• Self-host / Cloud — open-source on your infra, or Xata Cloud / BYOC (pricing). A deploy, not a branch. OSS is Free; Cloud is pay-as-you-go; BYOC is a quote.

The CLI is install. Instance types (micro…8xlarge) are SKUs of Cloud compute. Concurrent-branch tiers (Team 1,000 / Company 10,000 / Platform 100,000) are the meter, not a sixth desk.

Who it's for

Best fit: teams who will stay on Cloud micro at $0.012 / hour + $0.28 / GB-month (no card) while they open a first Projects list, then size up to small / medium when a branch needs 2–4 GB RAM.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from xata.io/pricing. Tiles print Open Source Free / Xata Cloud starting at $0.012 / hr + $0.28 / GB / mo / BYOC Quote. “No credit card required” on Cloud.

• Open Source — Free. Self-host. Branching and scale-to-zero included. Wake-up ~10s. Community support.
• Xata Cloud — pay as you go. micro $0.012 / hr ($9 / month); small $0.024 / hr ($18); medium $0.048 / hr ($35); large $0.096 / hr ($70); xlarge $0.192 / hr ($140); 2xlarge $0.384 / hr ($280); 4xlarge $0.768 / hr ($561); 8xlarge $1.536 / hr ($1,121). Storage $0.28 / GB / month, billed by the minute.
• BYOC — Quote as a % of Xata managed-cloud spend. Do not invent a BYOC dollar.
• Branch concurrency (printed tiers) — Team up to 1,000 / Company 10,000 / Platform 100,000 / Hyperscale 100,000+. Still no per-branch fee.

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Limitations / costs

• Cloud $0.012 / hr is a running micro, not unlimited. A branch that never scales to zero still invoices.
• Storage is $0.28 / GB-month on top of compute. Copy-on-write still bills the changed data.
• A branch desk, not a tenant-isolation desk. For Nile’s $0 / $15 tenant table see Nile. For Neon see Neon.

Alternatives

• Neon — serverless Postgres when you want Neon’s branch + scale-to-zero tiles, not Xata’s $0.012 / hr ladder.
• Nile — tenant-isolated Postgres when you want a Tenants table, not copy-on-write branches.
• PlanetScale — production / dev branches when you want PlanetScale’s MySQL-shaped desk.

Official tutorial

Official Xata channel video: Database Clones in Less Than a Second: Postgres Branching + Scale-to-Zero (oEmbed author: Xata). First-party branching clip; the Projects list still is the cover. Branches on the video are a second desk, not generate-on-Projects.

Written path: xata.io/pricing plus the Projects still.

Website

https://xata.io

Repository

https://github.com/xataio/pgroll

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Xata Projects list from the docs still. Dollars checked on xata.io/pricing (OSS Free; Cloud micro $0.012/hr + $0.28/GB-mo; BYOC quote). Tutorial oEmbed author: Xata.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.