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You can start a free cloud database with Supabase by creating a project in its Dashboard, then adding a table with the Table Editor or SQL Editor. Each project includes a full Postgres database. This walkthrough creates a small example table you can inspect in the Dashboard; it does not configure a production-ready application.

What you get with a Supabase project

A Supabase project provisions a cloud environment that includes a full Postgres database. Supabase describes it as “a full Postgres database, not a Postgres abstraction.” See the Supabase Database guide. You can create and inspect tables from the Dashboard, and later connect an application to the project.

How to create a free Supabase database

  1. Sign in to Supabase and open the Dashboard for an organization you belong to.

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  2. Create a new project and follow the Dashboard prompts to provide the project details and database credentials. Project creation provisions the database environment. Available choices can vary; the getting-started documentation does not establish that every account has identical region options.

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  3. Wait for the project to finish provisioning, then open it in the Dashboard. Supabase’s getting-started guide covers project setup.

Choose the Table Editor or SQL Editor

Supabase offers two ways to create a table. Choose based on whether you prefer a visual form or explicit SQL you can save and run again.

Workflow Comfort for a first table Schema explicitness Repeatability
Table Editor Visual Dashboard workflow for entering a table name and columns. You define the table and columns through the interface. Steps are not a SQL script by default.
SQL Editor Requires typing and running SQL. The SQL states the table definition and constraints directly. You can retain and rerun the statement as needed.

Both are supported in Supabase’s Tables and data guide. The steps below use the Table Editor; the SQL alternative follows.

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Create a first table with the Table Editor

  1. In your project Dashboard, open the Table Editor and choose the option to create a table.

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  2. Enter a descriptive, lowercase table name such as todos. Supabase’s guide recommends lowercase names and underscores where needed, for example my_table.

  3. Define the columns. For a simple example, use a generated bigint primary key named id and a required text column named name. A primary key is a value that identifies a row so it can be referred to unambiguously. A text column stores character data; making name required prevents rows without a name.

  4. Review the column types and required settings, then save the table. The Table Editor enables row-level security (RLS) when creating a table through the Dashboard.

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  5. Add a sample row using the table view—for example, enter a name such as Buy groceries—and save it. Return to the table view to confirm the row appears.

Create the same table with SQL instead

If you prefer to define the schema explicitly, open the SQL Editor in the project Dashboard and run:

create table public.todos (
  id bigint generated by default as identity primary key,
  name text not null
);

This creates a generated numeric row identifier and a required text value. SQL-created tables require you to enable RLS explicitly; creating the table does not do that for you. To add sample data, run:

insert into public.todos (name)
values ('Buy groceries');

Open the table in the Table Editor to verify that the inserted row is visible. Supabase documents table creation and data operations in its Tables and data guide.

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Secure the table before exposing it to an application

A table in the public schema may be reachable through the Data API. Supabase warns that until RLS is enabled and a policy is written, anyone holding the project’s publishable key can read and write every row. A publishable key is intended for client-side use, so it must not be treated as a secret that protects rows.

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What RLS and policies do

RLS (row-level security) lets policies determine which rows a database role may access. Policies do not replace database privileges: privileges also determine whether a role may perform operations such as selecting, inserting, updating, or deleting. Enabling RLS alone does not grant the access your app needs. Configure both policies and privileges for the specific roles and operations your application requires.

Choose access deliberately

See Supabase’s guidance on tables and row-level security and its getting-started example before exposing data.

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What the Free Plan includes—and what to plan for

Supabase’s billing documentation, accessed October 7, 2026, lists these Free Plan allowances:

Allowance Documented Free Plan amount
Projects 2 free projects
Database size 500 MB per project
Egress 5 GB
Storage 1 GB

These are Supabase-published quotas, not guarantees that limits will remain unchanged. Supabase also says low-activity Free Plan projects may be paused, and its production checklist says downloadable database backups are not available for Free Plan projects. Check the current Supabase billing and plan information before relying on the plan for an ongoing workload.

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What to do after the first table works

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