My free Supabase project paused every 7 days — fixed with 5 lines of SQL
Supabase's free plan pauses your project after 7 days of inactivity. An elegant fix with pg_cron — the database generates its own activity from within.
If you host a side project on Supabase's free plan, you know the pain: 7 days without activity, the project goes to sleep, and your app serves a 503 at the worst possible moment.
The elegant fix
Keep the database alive from the inside, with pg_cron, already available on Supabase.
The idea:
- a tiny "sentinel" table (zero business data, locked down with RLS)
- a function that writes a timestamp into it
- a scheduled job that runs on its own
create extension if not exists pg_cron;
select cron.schedule(
'keep-alive',
'0 6 */2 * *', -- every 2 days at 6am
$$ update public.keep_alive set last_ping = now() where id = 1; $$
);
The database generates its own activity, so the inactivity counter never reaches zero.
The irony
Somewhere, a server stays lit all night just to write "I'm alive" into a table. 💡
Got a greener solution? I'm all ears. 🌱