Supabase project paused: why it happens, how to restore it and how to avoid it

Why it was paused

Supabase pauses Free plan projects with low database activity over 7 days. It does this to save resources, and it has nothing to do with anything you did wrong. According to its documentation it sends you a warning email beforehand and another once the project is paused: if you don't remember them, check your spam folder.

Paid plans on supabase.com aren't paused for inactivity. The Free plan allows 2 active projects, and paused ones don't count towards that limit.

While it's paused, your app can't use the database or anything else in the project. That's why it hits you all at once, and it tends to happen just as someone opens the app again after a few quiet days.

1. Restore it

1. Open your project

   Go to the supabase.com dashboard and pick the organization and the paused project.

2. Click “Resume project” and confirm

   The project comes back as it was, with its data and configuration. It takes a while to become available: give it time before deciding your app is broken.

3. If it won't let you

   Check how many active projects you have: the Free plan only allows 2. There's a 1-year window from the pause to restore it from the dashboard, so don't leave it if what's inside matters to you.

2. For a personal project: keep it active

Supabase says that opening the project in the dashboard and real requests from your app both count as activity, and that a few database requests a day are usually enough, though it warns that isn't certain. For a test or an app of your own, the simplest option is an automatic daily query.

GitHub Actions does this for free. Create this file in any repository of yours, change YOUR_TABLE to a table that exists and save two secrets in “Settings” → “Secrets and variables” → “Actions”: SUPABASE_URL (your project URL) and SUPABASE_KEY (its public key). Then, in the “Actions” tab, run it by hand once to check it goes green.

Two catches. GitHub turns off scheduled workflows in a public repository after 60 days without activity there, so one day it can stop without warning. And a pg_cron job inside the database itself is doubtful: Supabase talks about user activity, doesn't say whether it counts, and some people say it doesn't. A request from outside is what its documentation does mention.

name: Keep Supabase awake
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "17 6 * * *"  # every day at 06:17 UTC
  workflow_dispatch:      # plus a button to try it by hand
jobs:
  query:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: |
          curl --fail -sS "$SUPABASE_URL/rest/v1/YOUR_TABLE?select=*&limit=1" \
            -H "apikey: $SUPABASE_KEY" > /dev/null
        env:
          SUPABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.SUPABASE_URL }}
          SUPABASE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SUPABASE_KEY }}

3. If people rely on it: remove the pause for real

A scheduled query is a patch: if it fails one day, your users find the app stopped and you hear it from them. Supabase itself recommends moving to a paid plan if other people depend on your project. There are three ways out:

The Pro plan on supabase.com, from $25 a month according to its November 2026 prices. It's the most direct: nothing changes in your app, and you get its regions, replicas and branches. Egress beyond what's included costs extra.

Running it on a server of your own with the open source version. You pay server prices, but updates, backups and keeping it up are your job.

Your own machine on NapNodes, from €15 a month: open source Supabase already set up, in the EU, with backups, unmetered egress and no pause for lack of use. There's no free plan, no branching, no replicas and no choice of region: if you need those, Pro is the better fit.

Moving it to NapNodes without touching the original

If you choose that option, restore your project first: it has to be running to be copied. Then paste its connection string in the panel and your tables, data, policies and users with their passwords move across. Your supabase.com project isn't touched. Storage files and Edge Functions move separately, and your keys change: it's all in the guide to migrating from supabase.com.

Frequently asked questions