ConvexDB Pricing Guide: Plans, Features & Cost Optimization

ConvexDB offers a flexible pricing model designed to support projects ranging from personal prototypes to production-grade applications. As a reactive database platform with built-in real-time synchronization and TypeScript-native architecture, ConvexDB eliminates traditional backend complexity while providing enterprise-grade reliability and performance. This comprehensive guide breaks down the current ConvexDB plans, resource limits, advanced capabilities, and the strategies you can use to select and optimize the right tier for your specific needs.

What Are the Available ConvexDB Pricing Plans and Their Core Features?

ConvexDB provides two primary tiers designed to accommodate different development stages and organizational requirements:

Starter Plan (Free Tier)

The Starter plan is designed for individual developers and very small teams who want to explore ConvexDB's reactive database capabilities without committing budget. This perpetual free tier provides access to ConvexDB's core functionality, including automatic real-time synchronization, transactional guarantees, and TypeScript-native development experience.

Key characteristics

• No cost and no credit card required for immediate access
• Production-capable feature set with comprehensive database functionality
• Resource caps sized appropriately for prototypes, learning, and small-scale applications
• Full access to ConvexDB's reactive architecture and real-time synchronization capabilities

Professional Plan ($25 per member / month)

The Professional plan unlocks higher resource limits, advanced tooling, and enterprise-grade support features required for production-scale applications. This tier provides the governance, observability, and collaboration features necessary for growing development teams and business-critical applications.

Key characteristics

• Monthly billing per team member with transparent pricing structure
• Significantly higher resource allocations across all categories
• Priority support with faster response times and dedicated assistance
• Advanced observability features including exception reporting and log streaming
• Enterprise-grade security features and compliance capabilities

How Do Resource Allocations Compare Across ConvexDB Plans?

Resource Limits Comparison

Understanding Resource Metrics

Function Calls

These represent API endpoints, data processing functions, authentication checks, and query operations executed through ConvexDB's reactive architecture. The platform's automatic function subscriptions ensure optimal resource utilization while maintaining real-time synchronization across all connected clients.

Starter: 1 M calls / mo • Professional: 25 M calls / mo

Action Compute

Background processing power for data transformations, scheduled tasks, and server-side logic execution. ConvexDB's serverless architecture automatically scales compute resources based on demand while ensuring transactional consistency across all operations.

Starter: 20 GB-h • Professional: 250 GB-h

Storage Allocations

ConvexDB's unified architecture provides three distinct storage types optimized for different use cases:

• Database Storage – documents, indexes, metadata, and relational data structures
• File Storage – binary files, media content, documents, and unstructured data
• Vector Storage – machine learning embeddings, vector search indexes, and AI-related data structures

What Features Are Available in Each ConvexDB Pricing Tier?

Core Features (Both Plans)

ConvexDB's foundational capabilities are available across all pricing tiers, ensuring that even free-tier users can access the platform's most powerful features:

All plans include ConvexDB's reactive database architecture, which provides automatic real-time synchronization, transactional guarantees, and TypeScript-native development experience. The platform's unified approach eliminates the need for separate caching layers, state management libraries, or complex data synchronization logic.

Advanced Features (Professional Only)

The Professional plan includes sophisticated tooling and enterprise-grade capabilities designed for production environments and collaborative development workflows:

What AI and Machine Learning Integration Capabilities Does ConvexDB Provide?

ConvexDB's architecture provides native support for modern AI and machine learning workflows through its integrated vector search capabilities and TypeScript-first development environment. The platform's reactive database design makes it particularly well-suited for AI-powered applications that require real-time data processing and seamless integration between traditional database operations and vector-based AI functionality.

Vector Search and Embedding Storage

ConvexDB includes built-in vector storage and search capabilities that support modern AI applications without requiring separate vector database infrastructure. The platform can store and query vector embeddings alongside traditional document data, enabling sophisticated AI applications that combine structured data with machine learning models.

