Your Supabase project was paused. Here is how to get it back.

Why it was paused

Supabase pauses Free Plan projects that show low activity over a 7-day period to save server resources. Their docs say a few user requests to the database each day over the previous week is usually enough to avoid it.

Projects on a paid plan are not paused for inactivity. So the two permanent fixes are: keep real traffic on the project, or move it to a plan (or a provider) that does not pause.

Sources: Supabase: Project pausing

Resume it from the dashboard (within 1 year)

1. Step 1

   Open the paused project

   In the Supabase dashboard, select the organization, then the paused project.

2. Step 2

   Click "Resume project" and confirm

   The project returns to its previous state with its data and configuration. Free projects move to the latest minor Postgres version when they are restored, so give it a few minutes and test your app afterwards.

3. Step 3

   Take a copy right away

   Free projects do not get downloadable daily backups (Pro keeps 7 days, Team 14, Enterprise 30). Supabase recommends Free users export regularly with the CLI. The next section has the exact commands.

   # Session pooler string from the Connect dialog (IPv4, port 5432)
   export DB_URL="postgresql://postgres.<ref>:<password>@aws-0-<region>.pooler.supabase.com:5432/postgres"
   
   supabase db dump --db-url "$DB_URL" -f roles.sql --role-only
   supabase db dump --db-url "$DB_URL" -f schema.sql
   supabase db dump --db-url "$DB_URL" -f data.sql --use-copy --data-only

Sources: Supabase: Project pausing, Supabase: Database backups, Supabase: Backup and restore using the CLI

Export the data without resuming

A paused project does not accept database connections, so pg_dump and supabase db dump cannot reach it. What you can do from the project dashboard is download the backup file and the Storage objects. After the restore window ends, those downloads are the only way to get the data, and deleting the project removes them for good. Download first, delete later.

1. Step 1

   Download the backup and Storage objects

   From the paused project page in the dashboard. If the backup ends in .gz, unzip it.

   gunzip db_cluster.backup.gz

2. Step 2

   Restore it into a new Supabase project

   Use the new project's Session pooler string. Errors such as "object already exists" are expected, because the new project already has the default Supabase schemas.

   psql -d "$NEW_PROJECT_SESSION_POOLER_URL" -f db_cluster.backup

3. Step 3

   Copy Storage files back, one bucket at a time

   Database backups do not contain Storage objects; the database only stores their metadata.

   supabase login
   supabase link --project-ref <new-ref>
   supabase storage cp ./downloaded/<bucket> ss:///<bucket> -r --experimental

4. Step 4

   Or restore it on your laptop

   The Supabase CLI can start a local stack from the downloaded file. Supabase notes the earliest Postgres image that supports this is 15.1.0.55.

   supabase init
   supabase db start --from-backup db_cluster.backup

Sources: Supabase: Restore a project after the pause window, Supabase: Database backups

Stopping it from happening again

• Real usage keeps a project active. A scheduled job that queries the database daily is the common workaround people use; whether it counts as activity is up to Supabase, so treat it as fragile, not a promise.
• Upgrading the organization to a paid plan stops inactivity pausing for its projects.
• Keep your own off-site dump on a schedule regardless of plan, with the three db dump commands above.

Sources: Supabase: Project pausing

How Scribase handles idle projects

Scribase runs the same Supabase API (supabase-js, Auth, Storage, Realtime, REST, Functions) and does not pause idle projects. An idle project scales its compute to zero and wakes on the next request, so the app that was quiet for two weeks still answers on day fifteen. Each project is $25 a month, flat.

Moving a project is one importer run: schema, auth users with their password hashes, data, RLS policies and Storage objects, finished with row counts and checksums per table. Export is a button in the console, so you can leave the same way.

Sources: Scribase pricing