TLDR:A new chapter for Postgres starts today: Agentic Postgres, the first database for agents, brings new architecture for the age of agents, and free access for everyone who builds with them.
We're launching a free tier. No credit card, no time limit, no catch.
AI development moves at the speed of thought. You’re constantly experimenting, testing a vector search strategy, forking a database to try a new schema, or spinning up an instance for a weekend project. The friction of “will this cost me money?” shouldn’t slow you down.
Today, we’re launching the Tiger Free Plan, a fully managed Postgres built for how AI development actually works: experimental, iterative, and increasingly agent-driven. It’s the same Tiger managed cloud experience developers already love, now free for every idea.
The Tiger Free Plan should be the database you reach for every time you want to test an idea.
What Makes This Free Plan Different
Most free database tiers are built for yesterday’s users. They gate core features, expire trials, or remind you what you don’t get. We built ours for how development actually happens today.
Because the database has a new user. Developers aren’t working alone anymore. They’re building alongside agents that write code, run migrations, and query data through APIs. That changes what experimentation means. You don’t just need a place to store data, you need a system where your tools, scripts, and agents can spin up, fork, and reason over automatically.
The Tiger Cloud Free Plan is built for that reality. It’s not designed for production. It's designed for progress, for the 90 percent of work that happens before you know if something is worth scaling.
Other free tiers optimize for control. Ours optimizes for momentum. When you’re experimenting, you shouldn’t have to think about limits, billing, or setup. You should be able to fork your database, test a schema, or try a new retrieval strategy in seconds, whether you’re doing it yourself or your agent is doing it for you.
That’s why it includes the tools modern AI workflows actually rely on. You can fork your database to test safely and recover fast, run vector search to compare retrieval and embedding strategies in real time, and analyze live data with built-in time-series and columnar features so you can see what’s happening as it happens. Because Tiger Cloud runs the same APIs across every plan, moving from free to production is instant: no migration, no rework, no context lost.
This isn’t a teaser or a trial. It's part of a new architecture for postgres, one built for builders: humans and agents alike.
What’s Included
Compute & storage:
Shared compute
Up to 750 MB of storage per service
Limit of 2 free services per account
Available in us-east-1 (EU expansion coming soon)
Features that matter:
Database forks: Branch your database like your code. Test safely, recover fast, or try something bold.
AI-native retrieval: Build RAG and other AI-powered features with native hybrid and vector search support (pgvectorscale + BM25).
Real-time analytics: Hypertables, continuous aggregates, and columnar storage. Run analytics in Postgres without extra systems.
Insights: View performance on a per-query basis over time, and get optimization recommendations, so you spend less time guessing.
Automated Management: Upgrades, tuning, and maintenance handled for you, so your database always runs at its best.
50+ Postgres Extensions. All your favorite extensions, from PostGIS to pgvector, built in and ready to go.
Connection management: Simplified, secure handling that just works.
What Happens When You Hit the Limits
At 750 MB, your service switches to read-only mode. You’ll get warnings as you approach the limit, and you can:
Fork to an earlier point in time (PITR - 24-hour point in time recovery)
Clean up data
Or upgrade to a paid plan and migrate in minutes
Free services can be upgraded directly. When your project grows, you can quickly convert it in place to remove storage limits. Your free services coexist perfectly with your paid ones, so you can test safely alongside production.
Connection poolers are not included in the Free Plan. Dedicated support is not included either, but Free Plan users are encouraged to join our community Slack to ask questions, share ideas, and see what others are building.
Built for the builders: Developers and agents alike
If you're new to Tiger, you can start with the free plan or take a 30-day performance trial. If you're already a customer, you can add two free services right inside your existing account for testing, sandboxing, or side projects.
The Free Plan is our way of lowering the floor for experimentation. We want more developers and agents building together on postgres without friction. It's a small change with a big goal: making it effortless to start, learn, and build.
A large suite of Postgres extensions, like PostGIS and pg_cron
Available in us-east-1 (EU region coming soon)
What is excluded in the Free Plan?
Connection pooler
Compute resizing
Dedicated support (community Slack available)
High-availability configurations
Advanced security features
Advanced enterprise features
What are the specs of a free service?
Each free service includes:
Shared compute
Storage: Up to 750 MB for user data
Backup: 24-hour point-in-time recovery for forking
Connections: Limited (exact number TBD, designed to balance usability and system health)
Is a credit card required to create Free Plan services?
No. You can sign up and create free services without entering payment information.
What happens if I reach my storage limit?
You'll receive warnings as you approach 750 MB. Once you hit the limit, your service switches to read-only mode. You can:
Fork your service to an earlier point in time (within the 24-hour PITR window)
Delete data to free up space before reaching the limit
Upgrade to a Performance or Scale plan and “Convert to a standard service without storage limits”
Can I upgrade free services?
Yes. If your project outgrows the Free Plan, you can:
Switch to a Performance or Scale plan
Convert your free service to a standard service to remove storage limitations and get access to higher levels of compute
What is the difference between Free Plan and Performance Plan?
Performance Plan offers:
Scalable compute (starting at 0.5 CPU / 2 GB RAM, up to 16 CPU / 128 GB RAM)
Storage up to 16 TB (pay-as-you-go by the GB)
Connection pooling
High availability options
Dedicated support
Virtual Private Cloud peering
Production-grade SLAs
The Free Plan is optimized for experimentation; Performance is optimized for production.
Can I start a Performance trial if I already have a Free Plan?
Yes! Every project gets one free trial of Performance or Scale. You can start it at any point, even after creating free services. Your free services remain active during and after the trial.
Does my free trial automatically convert to a Free Plan when my trial expires?
If you start with a Performance or Scale trial, here's what happens when it ends:
Trial services (on Performance/Scale) are paused, then eventually deleted
Any free services remain active
Your account converts to the Free Plan
You can create up to 2 free services (if you haven't already)
No charges occur unless you explicitly upgrade
Do I keep my free services if I upgrade my Free Plan to Performance or Scale?
Yes! Free services are available on all plans. You can have up to 2 free services alongside your paid services.
If I am already a Tiger Data customer, can I also use the free services?
Yes! Existing Performance, Scale, and Enterprise customers can create up to 2 free services within their accounts. Use them for testing, sandboxes, or side projects.
Will I have access to free services in my paid plan?
Yes. All plans (Free, Performance, Scale, Enterprise) include access to up to 2 free services. They coexist with your development and production databases.
Should I start with the Free Plan or the Free Trial?
Start with Free Plan if:
You're prototyping or experimenting
You're not sure what you're building yet
You want to test Tiger Data without commitment
Start with a Performance/Scale trial if:
You're ready to test Tiger Cloud with production-like workloads
You have large datasets to migrate
You need higher compute or storage immediately
You want to evaluate enterprise features
You can always start a trial later. Each project gets one trial, and you choose when to use it.
Is Tiger Fluid Storage available on Performance and Scale plans?
No, Tiger Fluid Storage is not available on Performance and Scale plans today.
About the authors
Hien Phan
An AI, Data, and Infrastructure Marketing Leader, Hien Phan is the Head of Marketing at Tiger Data. He has led Product, Partner, and Customer Marketing at Pinecone. He and his team launched a game-changing serverless architecture and introduced Pinecone Assistant, marking a significant leap in our product offerings.
At Amplitude, Hien’s team championed solutions that empowered product and marketing teams to excel in a product-led growth. This role sharpened his ability to drive growth through strategic marketing initiatives, solidifying that brand as an indispensable tool for product experimentation and analytics category.
Hien lives in the Bay Area with his two lovely dogs and makes a mean roasted chicken.