The vector search functionality supports similarity queries, semantic search implementations, and recommendation systems while maintaining ConvexDB's transactional guarantees and real-time synchronization capabilities. This integration eliminates the complexity typically associated with managing separate vector databases and traditional databases in AI applications.

AI-Powered Development Experience

ConvexDB's TypeScript-native architecture provides exceptional support for AI-assisted development tools and code generation. The platform's strongly typed interfaces and predictable patterns enable AI coding assistants to generate high-quality, accurate code that integrates seamlessly with existing applications. This advantage significantly accelerates development workflows and reduces the learning curve for new team members.

The platform's declarative approach to database operations and automatic type generation create an ideal environment for AI-enhanced development workflows. Developers can leverage AI tools for rapid prototyping and feature development while maintaining the type safety and reliability that enterprise applications require.

Real-Time AI Application Support

ConvexDB's reactive architecture enables sophisticated real-time AI applications including chatbots, recommendation engines, and collaborative AI tools. The platform's automatic synchronization ensures that AI-generated content and user interactions remain consistent across all connected clients without requiring complex state management or manual synchronization logic.

The combination of real-time capabilities, vector search functionality, and transactional consistency makes ConvexDB particularly effective for AI applications that require immediate response to user interactions while maintaining data integrity and consistency across multiple users and sessions.

How Should Organizations Plan for Migration to ConvexDB?

Migration to ConvexDB requires careful planning and a strategic approach that considers both technical requirements and business objectives. The platform's unique reactive architecture and TypeScript-native approach may require adjustments to existing development patterns and data models, but the long-term benefits of simplified backend management and improved development velocity typically justify the migration investment.

Assessment and Planning Phase

Organizations should begin migration planning by conducting a comprehensive assessment of their existing backend architecture, data models, and integration requirements. ConvexDB's document-relational approach provides flexibility in data modeling, but understanding how existing relational schemas translate to ConvexDB's document-based structure is crucial for successful migration.

The assessment should identify critical dependencies, performance requirements, and integration points that will influence migration timeline and approach. ConvexDB's unified architecture often eliminates entire categories of backend complexity, but organizations need to understand which existing services and components can be consolidated or eliminated through ConvexDB adoption.

Phased Migration Strategy

Successful ConvexDB migrations typically follow a phased approach that minimizes risk while enabling teams to realize benefits early in the migration process. Organizations can start by migrating less critical applications or new features to ConvexDB while maintaining existing systems for business-critical operations.

ConvexDB's preview deployment capabilities support gradual migration strategies by enabling teams to test and validate new functionality in production-like environments before full deployment. This capability reduces migration risk and enables iterative improvement of migrated applications based on real-world usage patterns and performance characteristics.

The platform's flexible deployment options, including self-hosting capabilities, provide additional migration flexibility for organizations with specific infrastructure requirements or compliance considerations. Teams can choose deployment models that align with their existing infrastructure while taking advantage of ConvexDB's managed service benefits where appropriate.

Data Migration and Integration Considerations

ConvexDB's schema flexibility enables organizations to migrate data incrementally while maintaining existing integrations during transition periods. The platform's TypeScript-native approach may require some adjustment for teams accustomed to SQL-based development, but the strongly typed interfaces and automatic code generation typically accelerate the learning curve.

Organizations should consider how ConvexDB's built-in real-time capabilities will impact existing application architectures and user experiences. The platform's automatic synchronization often enables new user experience improvements that weren't feasible with traditional database architectures, creating opportunities for competitive differentiation through migration.

What Language and Framework Support Does ConvexDB Offer?

Both ConvexDB pricing plans provide comprehensive support for modern development languages and frameworks, ensuring compatibility with existing development workflows and technology stacks:

Languages: JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Rust, HTTP API
Frameworks: React, Next.js, React Native, Svelte, Node.js

ConvexDB's TypeScript-first architecture provides exceptional development experience for JavaScript and TypeScript developers, with automatic type generation and strongly typed interfaces that improve code quality and development velocity. The platform's Python and Rust support enables polyglot development workflows while maintaining consistent data access patterns across different languages.

