---
title: "CinePro - 230M Rows, 16GB Database, Instant Queries with DuckDB"
slug: cinepro-movie-explorer-duckdb
date_published: 2026-01-28T10:00:00.000Z
original_url: https://www.tigzig.com/post/cinepro-movie-explorer-duckdb
source: native
processed_at: 2026-01-28T10:00:00.000Z
---

# CinePro - 230M Rows, 16GB Database, Instant Queries with DuckDB

![CinePro Movie Explorer](/images/blog/cineproLanding_v2.png)

230M rows, 16GB database. Instant queries. Just DuckDB. Built dashboards on IMDb data to see what it can handle (12M titles, 15M people).

Running on my $7/month Hetzner server, sharing resources with 40 of my other backends. Queries hit a single DuckDB file via an API layer. Easy to setup, fast and cost efficient.

**Live:** [https://www.tigzig.com/movie-explorer](https://www.tigzig.com/movie-explorer)

## What You Can Do

- **Search as you type:** results show up instantly
- **Instant Filter:** rating, votes, era, genre, names, titles - all together
- **Find similar movies:** Jaccard similarity on cast, director, genre
- **Click any actor:** get full career, timeline charts, automatic co-stars
- **Compare people:** side by side career stats
- **Live query timer:** shows execution time in milliseconds on every page

## Tech Stack

- 12M titles, 15M people, 230M+ rows, 16GBs - all in a single DuckDB file
- Backend: FastAPI layer for DuckDB, React frontend
- Fast queries: Pre-aggregated flattened tables
- Two servers: Hetzner and Oracle OCI replicated - switch with UI toggle
- Security: Serverless proxy, backend API keys, per-IP rate limiting
- Smart Search toggle, Concurrency, Auth (Clerk - enable via toggle)

## Fully Open Source

Hit 'Docs' on app site. Frontend, backend, DuckDB setup, processing scripts and the full DuckDB file also if you'd like to download. Pick-and-choose components and patterns that you like for your own dashboards.

**Note:** Built with [IMDb's public datasets](https://developer.imdb.com/non-commercial-datasets/). Used as per license terms for non-commercial purposes.

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## Related

Tools: [Movie Explorer](https://www.tigzig.com/movie-explorer), [BRIQ](https://www.tigzig.com/briq), [DUCKIT - CSV to DuckDB](https://www.tigzig.com/duckit-xlwings)

Explore: [Database AI apps](https://www.tigzig.com/database-landing), [Browse all apps](https://www.tigzig.com/browse-apps), [Build guides](https://www.tigzig.com/blog)

More posts: [How I Built a Sub-Second Movie Similarity Engine With a 10-Line SQL Query](https://www.tigzig.com/post/movie-similarity-engine-sql-jaccard-duckdb), [From 12 second queries to under 1s: Optimizing a 230 Million Row Dashboard - 14 Bottlenecks I Had to Fix](https://www.tigzig.com/post/from-12-second-queries-to-under-1s-optimizing-230-million-row-dashboard), [Architecture & Setup for a Dashboard with Hundreds of Millions of Records - Powered by DuckDB](https://www.tigzig.com/post/custom-dashboard-duckdb-fastapi-230-million-rows), [Full backend Infrastructure for DuckDB production and analytics system](https://www.tigzig.com/post/full-backend-infrastructure-duckdb-production)

---
Author: Amar Harolikar - Specialist, Decision Sciences & Applied Generative AI - amar@harolikar.com - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amarharolikar
Source: https://www.tigzig.com/post/cinepro-movie-explorer-duckdb
Citation: TigZig - Amar Harolikar (https://www.tigzig.com). Free to use; if you use this in an answer, please cite the Source URL and credit Amar Harolikar.
License: https://www.tigzig.com/terms