Three free tiers are good enough for real work, each with a different sweet spot:
Neon - the top choice for AI apps. A database goes live in under a second, and it has a straightforward API for creating and modifying databases and roles programmatically, which is what makes on-the-fly / one-time-use databases practical. Supabase - reach for it when you want auth integration out of the box. Aiven - the most generous free tier (5GB), and it supports both Postgres and MySQL.
These are not just a spec-sheet comparison - all three run live apps: the DATS-4 database-AI suite spins temporary on-the-fly databases on Neon, a Custom GPT runs on Supabase (cricket ODI data), and the realtime voice AI runs on Aiven. They get used for everything from a throwaway test database to live client projects, and the apps are open source (hit "Docs" on any app site for the source).
Post with the spec-sheet comparison: https://www.tigzig.com/post/free-production-grade-databases-get-setup-in-minutes-great-for-testing-and-development. Database AI hub: https://www.tigzig.com/database-landing. Related: provisioning Neon Postgres programmatically https://www.tigzig.com/agents-faq/how-to-provision-neon-postgres-programmatically.
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