What Startup Benefits Are Available Through ConvexDB's Startup Program?

ConvexDB's Startup Program provides significant cost savings and support for early-stage companies building on the platform. The program recognizes the unique needs and resource constraints of startups while providing access to enterprise-grade capabilities.

Program Benefits:

• Up to 1 year free of the Professional plan with full feature access
• No seat fees during the program period for team collaboration
• 30% discount on usage-based fees up to $30,000 in total savings

Eligibility Requirements:

• Series A or earlier funding stage with fewer than 20 employees
• Less than $10 million in total funding raised
• Established legal entity with live website or minimum viable product
• Active development team building applications on ConvexDB

The startup program demonstrates ConvexDB's commitment to supporting innovation and growth in the developer community while providing startups with access to production-grade database capabilities during their critical early development phases.

What Cost Optimization Strategies Can Users Implement?

For Starter Plan Users

Starter plan users can maximize their free tier allocation through efficient development practices and resource optimization strategies. Monitoring function call usage is crucial for staying within the 1 million monthly limit while maintaining application functionality and performance.

Data normalization and intelligent caching strategies can significantly reduce bandwidth usage and improve application performance. ConvexDB's automatic caching capabilities help optimize resource utilization, but thoughtful data modeling and query patterns can further improve efficiency.

Batching operations and implementing efficient schema designs reduce the number of individual function calls required for complex operations. ConvexDB's transactional capabilities enable multiple operations to be grouped together, improving both performance and resource efficiency.

For Professional Plan Users

Professional plan users should strategically manage team seat allocation to optimize costs while maintaining necessary collaboration capabilities. Adding seats only when direct collaboration is required helps control monthly costs while ensuring team members have appropriate access to development resources.

Preview deployments provide a cost-effective way to test expensive queries and complex operations without impacting production resource allocations. This capability enables thorough testing and optimization before deploying resource-intensive features to production environments.

Implementing usage monitoring and alert systems helps teams track resource consumption and identify optimization opportunities before crossing free allocation limits. ConvexDB's built-in monitoring capabilities provide visibility into resource usage patterns and performance characteristics.

What Development Environment Features Are Available?

ConvexDB provides comprehensive development environment support across both pricing tiers, with Professional plans offering enhanced capabilities for larger teams and complex development workflows:

The Professional plan's preview deployment capabilities enable sophisticated development workflows with ephemeral environments for feature branches and collaborative development. This functionality significantly improves code quality and reduces deployment risks while enabling faster iteration cycles.

What Support Options Are Available for Each Plan?

ConvexDB provides differentiated support experiences designed to meet the needs of different user segments while ensuring all users have access to comprehensive documentation and community resources:

Professional plan users benefit from dedicated email support with guaranteed response times and priority escalation for critical issues. The enhanced observability features including exception reporting and log streaming provide proactive issue detection and faster resolution capabilities.

What Enterprise Considerations Should Organizations Evaluate?

Although ConvexDB does not offer a distinct "Enterprise" tier, the Professional plan addresses many enterprise-grade requirements through comprehensive governance, security, and operational capabilities. Organizations evaluating ConvexDB for enterprise use should consider the platform's SOC 2 Type II compliance and HIPAA compatibility for regulated industries.

Enterprise-Grade Capabilities:

• Audit logging and immutable activity trails for compliance requirements
• Role-based access control (RBAC) with granular permission management
• Custom domains and automatic backups for business continuity
• High resource ceilings suitable for large-scale workloads and extensive user bases
• Self-hosting options for organizations with specific infrastructure or compliance requirements

The platform's open-source availability addresses vendor lock-in concerns while providing deployment flexibility across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. This strategic advantage enables organizations to maintain control over their data and infrastructure while benefiting from ConvexDB's managed service capabilities.

What Best Practices Should Guide ConvexDB Plan Selection?

