Cloudflare D1
SQLite-backed database for Cloudflare Workers.
- Card required
- No
Cloudflare D1 scores 5.2/10 for free value in DB. The main constraint: Free tier exists with read/write/storage limits.
Free value score
5.2 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
What you get
Free tier exists with read/write/storage limits.
Cloudflare-native app state next to Workers.
Gotchas
- 5M rows read / day
Free plan allows up to 5 million rows read per day, resetting at 00:00 UTC.
- 100K rows written / day
Free plan allows up to 100,000 rows written per day (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), resetting at 00:00 UTC.
- 5 GB total storage
Free plan includes 5 GB of total storage across all databases; once hit, new inserts and schema changes are blocked until data is deleted.
- 500 MB max per database (Free)
Each individual database on the Free plan is capped at 500 MB; the 5 GB account total must be spread across up to 10 databases, each limited to 500 MB, so no single DB can exceed 500 MB even within the 5 GB allowance.
- Workers ecosystem lock-in
D1 is only accessible from Cloudflare Workers or the Cloudflare dashboard/CLI; it cannot be used as a general-purpose remotely-accessible database from arbitrary runtimes.
- Hard stop on daily limit breach
When daily read or write limits are exceeded, all D1 API calls return errors until the daily reset — there is no graceful throttling, the database becomes unavailable.
- No SLA on free plan
The Workers Free plan does not include an uptime SLA; production reliability guarantees require the paid Workers plan.
- SQLite only (no Postgres/MySQL)
D1 is exclusively SQLite-backed; workloads requiring Postgres-compatible drivers, extensions, or stored procedures are not supported.
Sources
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"Rows read | 5 million / day ... Rows written | 100,000 / day ... Storage (per GB stored) | 5 GB (total)"
https://developers.cloudflare.com/d1/platform/pricing/ -
"Will D1 always have a Free plan? Yes, the Workers Free plan will always include the ability to prototype and experiment with D1 for free."
https://developers.cloudflare.com/d1/platform/pricing/ -
"Maximum database size | 10 GB (Workers Paid) / 500 MB (Free) ... Maximum storage per account | 1 TB (Workers Paid) / 5 GB (Free) ... Queries per Worker invocation (read subrequest limits) | 1000 (Workers Paid) / 50 (Free)"
https://developers.cloudflare.com/d1/platform/limits/ -
"D1, Cloudflare's relational database complement, is now generally available. Our journey from alpha in late 2022 to GA in April 2024"
https://blog.cloudflare.com/building-d1-a-global-database/
