Compute Add-ons

Every project on the Supabase Platform comes with its own dedicated Postgres instance running inside a virtual machine (VM).

The following table describes the base instances, Nano (free projects) and Micro (paying projects), with additional compute add-ons available if you need extra performance when scaling up Supabase.

Compute sizes can be changed by first selecting your project in the dashboard here and the upgrade process will incur downtime.

We charge hourly for additional compute based on your usage. Read more about usage-based billing for compute.

Dedicated vs. shared CPU#

All Postgres instances on Supabase are dedicated applications running inside dedicated virtual machines. However, the underlying hardware resources, for example the physical CPU, may be shared between multiple VMs, but appear to the OS as if it is a dedicated hardware CPU. This is commonly referred to as a vCPU (virtual CPU). Cloud providers use these shared hardware resources to save cost—you can upgrade to a larger compute add-on to guarantee a dedicated physical CPU for your instance.

Compute upgrades #

When considering compute upgrades, assess whether your bottlenecks are hardware-constrained or software-constrained. For example, you may want to look into optimizing the number of connections or examining query performance. When you're happy with your Postgres instance's performance, then you can focus on additional compute resources. For example, you can load test your application in staging to understand your compute requirements. You can also start out on a smaller tier, create a report in the Dashboard to monitor your CPU utilization, and upgrade later as needed

Disk IO#

SSD disks are attached to your servers, and their performance depends on the compute add-on of your instance as well as the attributes set for the disk.

Disk I/O Metrics:

• Throughput: Measured in Megabits per Second (Mbps), which indicates the rate of data transfer.
• IOPS: Input/Output Operations per Second, which measures the number of read and write operations.

Performance Limits:

Disk throughput is capped at 19,000 Mbps and IOPS is capped at 80,000 IOPS for all compute add-ons.

Self-Serve Configurability#

You can now adjust storage type, IOPS, throughput and disk size parameters yourself through the Dashboard here.

Understanding I/O Balance and Bursting (Smaller add-ons)#

For smaller add-ons like Nano, Micro, and Small, you get I/O balance and burst capacity. These add-ons have limited base performance for IOPS and throughput. However, they come with burst credits that let you handle temporary spikes for 30 minutes in a day in demand by briefly exceeding their baseline performance. This means you can achieve higher performance for short bursts before reverting to your baseline limits.

For example, the micro add-on can burst up to 2,085 Mbps for 30 minutes a day and reverts to the baseline performance of 87 Mbps. Your disk IO budget gets replenished throughout the day.

Dedicated I/O Resources (Larger add-ons)#

Larger add-ons, such as 4XL and above, come with dedicated I/O resources and don't rely on I/O balance or burst capacity. These add-ons are designed for sustained, high performance with specific IOPS and throughput limits. They provide consistent performance without needing to burst. If you hit your IOPS or throughput limit, throttling will occur, but you won't have burst credits to exceed these limits.

Storage Volume Types: gp3 vs. io2#

When selecting your storage volume, it’s essential to focus on the performance needs of your workload. Below is a comparison between the two main volume types we offer:

gp3 (General Purpose SSD) - Default Option This is our standard, versatile option and offers great value for most use cases. It’s ideal for general workloads that require moderate IOPS and throughput, such as small to medium-sized databases, development environments, and everyday tasks.

• Volume Size: Up to 16TB
• IOPS: 3,000 (default) up to 16,000 (maximum)
• Throughput: 125 MB/s (default) to 1,000 MB/s (maximum)

io2 (Provisioned IOPS SSD) This option is designed for high-performance needs where low latency and very high IOPS are crucial. If you’re running large-scale databases or mission-critical applications, io2 provides the performance you need.

• Volume Size: Up to 60TB
• IOPS: Can scale up to 256,000 based on your disk attributes
• Throughput: Scales with IOPS

Choosing the Right Type Think about the performance your workload demands. For general, day-to-day operations, gp3 should be more than enough. If you need high throughput and IOPS for critical systems, io2 will provide the performance required.

Choosing the Right Compute Add-On for Consistent Disk Performance#

If you need consistent disk performance, choose the 4XL or larger compute add-on which has the same baseline and maximum disk throughput and IOPS.

If you're unsure of how much throughput or IOPS your application requires, you can load test your project and inspect these metrics in the Dashboard. If the Disk IO % consumed stat is more than 1%, it indicates that your workload has burst beyond the baseline IO throughput during the day. If this metric goes to 100%, the workload has used up all available disk IO budget and will revert to baseline performance. Projects that use any disk IO budget are good candidates for upgrading to a larger compute add-on with higher baseline throughput.

Constraints#

• After any disk attribute change, there is a cooldown period of approximately six hours before you can make further adjustments. During this time, no changes are allowed. If you encounter throttling, you’ll need to wait until the cooldown period concludes before making additional modifications.
• You can increase volume size but cannot decrease it.
• The performance of EBS volumes is affected by the add-on size to which you are attached.

Postgres replication slots and WAL senders#

Replication Slots and WAL Senders are used to enable Postgres Replication.

The maximum number of replication slots and WAL senders depends on your compute add-on size, as follows:

Upgrade downtime#

Compute add-on changes are usually applied with less than 2 minutes of downtime, but can take longer depending on the Cloud Provider.