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Production databases are dedicated for your live data that powers your published Replit Apps. Unlike development databases where you experiment and build features, production databases keep your real-world data safe while you continue building, ensuring reliability, and performance. Understanding how to work with production databases is essential for building robust applications that can evolve and scale without disrupting your users.
Production database management interface

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What are Production Databases?

Production databases are the live, operational databases that serve real users and their data. They differ significantly from development databases in several key ways:

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Production vs Development Databases

AspectDevelopment DatabaseProduction Database
PurposeExperimentation and feature developmentServing real users and storing business data
DataTest data, dummy records, small datasetsReal user data, business-critical information
PerformanceOptimized for development speedOptimized for reliability and user experience
ChangesFrequent schema changes, rapid iterationCareful, planned changes via data migrations and rollback strategies
DowntimeAcceptable during developmentMust be minimized or eliminated
BackupOptional for testingCritical for business continuity
Agent is not able to modify the production database, this restriction is in place so that your production database stays safe.Agent can make edits to your development database. At the time of publishing, any changes you’ve made with the agent to the structure of your development database (i.e. adding and deleting columns / tables) will be applied over to your production database.You are manually able to edit your production data at anytime by going to database pane > production database > My data and toggling Edit

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Database Technology and Infrastructure

Production databases in Replit are built on the same robust foundation as our standard SQL Database offering. They use PostgreSQL 16 hosted on Neon, providing enterprise-grade reliability and performance.

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Relationship to Replit SQL Database

Production databases share the same core technology stack as Replit’s SQL Database:
  • PostgreSQL 16: Industry-standard relational database with advanced features
  • Neon Infrastructure: Serverless database platform that provides automatic scaling and cost optimization
  • Built-in Tools: Access to SQL runner, Drizzle Studio, and visual data management tools
  • Environment Variables: Secure connection management through automatically generated credentials
For detailed information about database features, connection setup, and technical specifications, see the SQL Database documentation.

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Making safe changes to your production database

When you publish updates to your Replit App that include database changes, you may encounter scenarios where careful planning is essential to avoid downtime or data loss.

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Non-Backward Compatible Changes

Some database changes can break compatibility with your existing application code. These changes require special handling to ensure smooth deployments.
You may notice a brief downtime for your published app during publishing. This downtime occurs because database changes sometimes require stopping your app temporarily to prevent conflicts and ensure safe updates. Stopping the app during these updates helps protect your data from loss or corruption while the changes are applied.

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Common Non-Backward Compatible Changes

The following types of changes typically require careful publishing strategies:
  • Removing database columns that your application code still references
  • Changing column data types in ways that existing code cannot handle
  • Adding required fields without default values to existing tables
  • Renaming tables or columns that break existing queries
  • Modifying constraints that could reject existing application logic

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Deployment Previews

Before publishing database changes to production, Replit provides tools to test your changes safely in a preview environment. A deployment preview is a temporary, isolated copy of your production environment where you can test database changes and application updates before they affect real users. This preview environment mirrors your production setup but operates independently. It can help you catch potential issues early and ensure your changes work correctly before going live. Testing your deployment in the preview environment is crucial for identifying issues before they impact your users. Follow these steps to ensure your database changes work correctly: 1. Functional Testing
  • Verify that your app still works properly with the database changes applied
  • Test all major user flows to ensure functionality remains intact
  • Check that data displays correctly after the schema modifications
2. Data Integrity Verification
  • Confirm that existing data has been properly migrated or transformed
  • Verify that new fields contain expected values or appropriate defaults
  • Test edge cases where data might not conform to new constraints
3. Performance Validation
  • Monitor query response times in the preview environment
  • Check that new indexes are being used effectively
  • Verify that the changes don’t introduce performance regressions

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Point-in-time restore

For production databases, you can restore your database to a specific point in time using the point-in-time restore feature.
Database rollbacks interface showing rollback options
Note that this will only restore your production database to the state it was at the time of the checkpoint. It will not restore your app to the state it was at the time of the checkpoint. To restore your app to the state it was at the time of the checkpoint, you will need to roll back to the checkpoint using the rollback feature and republish your app.

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Billing and resource usage

Production databases are billed based on usage through Neon, a serverless database provider. Neon’s serverless capabilities include the following:
  • Zero infrastructure setup or maintenance
  • Automatic scaling to handle your usage needs
  • Compute time billing only when the database is active
The database enters an idle state after five minutes of inactivity, pausing compute time billing. It instantly reactivates when it receives a query.
To learn more about this serverless database technology, see the Neon Compute lifecycle documentation.
Replit provides real-time tracking of your database usage. You can view the breakdown of compute time and storage usage for the current Replit App or for each Replit App on your account.
To view your database compute time and storage usage for the current billing period, follow the steps below:From the Replit Database tool:
  1. Navigate to the PostgresSQL database icon Replit Database tool in your workspace
  2. In the database dropdown menu, select Production
  3. Select the gear icon Settings tab
  4. The Storage Used section shows the total storage used by your database for the current billing period.
To view for every Replit App on your account from the Account resource usage section, follow the steps below:
  1. Select View account resource limits to open the Usage page
  2. Scroll to Resource usage section
  3. Expand the PostgresSQL Storage and PostgresSQL Compute rows for details on each Replit App
To learn how Replit charges for database usage, see Deployments and Database Billing.

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Troubleshooting Common Issues

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Publishing Failures

If your publishing fails due to database issues:
  1. Check the publishing logs for specific error messages about database connectivity or schema conflicts
  2. Verify your database connection credentials are correct and accessible from the published app environment
  3. Review recent schema changes for potential conflicts with existing application code
  4. Test your changes in a preview environment before attempting to republish

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Removing a production database

The remove action is irreversible after a retention period of 7 days. Make sure to back up any important data before proceeding. Databases have a 7 soft delete period where databases can be restored. Reach out to support if you need assistance. After 7 days, the database is hard deleted and will be unrecoverable.
If you no longer need a database for your Replit App, you can remove it and all its data.
From the Replit Database tool:
  1. Select the gear icon Settings tab
  2. Select Remove database and confirm by selecting Yes, Remove database

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Next Steps

To learn more about database management on Replit:
  • SQL Database: Learn about Replit’s managed PostgreSQL database service
  • Key-Value Store: Explore Replit’s simple key-value database option
  • Deployments: Understand how deployments work with database changes
  • Object Storage: Learn about storing files and assets in the cloud