Organizations should follow a structured approach to ConvexDB plan selection that considers current requirements, growth projections, and optimization opportunities:

1. Evaluate current needs – Assess team size, application workloads, required features, and compliance requirements to understand baseline platform requirements.

2. Plan for growth – Anticipate resource scaling requirements and identify feature gaps that may require Professional plan capabilities as applications mature and user bases expand.

3. Optimize usage patterns – Implement efficient schema design, leverage automatic caching capabilities, and design incremental data workflows that minimize resource consumption while maximizing application performance.

4. Consider total cost of ownership – Evaluate ConvexDB's unified architecture benefits against traditional multi-service backend approaches to understand long-term cost implications and operational savings.

How Can Airbyte Help Optimize ConvexDB Implementation Costs?

Airbyte's data integration capabilities can significantly enhance ConvexDB implementations while optimizing costs through efficient data movement and transformation strategies. The combination of Airbyte's extensive connector ecosystem with ConvexDB's reactive architecture creates powerful data workflows that minimize resource consumption while maximizing data value.

Key Optimization Strategies:

1. Automated Incremental Ingestion – Airbyte's change data capture capabilities sync only new or modified data to ConvexDB, reducing transfer costs and storage requirements while maintaining data freshness.

2. Intelligent Data Normalization – Airbyte can output optimized tabular schemas that enable faster ConvexDB queries and more efficient resource utilization across database operations.

3. Advanced Change Data Capture (CDC) – Eliminate expensive full-table rescans through Airbyte's CDC connectors that capture real-time changes and stream them efficiently to ConvexDB.

4. Flexible Synchronization Modes – Leverage Airbyte's incremental append and deduplication capabilities for lean data updates that minimize ConvexDB resource consumption.

5. dbt Transformations – Use Airbyte's integrated dbt capabilities to pre-shape data for anticipated query patterns, improving ConvexDB performance while reducing compute costs.

6. Efficient Data Partitioning – Airbyte connectors can organize data partitions that ConvexDB scans quickly and efficiently, improving query performance while reducing resource usage.

7. Cloud-Native Deployment Optimization – Minimize cross-region latency and egress costs through strategic deployment planning that aligns Airbyte and ConvexDB infrastructure placement.

8. Comprehensive Monitoring and Debugging – Early detection of data quality issues and pipeline problems prevents costly re-processing and maintains optimal ConvexDB performance.

9. Environment Tuning – Right-size Airbyte resources for on-premises or container deployments that feed data to ConvexDB, optimizing total infrastructure costs.

10. Secure Data Transfer – SSL, SSH, and encrypted channels ensure compliance requirements are met without additional overhead costs or security infrastructure investments.

For organizations seeking to implement comprehensive data cost optimization, Airbyte provides a free pricing calculator that enables detailed cost modeling for various data integration scenarios and helps teams understand the economic benefits of efficient data pipeline architectures.

Conclusion

ConvexDB balances functionality, scalability, and cost-effectiveness through a clear upgrade path from the free Starter plan to the feature-rich Professional tier. The platform's reactive architecture, TypeScript-native development experience, and unified approach to backend services create significant value for development teams seeking to build modern, real-time applications without traditional backend complexity.

Organizations should evaluate their current workload requirements, anticipate growth trajectories, and leverage optimization tools such as Airbyte for efficient, cost-effective data operations. ConvexDB's combination of open-source availability, enterprise-grade capabilities, and flexible deployment options positions it as a compelling choice for teams building the next generation of data-driven applications.

The platform's AI integration capabilities, comprehensive development environment support, and strategic startup program demonstrate ConvexDB's commitment to supporting innovation across organizations of all sizes. Whether you're building your first prototype or scaling enterprise applications, ConvexDB's pricing structure and feature set provide the foundation for sustainable growth and long-term success.

Suggested read: IBM Db2 Pricing

About the Author

Engineering Team @ Airbyte | LinkedIn • X/Twitter