TiDB Cloud
TiDB Cloud: A MySQL-compatible cloud database with free usage, autoscaling, and native HTAP. Ranked #2 of 25 in Distributed SQL Databases by our editors (9.2/10); pricing: Free plan; best for low-cost cloud HTAP workloads.
At a glance
- Editor score9.2 / 10
- PricingFree plan
- Best forLow-cost cloud HTAP workloads
- Free planYes
- Deployment modelCloud
- Founded2015
- Facts checked20 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Free Starter tier with storage, request units, and scale-to-zero
- MySQL compatibility with horizontal scaling and native HTAP
- Broad integrations across observability, streaming, BI, and data tools
Where it doesn't
- No PostgreSQL compatibility
- Several editions use usage-based pricing
- Premium is in public preview
Our verdict on TiDB Cloud
TiDB Cloud is PingCAP’s fully managed, cloud-native Database-as-a-Service, based on the open-source TiDB distributed SQL database. It is designed for developers, growing teams, and enterprise workloads that need MySQL protocol and syntax compatibility alongside transactional processing, real-time analytics, and AI workloads. The service is available through web and API access, with deployment across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure for Dedicated clusters. Horizontal scaling, replication, automatic failover, and regional placement policies suit applications that need distributed data operations rather than a single-node database.
Pricing spans a free Starter tier and several paid deployment options. TiDB Cloud Starter costs $0 per month and includes 25 GiB of row storage, 25 GiB of column storage, and 250M Request Units per month, with pay-as-you-go usage beyond those quotas and scale-to-zero operation. Essential adds usage-based autoscaling compute, provisioned compute, point-in-time backup, up to 30-day backup retention, and encryption in transit and at rest. Premium costs $1800 per month and adds unlimited growth with autoscaling, enterprise security, CMEK, PrivateLink, VPC Peering, and 99.99% availability. Dedicated pricing includes $0.22 per hour for predictable-traffic workloads or $1376 per month for advanced requirements and cluster-size pricing.
The platform fits teams building a cloud data stack around tools such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, Kafka, Flink, Airbyte, dbt, Spark, Tableau, Power BI, Looker, and Superset. Private endpoints, VPC peering, encryption, backups, and multi-region placement address connectivity and operational requirements, while HTAP keeps analytical queries close to transactional data. Choose TiDB Cloud when MySQL compatibility, scale-to-zero, and mixed transactional-analytical workloads matter. Choose another database when PostgreSQL compatibility is required or when a fixed, simple price is more important than usage-based options.
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TiDB Cloud pricing
All 4 TiDB Cloud plans and prices →
TiDB Cloud fact sheet
| Free plan | Yes |
|---|---|
| Paid from | Not verified |
| Deployment model | Cloud |
| PostgreSQL compatibility | No |
| MySQL compatibility | Yes |
| Horizontal scaling | Yes |
| Multi-region deployment | Yes |
| Geo-partitioning | Yes |
| HTAP workloads | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud, Browser extension |
| Platforms | Web |
| Compliance & security | SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR |
| Support | Email, Live chat, Tickets, Docs |
| Built for | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 20 integrations: Kubernetes, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, New Relic, Apache Kafka … See all → |
| Pricing | Free plan (source) |
| Website | pingcap.com |
| Facts checked | 20 Sep 2026 |
TiDB Cloud integrations
TiDB Cloud lists 20 integrations on its own site.
- Kubernetes
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Datadog
- New Relic
- Apache Kafka
- Apache Flink
- Confluent
- Airbyte
- dbt
- Apache Spark
- Tableau
- Power BI
- Looker
- Superset
- JDBC
- ODBC
- Python
- Node.js
- Go
See all TiDB Cloud integrations →
Alternatives to TiDB Cloud
- Google Cloud SpannerA strong fit for mission-critical, multi-region workloads needing consistency and scale.9.4
- CockroachDB CloudA managed PostgreSQL-compatible database for multi-region and enterprise workloads.9.0
- Oracle Globally Distributed AI DatabaseA strong fit for Oracle-based global sharding with automated distribution, routing, and failover.8.8
See all TiDB Cloud alternatives →
TiDB Cloud vs the competition
- TiDB Cloud vs Google Cloud Spanner
- TiDB Cloud vs CockroachDB Cloud
- TiDB Cloud vs Oracle Globally Distributed AI Database
- TiDB Cloud vs OceanBase Database
- TiDB Cloud vs YDB
- TiDB Cloud vs PolarDB-X
Compare TiDB Cloud with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
TiDB Cloud is ranked in 7 of our directories.
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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