I'd like to know how Supabase chooses the project which will be inactivated

[ricemountainer]

My project has been inactivated yesterday. However I have a scheduler job that connects to database everyday, and I confirmed the job ran yesterday, so I don't think my project will be inactivated. How does Supabase choose the project which will be inactivated?

I implemented the scheduler job about 3 month ago. In fact, my project kept active with the job so far (until yesterday...). Has Supabase changed the requirement that Supabase determines the project is inactive recently?

[GaryAustin1]

I don't know the answer, but is your task external and calling the API or cron task in the database itself?

[ricemountainer]

My scheduled job runs on Heroku, so it's external task from Supabase. Do I need to run the task in Supabase database??

[GaryAustin1]

I would think an external API request is the for sure way as it would tick both boxes. It can't just be something running in the database as there are all kinds of Postgres things running in the background.

[ricemountainer]

I just received inactive alert mail from Supabase earlier. I don't know what the requirement is, but it seems that at least just connecting with an external job does not meet the requirements for Supabase to consider it active. I need to consider connecting the database manually every day...?(I hate to do it...)
Thanks I will close the discussion.

[curiosbasant]

Did you found any clue?

[ricemountainer]

No. I haven't seen the clarified answer about it. But I have an app that connects to Supabase DB and runs at least one transaction (INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE) every day. The Supabase project has never been deactivated since March 2024. It seems that at least one transaction per day can avoid deactivation, but just establishing a connection is not sufficient. I hope it helps you!

[Rubenburdin]

Hey @ricemountainer

Supabase's inactivity detection for free tier projects looks at actual database activity (queries, transactions) not just connections. So a job that opens a connection and does nothing wont count, but one that runs at least one write operation like an INSERT or UPDATE will keep the project alive. Supabase documents this as pausing after 7 days of no activity on the free plan (https://supabase.com/docs/guides/platform/going-into-prod#availability).

curiosbasant if you're hitting the same issue, the simplest fix is to make sure your external job does an actual database operation each time it runs. Even something small like updating a timestamp in a heartbeat table will work. If you're using pg_cron inside Supabase itself that also counts as database activity.

Since you mentioned your scheduler runs on Heroku, if you need to keep data in sync between Heroku Postgres and Supabase without building custom scripts, thats something we handle at Stacksync with real time two way sync between the two. It eliminates the silent data drift and the maintenance headache of rolling your own sync jobs, and the continuous data flow means your Supabase project never goes inactive either. https://supabase.com/partners/integrations/stacksync

Hope this helps anyone still running into this!