🗄️ Temporary Databases

Spin up PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, or MySQL instances on demand. Pre-loaded templates, connection strings, auto-backup on expiry, and automatic cleanup. Perfect for prototyping, demos, and CI/CD testing.

What Are Temporary Databases?

Temporary Databases give you real, isolated database instances that auto-expire. No provisioning, no infrastructure management, no cleanup. Just spin up, use, and walk away. Perfect for:

Prototyping — Try out a schema idea without setting up infrastructure
CI/CD testing — Spin up a fresh database per test run, tear it down automatically
Demos & interviews — Pre-loaded sample data for product demos or coding interviews
Training — Give each student their own database instance that auto-cleans
Microservice testing — Test service interactions against real database engines
Migration testing — Test database migrations against a disposable copy

How It Works

Navigate to Temporary Databases in your 25cent.cloud dashboard
Select a database engine: PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, or MySQL
Choose a template (empty, e-commerce, blog schema, etc.) or start blank
Set duration (1–72 hours) — instance spins up in seconds
Get your connection string and start using it immediately
Database auto-expires — optional backup exported before cleanup

Pricing

1 quarter per hour (25¢/hour). No monthly fees, no egress charges, no storage fees. All database engines cost the same. Sessions can be extended at any time.

Supported Engines

Engine	Version	Use Cases
PostgreSQL	16.x	Relational data, full-text search, JSON, geospatial
Redis	7.x	Caching, sessions, queues, pub/sub, leaderboards
MongoDB	7.x	Document storage, flexible schemas, aggregation pipelines
MySQL	8.x	Traditional relational, WordPress, legacy migrations

Templates

Pre-loaded templates get you started instantly with sample data and schemas:

Empty — Blank database, your schema from scratch
E-commerce — Products, orders, customers, inventory tables with sample data
Blog — Posts, comments, users, categories with realistic content
SaaS — Multi-tenant schema with users, organizations, billing, and permissions
Analytics — Event tracking, time-series data, aggregate views

API Usage

POST /api/temp-database/instances
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "engine": "postgresql",
  "template": "e-commerce",
  "duration": 4,
  "enableBackup": true
}

Response:

{
  "instanceId": "db_abc123xyz",
  "engine": "postgresql",
  "connectionString": "postgresql://user:[email protected]:5432/temp_abc123xyz",
  "expiresAt": "2026-02-28T18:00:00Z",
  "cost": 4,
  "status": "running",
  "template": "e-commerce"
}

Connecting

Use the connection string with any standard client:

# psql
psql "postgresql://user:[email protected]:5432/temp_abc123xyz"

# Node.js
const pool = new Pool({ connectionString: '...' });

# Python
conn = psycopg2.connect("postgresql://user:[email protected]:5432/temp_abc123xyz")

# redis-cli
redis-cli -h db.25cent.cloud -p 6379 -a pass

vs. Cloud DBaaS

Feature	25cent.cloud	AWS RDS	PlanetScale
Setup Time	Seconds	5-10 minutes	1-2 minutes
Monthly Minimum	$0 (25¢/hour)	$15+/month	$29+/month
Auto-Cleanup	✅ Yes	❌ Manual	❌ Manual
Pre-loaded Templates	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No
Multi-Engine	✅ PG, Redis, Mongo, MySQL	✅ Multiple	MySQL only

Security

Each instance is fully isolated — no shared tenancy
Connections encrypted via TLS
Unique credentials per instance — non-reusable after expiry
Optional auto-backup export (SQL dump / JSON) before cleanup
Complete data wipe on expiry — no residual data

← Back to Advanced Guides