Render Free Postgres Expired or Deleted

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Upgrade before the grace period ends

   Copy steps
   1. Open the database in the Dashboard
   2. Go to Settings and pick a paid plan (from $19/month for 1 GB RAM)
   3. Do this within 14 days of expiry
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Export your data now

   Copy steps
   1. Run pg_dump with the external connection string from the database Info page
   2. Restore into a new database or another provider
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Use a free alternative

   1. Move to a Postgres host with a permanent free tier and update DATABASE_URL
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Database shows as expired, connections fail, or the database disappears after about six weeks.

Why it happens

• Free Postgres has a 30-day lifetime by design
• After expiry you have 14 days to upgrade before deletion
• Free databases have no backups

This guide also covers

• render free postgres expired
• render postgres 30 days
• render database deleted

The same problem in other apps

All export, render & quality loss guides →

• Railway Slow Deployments and Slow App (Railway)
• Fly.io Deploy Failed: Waiting for Depot Builder, Registry 401, Too Many Requests (Fly.io)
• Vercel Deployment Failed: Build Error (Vercel)
• DigitalOcean App Platform Build Failed (DigitalOcean)
• Heroku Build Failed Error (Heroku)

Other Render errors

• Render Free Instance Spins Down: Slow First Request
• Render "No Open Ports Detected" Deploy Error
• Render Build or Service Out of Memory
• Render Build Failed: Exited With Status 1
• Render 502 Bad Gateway Error
• Render Custom Domain Verification or SSL Pending
• Render Health Check Failed or Deploy Timed Out
• Render Free Service Suspended: 750 Hours Used Up