# TiDB Cloud

> MySQL-compatible distributed SQL database; Starter is its autoscaling serverless tier (formerly Serverless).

- Category: [Databases](https://freetier.tech/c/database.md)
- Free tier: Always free. Five free MySQL-compatible Starter instances per org, each with 5 GiB row + 5 GiB columnar storage and 50M RUs/month.
- Commercial use not stated
- No card required
- Pricing: https://www.pingcap.com/tidb-cloud-starter-pricing-details/
- Last verified: 2026-10-28

## Free tier limits

- Free quota applies to the first 5 MySQL-compatible Starter instances in each organization
- 5 GiB row-based storage per instance
- 5 GiB columnar storage per instance
- 50 million Request Units (RUs) per instance per month
- PostgreSQL-compatible Starter (public preview): first 10 instances free, each with 50 GiB row-based storage and 500 million RUs per month

## Gotchas

- Starter on Alibaba Cloud (Singapore) is in public preview; Starter on AWS is generally available.
- When an instance uses up its free quota, new connections are refused and existing ones are throttled until the month resets or the spending limit is raised.
- A credit card and spending limit are required for a sixth instance or any spending limit above $0.
- Starter requires TLS connections.
- PostgreSQL-compatible Starter is a public preview intended for development and evaluation, not production.
- Serverless was renamed Starter (Aug 2025) and clusters became instances (Apr 2026); CLI commands still say `serverless`.
- Both CLIs (`ticloud` and the newer `ti`) are in public preview.

## Setup

### What the human does

1. Sign up at https://tidbcloud.com/free-trial (Google, GitHub or Microsoft sign-in is fastest).
2. On My TiDB, click Create Resource and select Starter, then choose Alibaba Cloud as the cloud provider and Singapore as the region. Keep the spending limit at $0 so it stays free.
3. Open that instance, click Connect, click Generate Password, and copy the connection string.
4. For CLI access, approve the browser prompt from `ticloud auth login`, or create an API key under Organization Settings > API Keys.

### How the agent gets access

#### Connection string

- Get it at: https://tidbcloud.com
- Env var: `DATABASE_URL`
- Notes: From the instance's Connect dialog (Generate Password first); TLS is required on the public endpoint.

#### CLI login

- Install: `curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tidbcloud/tidbcloud-cli/main/install.sh | sh`
- Run: `ticloud auth login`
- Notes: OAuth device flow that opens a browser for the human to approve. To create the Alibaba Cloud Singapore instance from the CLI, find its region name with `ticloud serverless region`, then run `ticloud serverless create --display-name <name> --region <region>`.

#### API key

- Run: `ticloud config create --profile-name <name> --public-key <public-key> --private-key <private-key>`
- Get it at: https://tidbcloud.com
- Notes: Create under Organization Settings > API Keys; this command saves the public/private key pair to a CLI profile.

### Verify

```sh
ticloud project list
```

## Docs

- Quickstart: https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/tidb-cloud-quickstart/
- llms.txt: https://docs.pingcap.com/llms.txt

## Sources

- https://www.pingcap.com/tidb-cloud-starter/
- https://www.pingcap.com/pricing/
- https://www.pingcap.com/tidb-cloud-starter-pricing-details/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/select-cluster-tier/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/create-tidb-cluster-serverless/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/manage-serverless-spend-limit/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/tidb-cloud-quickstart/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/connect-to-tidb-cluster-serverless/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/developer/dev-guide-sample-application-nodejs-prisma/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/get-started-with-cli/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/cli-reference/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/ticloud-auth-login/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/ticloud-config-create/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/ticloud-project-list/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/integrate-tidbcloud-with-n8n/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/ai/ti-overview/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/tidb-cloud-release-notes/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/release-notes-2025/
- https://www.pingcap.com/blog/tidb-cloud-supports-oauth-2-0-for-a-more-secure-login-experience/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/llms.txt
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/tidb-cloud-intro/
- https://www.pingcap.com/blog/introducing-tidb-cloud-starter-auto-scaling-plan-renamed/
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/ticloud-serverless-region
- https://docs.pingcap.com/tidbcloud/ticloud-cluster-create/

JSON: https://freetier.tech/api/v1/services/tidb-cloud.json