Pay only for active branches
Most branches sit idle 95%+ of the time. Scale-to-zero means you pay for the 5% that matters. A branch that runs tests for 3 minutes then sits idle for the rest of the day costs 3 minutes of compute, not 24 hours.
Scale to zero compute.Pay only when queries run.
Traditional databases charge for provisioned compute 24/7. Every Xata branch scales its compute to zero when idle and wakes automatically on the next connection.
How scale-to-zero works
Each Xata branch follows a simple lifecycle. This is what makes running thousands of databases practical.
- Step 01
Instant branch created
A full Postgres instance starts with copy-on-write storage. It's immediately ready to serve queries, with its own compute, connection string, and full isolation.
- Step 02
No active connections, compute stops
After a configurable idle period with no active connections, compute shuts down automatically. Data is preserved, only compute disappears.
- Step 03
Idle at $0 compute
The branch exists as storage only. No compute is running, so there is no compute cost. You only pay for storage if there are changes.
- Step 04
Wake-up on connection
A new connection automatically triggers compute to restart. The branch resumes from persisted storage with all data intact.
The economics of scale-to-zero
Compute runs only while a branch is serving queries, so idle branches cost nothing to keep around.
448 branches
Active: 448Idle: 0
Compute$43.01/hr
Thousands of branches
Run thousands of branches concurrently. Only a handful are active at any moment. The rest sit idle at zero compute cost, and wake up only when needed.
Storage scales with changes
Branches share the source database's storage via copy-on-write. You pay for the base storage plus deltas, typically 60-90% less than full copies.
Where scale-to-zero matters most
From AI agents to CI pipelines, scale-to-zero makes isolated databases economical at any scale.
Agent sandboxes
AI agents get isolated databases for each execution. Branches spin up, agents run their queries and mutations, then scale to zero. When the next run starts, the database wakes up automatically.
Per-engineer development
Every engineer gets their own branch. Most sit idle between coding sessions. Compute runs only during active development. No shared state, no conflicts, no cost for the 90% of the day the branch is not in use.
CI/CD preview environments
Create a database per pull request. Tests run, the branch goes idle, and the next push wakes it up again. When the PR closes, the branch is removed. You pay for minutes of compute per run, not hours of provisioned capacity.
Example
How much does a hundred pull requests cost?
Consider a company creating 100 pull requests per day against a 100 GB production database.*
With traditional database infrastructure, giving every pull request its own isolated database quickly becomes unsustainable.
With Xata Copy-on-Write, branches share unchanged data with production. Scale-to-Zero reduces compute usage by pausing idle branches.
*Assumes 3 GB of unique changes per branch, 24 hours of always-on compute per traditional copy, and 5 active minutes per Xata branch at equivalent compute size. Storage totals assume all 100 branches are retained. Production is excluded from both comparisons. Resource usage only; actual costs depend on rates and how long storage is kept.
Storage (TB)
Traditional DB
Compute (hours)
Traditional DB