Database Billing
Learn about Database Billing in WaymakerOS.
A database is always on — it holds your data and stays ready whether or not anyone's looking. So unlike a one-off action, it has an ongoing cost, billed in Waymaker credits. Here's exactly what you pay for and what happens if you run low.
Who pays: the billing owner
Every database has a billing owner — the person whose Waymaker credit balance covers it. By default that's whoever created the database. The cost is metered daily against the owner's balance.
You can hand ownership to someone else (for example, when the original creator leaves) from the database's controls. The new owner needs an active Waymaker pass to take it on.
What you're billed for
| What it is | |
|---|---|
| Storage | How much data your database holds, per day. |
| Compute | The work the database does answering queries. |
| Data transfer | Data leaving the database — including traffic from your app's end-users. |
| Preview branches | Each active branch database adds a small daily amount while it exists, and stops when it's torn down. |
You can watch all of this on the Monitoring tab of the database workspace — daily usage and credits, so cost never surprises you.
A live app uses credits even when you're not watching. If real users are hitting your deployed app, their reads and writes draw on the owner's balance. That's normal — it's the cost of running a real database — but it's worth knowing when you set your credit budget.
If credits run out
Waymaker never deletes your data for non-payment. Instead there's a gentle ladder:
- Running low (less than about a week's worth left) — you get a heads-up so you can top up in good time.
- Balance hits zero — the database is paused. It stops doing work, and for the moment it's paused your app can't reach it. Your data stays completely intact.
- You top up — the database resumes automatically on the next daily cycle. Everything comes straight back.
Your data is only ever removed when you delete it yourself, on purpose, with a confirmation. Running out of credit pauses the database; it never destroys it.
Keeping costs down
- Remove branch previews you're done with — closing the pull request tears the branch database down automatically.
- Watch the Monitoring tab for a table that's growing faster than you expect.
- Right-size your region — pick the region close to your users so queries are fast and efficient.
Next Steps
- The Database Workspace — the Monitoring tab
- Branches — what a preview adds
- Usage & Billing — how Host billing works overall