Create a free cluster
Use a free cluster to get started with YugabyteDB. Although not suitable for production workloads, a free cluster includes enough resources to start exploring the core features available for developing applications with YugabyteDB.
Features
Your free cluster includes the following:
- Single node.
- Up to 2 vCPUs and 10 GB of storage, depending on the cloud provider.
- An edge release of YugabyteDB, which provides early access to new features.
- Available in all regions.
Share your feedback, questions, and suggestions with other users on the YugabyteDB Community Slack.
Creating a free cluster
To create a free cluster, on the Clusters page, click Add Cluster to start the Create Cluster wizard.
The Create Cluster wizard has the following pages:
Select Cluster Type
Select Yugabyte Cloud Free and click Next to display the Cluster Settings page.
Cluster Settings
Set the following options:
- Provider: Choose a cloud provider - AWS or GCP.
- Cluster Name: Enter a name for the cluster.
- Region: Choose the Region where the cluster will be located.
Database Admin Credentials
The admin credentials are required to connect to the YugabyteDB database that is installed on the cluster.
You can use the default credentials generated by Yugabyte Cloud, or add your own.
For security reasons, the admin user does not have YSQL superuser privileges, but does have sufficient privileges for most tasks. For more information on database roles and privileges in Yugabyte Cloud, refer to Database authorization in Yugabyte Cloud clusters.
After the cluster is provisioned, you can add more users.
Download the credentials, and click Create Cluster.
Important
Save your database credentials. If you lose them, you won't be able to use the database.Viewing the cluster
After you complete the wizard, the Clusters page appears, showing the provisioning of your new cluster in progress.
When the cluster is ready, the cluster Overview tab is displayed.
You now have a fully configured YugabyteDB cluster provisioned in Yugabyte Cloud with the database admin credentials you specified.
Inactive free clusters
Free clusters are paused after 21 days of inactivity. When a cluster is paused, you receive an email notification. You need to resume the paused cluster before you can perform any operations on it. If you don't resume your cluster, a second notification is sent after 28 days of inactivity, notifying you that the cluster will be deleted in 48 hours.
To resume your paused cluster, sign in to Yugabyte Cloud, select the cluster on the Clusters page, and click Resume.
Free clusters are deleted after 30 days of inactivity. Only paused clusters are deleted. Yugabyte Cloud runs idle cluster deletion jobs daily, so your cluster may be paused or deleted any time up to 24 hours after the time mentioned in the notification email.
To keep your cluster from being paused, you (or, where applicable, an application connected to the database) can perform any of the following actions:
-
Any SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE database operation.
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Create or delete tables.
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Add or remove IP allow lists.
Limitations
- Limit of one free cluster per account.
- Free clusters can't be scaled.
- Free clusters are secured by limiting network access using IP allow lists. VPC networking is not supported.
- No backups.