PlanetScale Pricing 2026 — Plans, Cost & Cheaper Alternatives

Current PlanetScale Pricing (2026)

Plan	Monthly Cost	Rows Read	Storage	Best For
Hobby (Free) DISCONTINUED	$0 → gone	1B/month	5 GB	PlanetScale eliminated this tier
Scaler	$39/mo was $29	10B/month included	10 GB included	Growing apps needing branching
Scaler Pro	$99/mo	100B/month included	100 GB included	Production apps, high read volume
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	Mission-critical, SLA requirements

Overage pricing: $1.50 per additional billion rows read; $1.50 per additional GB storage.

The Price Hike Breakdown

Old Scaler plan (flat) $29/month ($348/yr)

New Scaler plan (base) $39/month ($468/yr)

Extra annual cost (base) +$120/yr (+34%)

Free tier eliminated $0 → $39/month for former free users

Effective increase (for free users) $0 → $468/yr (∞%)

Who got hit hardest: Free tier users (now must pay $39/mo or migrate), and teams with high row-read volume who now face usage-based overages on top of the base price increase.

Why PlanetScale Raised Prices

Free tier abuse: PlanetScale cited unsustainable infrastructure costs from users treating the free tier as permanent production hosting
Usage-based shift: The move to per-row-read pricing aligns cost with actual usage — good for low-read apps, expensive for analytics workloads
AI infra pressure: MySQL-compatible serverless databases require expensive global replication infrastructure
Investor returns: PlanetScale raised $50M+ in funding and needs a path to profitability

Best Free PlanetScale Alternatives (2026)

Several databases offer the features PlanetScale used to provide for free — with more generous tiers:

🌊 Neon

Free tier available

Postgres-compatible serverless database. Generous free tier with branching (similar to PlanetScale). Autoscales to zero.

✓ Free: 0.5 GB storage, 190 compute hours
✓ Branching for dev/preview environments
✓ Scales to zero (no idle charges)
✗ Postgres only (not MySQL)

⚡ Supabase

Free tier: 500 MB DB, 2 projects

Full Postgres with auth, storage, and edge functions built-in. Free tier pauses after 1 week of inactivity.

✓ Full Postgres + auth + storage
✓ 2 free projects
✓ Pro tier: $25/mo (vs PlanetScale $39/mo)
✗ Projects pause after inactivity (free tier)

🐬 PlanetScale Managed MySQL

$29/mo Scaler (legacy pricing)

If you're already on PlanetScale, the existing features are still excellent. The branching model is best-in-class for MySQL.

✓ Best MySQL branching available
✓ No-downtime schema changes
✓ Global edge routing
✗ Usage-based overages can surprise you

🔥 Turso

Free: 500 DBs, 9 GB storage

SQLite-compatible distributed database. Exceptionally generous free tier. Great for edge deployments.

✓ 500 databases free
✓ 9 GB storage free
✓ Edge-native (low latency globally)
✗ SQLite compatibility (not MySQL/Postgres)

Should You Migrate from PlanetScale?

Stay on PlanetScale if:

You rely on PlanetScale's MySQL branching workflow (genuinely best-in-class)
Your app has low row-read volume (Scaler plan at $39/mo stays predictable)
You're already in production and migration risk outweighs cost savings

Migrate to Neon or Supabase if:

You're Postgres-compatible and just used PlanetScale for the free tier
Your row-read volume is high and usage-based billing is unpredictable
You need auth, storage, or edge functions in addition to the database (Supabase wins)

Migration effort: PlanetScale is MySQL; migrating to Postgres (Neon/Supabase) requires query adaptation. Expect 2–5 days for a medium-sized app. Worth it if you're on the eliminated free tier.

Real Annual Cost Comparison

Database	Free Tier	Entry Paid Plan	10 GB Storage + 10B Rows
PlanetScale	None (discontinued)	$39/mo ($468/yr)	$39/mo base
Neon	Yes (0.5 GB, 190h compute)	$19/mo ($228/yr)	~$25-35/mo estimated
Supabase	Yes (500 MB, 2 projects)	$25/mo ($300/yr)	~$25/mo Pro
Turso	Yes (500 DBs, 9 GB)	$29/mo ($348/yr)	~$29/mo

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