cost-supabase

name: cost-supabase description: Estimate Supabase costs for any project using live pricing data. Use when user asks about Supabase pricing, BaaS costs, or PostgreSQL-based backend costs.

Supabase Cost Evaluator

Estimate costs for Supabase-based projects using current pricing data.

Before Answering Supabase Cost Questions

IMPORTANT: Always verify tool availability before providing cost estimates.

Step 1: Check Available Tools

Check if the following tools are available:

Supabase CLI (preferred):

• supabase CLI for project information
• supabase projects list - List projects
• supabase orgs list - List organizations

Supabase Management API:

• REST API for project and billing info

Step 2: If Tools Are Unavailable

If Supabase CLI is not accessible, help the user set it up:

Option A: Supabase CLI

# Install Supabase CLI
# macOS
brew install supabase/tap/supabase

# npm
npm install -g supabase

# Login
supabase login

Option B: Supabase Management API

# Get access token from dashboard
# https://supabase.com/dashboard/account/tokens

# List projects
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects"

# Get project details (includes usage)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF"

Ask the user which option fits their environment before proceeding.

Step 3: Fallback to Web Search

If no tools are available and user cannot install them, use web search to fetch current pricing from:

• https://supabase.com/pricing
• https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/billing

How to Get Live Pricing

Using Supabase CLI

# List all projects
supabase projects list

# Get project status (includes some usage info)
supabase status

# Link to project for detailed info
supabase link --project-ref YOUR_PROJECT_REF

Using Supabase Management API

# Get organization billing
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/organizations/ORG_ID/billing"

# Get project usage
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF/usage"

# Get subscription details
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF/subscription"

Using Web Scrape (Fallback)

Fetch current pricing from Supabase pricing page:

• https://supabase.com/pricing

Standalone Usage

Can be invoked directly for cost estimation:

• "How much does Supabase Pro cost?"
• "Estimate Supabase costs for 50k users"
• "What's included in Supabase free tier?"

Cost Estimation Process

1. Identify tier needed based on requirements
2. Query current pricing using available tools
3. Calculate add-ons based on expected usage
4. Estimate at scale (10x baseline)
5. Compare to alternatives if needed

Pricing Structure (Query for Current Values)

Tier Information

Usage-Based Add-ons

Get Current Usage

# Via API
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF/usage"

# Response includes:
# - database_size_bytes
# - storage_size_bytes
# - bandwidth_bytes
# - function_invocations
# - mau (monthly active users)

Output Contract

supabase_cost_estimate:
  description: "<what's being estimated>"
  pricing_source: "<cli|api|web>"
  pricing_date: "<when pricing was fetched>"

  recommended_tier: "<free|pro|team|enterprise>"

  tier_details:
    name: "<tier name>"
    base_price: "<$X/mo>"
    included:
      database_gb: <N>
      storage_gb: <N>
      bandwidth_gb: <N>
      mau: <N>
      edge_function_invocations: <N>

  usage_estimate:
    database_gb: <N>
    storage_gb: <N>
    bandwidth_gb: <N>
    mau: <N>

  baseline_monthly:
    tier_base: "<$X>"
    compute_addon: "<$X>"
    database_addon: "<$X>"
    storage_addon: "<$X>"
    bandwidth_addon: "<$X>"
    other_addons: "<$X>"
    total: "<$X>"

  at_10x_scale:
    tier: "<$X>"
    addons: "<$X>"
    total: "<$X>"

  included_features:
    - "PostgreSQL database"
    - "Auth (email, OAuth, magic link, phone)"
    - "Realtime subscriptions"
    - "Edge Functions (Deno)"
    - "Storage (S3-compatible)"
    - "Vector embeddings (pgvector)"
    - "Auto-generated APIs"

  optimization_tips:
    - "<tip 1>"
    - "<tip 2>"

Cost Optimization Strategies

Monitor Usage via API

# Set up usage monitoring
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF/usage"

# Check daily stats
# Dashboard: https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/_/reports

Optimize Database

-- Check database size
SELECT pg_size_pretty(pg_database_size(current_database()));

-- Find large tables
SELECT relname, pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(relid))
FROM pg_catalog.pg_statio_user_tables
ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(relid) DESC;

-- Enable connection pooling (PgBouncer)
-- Use transaction mode for serverless

Optimize Storage

# List storage buckets and sizes via API
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_REF/storage/buckets"

Supabase vs Alternatives

When comparing costs:

• vs Firebase: Supabase often cheaper for SQL-heavy workloads
• vs AWS (RDS + Cognito + S3): Supabase simpler, often cheaper at small scale
• vs PlanetScale + Clerk: Compare feature sets, Supabase is all-in-one

Self-Hosting Option

For very large scale, consider self-hosting:

# Self-hosted Supabase
git clone https://github.com/supabase/supabase
cd supabase/docker
docker compose up

Costs shift to infrastructure (compute, storage) instead of Supabase fees.