Billing metrics

Neon paid plans bill for usage based on the following metrics:

• Active time: The amount of time that your computes are active.
• Compute time: The amount of compute resources used per hour.
• Project storage: The volume of data and history stored in your Neon project.
• Written data: The volume of data written from compute to storage.
• Data transfer: The volume of data transferred out of Neon.

The following sections describe each metric and the billing rates for each region. Billing in Neon is account-based.

Active time

Active time is the total amount of time that your computes have been active within a given billing period, measured in hours. This includes all computes in your Neon project but excludes time when computes are in an Idle state due to auto-suspension (scale-to-zero). Active time is not a billed metric. It is a factor of the Compute time metric.

Compute time

Compute time is the the amount of compute resources used per hour. It is calculated by multiplying compute size by Active time hours. Neon measures compute size at regular intervals and averages those values to calculate Compute time.

Compute size is measured in Compute Units (CUs). One CU has 1 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. A Neon compute can have anywhere from .25 to 7 CUs, as outlined below:

A connection from a client or application activates a compute. Activity on the connection keeps the compute in an Active state. A defined period of inactivity (5 minutes by default) places the compute into an Idle state.

Factors that affect Compute time include:

• The number of active computes
• The size of each compute
• The Auto-suspend feature, which suspends a compute after 5 minutes of inactivity. Neon Pro Plan users can configure the Auto-suspend timeout timeout or disable Auto-suspend entirely.
• The Autoscaling feature, which allows you to set a minimum and maximum compute size. Compute size automatically scales up and down between these boundaries based on workload.

The Compute time cost calculation is as follows:

Compute time cost estimates

For an idea of Compute time cost per month based on compute size and usage, refer to the following table. Compute size is measured in Compute Units (CUs).

• Public-facing applications are assumed to be active for all hours in a month (730 hrs/mth).
• Internal applications with consistent usage are assumed to be active during working hours (173 hrs/mth).
• Internal applications with moderate usage are assumed to be active half of working hours (87 hrs/mth).

Estimate your compute time cost

To estimate your own monthly Compute time cost:

1. Determine the compute size you require, in Compute Units (CUs).

2. Estimate the amount of Active time per month for your compute(s).

3. Find the Compute-time price for your region. The billing rates table shows Compute-time prices by region.

4. Input the values into the Compute time cost formula:

   For example, this is the calculation for the smallest compute offered by Neon (.25 CUs), 730 hours, and a Compute time price of $0.102:

Project storage

Project storage is the total volume of data and history stored in your Neon project, measured in gibibyte hours (GiB-hours). It includes the following:

• Current data size

  The size of all databases in your Neon projects. You can think of this as a snapshot of your data at a point in time.

• History

  Neon retains a history of changes for all branches to support point-in-time restore.

  • Point-in-time restore is the ability to restore data to an earlier point in time. Neon retains a history of changes in the form of WAL records. You can configure the history retention period. See Point-in-time restore. WAL records that age out of the history retention period are evicted from storage and no longer count toward project storage.

  • A database branch is a virtual snapshot of your data at the point of branch creation combined with WAL records that capture the branch's data change history from that point forward. When a branch is first created, it adds no storage. No data changes have been introduced yet, and the branch's virtual snapshot still exists in the parent branch's history, which means that it shares this data in common with the parent branch. A branch begins adding to storage when data changes are introduced or when the branch's virtual snapshot falls out of the parent branch's history, in which case the branch's data is no longer shared in common. In other words, branches add storage when you modify data or allow the branch to age out of the parent branch's history.

    Database branches can also share a history. For example, two branches created from the same parent at or around the same time share a history, which avoids additional storage. The same is true for a branch created from another branch. Wherever possible, Neon minimizes storage through shared history. Additionally, to keep storage to a minimum, Neon takes a new branch snapshot if the amount of data changes grows to the point that a new snapshot consumes less storage than retained WAL records.

The cost calculation for Project storage is as follows:

Written data

Written data measures the total volume of data written from compute to storage within a given billing period, measured in gigibytes (GiB). Writing data from compute to storage ensures the durability and integrity of your data, as it reflects the data changes made by your computes.

The cost calculation for Written data is as follows:

Data transfer

Data transfer measures the total volume of data transferred out of Neon (known as "egress") during a given billing period, measured in gigibytes (GiB). It includes data sent from your Neon project to external destinations. If your data transfer is high, contact Sales for custom solutions to minimize data transfer costs.

The cost calculation for Data transfer is as follows:

Billing rates

* A Compute-hour is based on a compute size of 1 Compute Unit (CU), which is 1 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. Neon's smallest compute size is .25 CU (.25 vCPU and 1GB of RAM), which would be billed at 1/4 of a Compute-hour. Neon supports compute sizes ranging from .25 CU (.25 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM) to 7 CUs (7 vCPU and 28 GB of RAM). If you require larger computes, contact Sales.

Pricing calculators

Neon provides pricing tools you can use to estimate monthly costs based on the billing metrics described above.

Pricing calculator

The Pricing page on the Neon website provides a calculator that allows you to estimate monthly costs based on usage amounts that you provide.

Pro Plan Cost Estimator

The Billing page in the Neon Console provides a Pro Plan Cost Estimator tool, which estimates costs based on your current project usage. If you have ever wondered, "How much would my monthly cost be if I upgraded to the Neon Pro Plan?", this tool provides the answer. To access it, navigate to the Billing page via the sidebar of the Neon Console, and select Open Cost Estimator.

To provide cost estimates, the Pro Plan Cost Estimator requires at least one month of project usage.