Neon Has Free Database Branching — Here's How to Use It

Ever wished you could git branch your database? Neon makes it real — create instant copy-on-write branches of your Postgres database for development, testing, and previews. What Is Neon Branching? Neon is serverless Postgres with a killer feature: database branching . Just like Git branches for code, you can create isolated database copies instantly — without duplicating data. Free Tier 0.5 GiB storage included Unlimited branches (up to 10 active) 191.9 compute hours per month Autoscaling — scales to zero when idle How Branching Works # Create a branch from production neonctl branches create --name dev/feature-auth # Branch is instant — uses copy-on-write, no data duplication # Your 50GB production database branches in < 1 second The magic: Neon uses copy-on-write storage. A branch of a 50GB database takes zero additional storage until you modify data. Real-World Workflows 1. Preview Environments # In your CI/CD pipeline - name : Create preview branch run : | BRANCH=$(neonctl branches