Database tiers & scaling

Every database runs on an instance tier that fixes its vCPU, RAM, and disk. Tiers range from a free 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GB / 1 GiB instance up to dedicated 8 vCPU / 16 GB instances, and you can change tier in both directions after creation.

Tier catalog

The instanceType on a database is one of these tier slugs. cpu is vCPU, memory is GB RAM, disk is the provisioned volume in GiB, and monthly is USD per month.

Tier slug	Label	vCPU	RAM (GB)	Disk (GiB)	$/mo	Free?
free-tier	Free	0.25	0.5	1	0	yes
standard-tier	Standard	1	2	10	18.25	no
c1-compute-tier	C1-Compute	2	4	20	51.10	no
c1-2xcompute-tier	C1-2XCompute	4	8	40	102.20	no
c2-compute-tier	C2-Compute	6	12	60	109.50	no
c2-2xcompute-tier	C2-2XCompute	8	16	80	219.00	no
m1-memory-tier	M1-Memory	1	4	20	43.80	no
m1-2xmemory-tier	M1-2XMemory	2	8	40	87.60	no
m2-memory-tier	M2-Memory	2	12	40	94.90	no
m2-2xmemory-tier	M2-2XMemory	4	24	80	189.80	no

The C-series is compute-optimized (higher vCPU per GB), the M-series is memory-optimized (higher GB per vCPU), and the 2X variants double both. A tier’s serverDetails (cpu, memory, disk) is echoed on every database detail response.

Note

The container-app tier list uses the identical slugs, vCPU, RAM, and price. The disk (GiB) column applies to databases only. See Instance tiers for the shared catalog.

Paid gating

Any tier other than free-tier requires an active paid plan. The same server-side check (isOrgPaid) gates both container and database create/change paths, so a free organization cannot provision or move to a paid tier — a create or change request that violates this returns 402.

Replicas & architecture

A database’s architecture sets how many replicas it runs:

architecture	Topology	Replicas	Availability	Plan
standalone	Single Zone	1	No HA	Any tier
replicaset	Multiple Zone	3	High availability	Paid only

The free tier is single-zone only — selecting a free tier snaps architecture back to standalone. High availability requires a paid tier.

Changing tier

POST /v1/databases/:id/tier

changeTier handles all directions — scaling up, scaling down, rescuing a free database to paid, and downgrading paid → free. You never state the direction; the server classifies it from the tier catalog.

Request body (ChangeTierInput):

Field	Type	Required	Notes
instanceType	string	Yes	Target tier slug; must exist in the catalog (else Unknown tier.).
expectedCurrentTier	string	No	Optimistic concurrency — the tier you believe is current. If it doesn’t match, the request 409s (stale).
confirmDowngradeToFree	boolean	No (default false)	Required acknowledgement to downgrade to free-tier.

Behavior:

• One change at a time. A change is rejected while the database is in a busy status (updating, deleting, deploying, queued, pending).
• Intent vs. reality. The row records targetInstanceType as the requested intent; the worker advances the real instanceType only on verified success.
• Optimistic concurrency. Pass expectedCurrentTier to guard against a racing change — a mismatch returns 409.
• Topics. A scale-up/down emits database.upgrade; a downgrade to free emits database.downgrade-free, both consumed by worker-v3.

Scale up / down

curl -X POST https://api.pandastack.io/v1/databases/903/tier \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PANDASTACK_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "instanceType": "c1-compute-tier", "expectedCurrentTier": "standard-tier" }'

Downgrade paid → free

Downgrading to free-tier requires the explicit confirmDowngradeToFree acknowledgement — it is destructive to billing and re-arms the 30-day suspend/purge lifecycle (see Free-tier lifecycle). It is a compute-only downscale that keeps the existing disk — Kubernetes cannot shrink a PVC, so the volume is not reduced.

curl -X POST https://api.pandastack.io/v1/databases/903/tier \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PANDASTACK_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "instanceType": "free-tier", "confirmDowngradeToFree": true }'

Connection limits by plan

The number of concurrent connections a database allows scales with your plan:

Plan	DB connection limit
Free	50
Pro	300
Premium	1000
Enterprise	unlimited

Related

• Databases overview
• Create a database
• Free-tier lifecycle — what a downgrade to free re-arms.
• Instance tiers · Plans & limits