Supabase free tier: you have no backups (fix it in 10 minutes)

The Supabase free plan takes no automated backups. Here's the fastest path to a real, restorable backup — free options included.

The uncomfortable default

Supabase's free plan does not take automated backups. Your project can be paused after a week of inactivity, and data loss from a bad migration or delete is simply yours to keep. This is fair for a free tier — but most people discover it after the incident.

The 10-minute fix

Take a manual dump right now:

pg_dump "$SUPABASE_DIRECT_URL" --format=custom --no-owner \
  --file=supabase_$(date +%F).dump

Then automate it: a GitHub Actions cron (free) that runs the same command and uploads to S3/R2 gets you 90% of the way. Encrypt the file first (age or gpg) if the bucket is shared.

The part everyone skips

A dump file in a bucket is a hope until you've restored it. Test with:

createdb restore_test && pg_restore --no-owner -d restore_test supabase_2026-07-05.dump

Whatever tool made your backup, the only way to know it works is to restore it. Firedrill does that automatically for every backup — or try a one-off free drill on a dump you already have.