Supabase project paused for inactivity and your live app went dead

Supabase Easy 5-15 minutes if within the 90-day window Last verified Jul 17, 2026

The fix Log into supabase.com, open the paused project, and click Restore. Within the 90-day window your data comes back intact in a few minutes. Then export a backup immediately (a pg_dump via the connection string), because free projects pause again after roughly 7 days without activity, and a project paused for more than 90 days cannot be restored from the dashboard.

Symptoms

An app that worked for weeks fails everywhere at once: login errors, empty data, failed fetches
Nothing changed in the Lovable project or frontend code
The Supabase dashboard shows the project as 'Paused'
If the project sat paused past the restore window, it and its data are unrecoverable

Why it happens

Free-plan projects pause after about 7 days of inactivity

Supabase pauses Free-plan projects after roughly 7 days without sufficient database activity, taking the whole backend offline at once.

Side projects cross the threshold constantly

Demos and side projects built on Lovable with an external free Supabase backend routinely go a week without traffic, which is exactly the pause trigger.

The restore window is 90 days

A paused project can be restored from Supabase Studio for up to 90 days. Past that, it cannot be restored from the dashboard.

The free plan has no downloadable automated backups

If the restore window closes, free-plan users have no automated backups to fall back on, so the hosted data is simply gone.

How to fix it

Restore the projectLog into supabase.com, open the project, and click Restore/Resume on the paused-project screen. Restoration takes a few minutes, and within the 90-day window the app comes back with data intact.
Export a backup immediatelyDatabase > Backups is not available on the free tier, so run a pg_dump via the connection string, or use the dashboard's CSV export for critical tables. Do this before anything else touches the project.
Stop it from happening againEither upgrade the project to Pro, which does not pause for inactivity, or set up a scheduled heartbeat, for example a GitHub Actions cron that runs a trivial query every few days. Open-source templates like travisvn/supabase-pause-prevention exist for exactly this.
Know what counts as activityReal user traffic counts. A few database requests a day over the week is typically enough to keep a free project active.
If you are past 90 days, salvage what you canThe hosted data itself is gone at this point. Check whether any teammate has a local pg_dump, and use the seed and migration files in the Lovable code to rebuild the schema. Honest note: this is partial recovery at best; structure comes back, rows do not.

How to prevent it

Upgrade production projects to Pro; inactivity pausing is a free-tier behavior
Set up a heartbeat cron (for example, travisvn/supabase-pause-prevention) for free projects you want to keep
Schedule your own pg_dump backups; the free tier gives you no automated ones to download
Put a recurring reminder on any free project that has gone a week without traffic

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Frequently asked questions

Why did Supabase pause my project?

Supabase pauses Free-plan projects after about 7 days without sufficient database activity. Side projects and demos built on tools like Lovable with an external free Supabase backend routinely cross that threshold, and when the project pauses, the entire app fails at once: logins, data reads, and API calls.

How long can a Supabase project stay paused before the data is lost?

A paused Supabase project can be restored from Supabase Studio for up to 90 days. After 90 days it cannot be restored from the dashboard, and Free-plan users have no downloadable automated backups to fall back on, so the hosted data is unrecoverable at that point.

Does restoring a paused Supabase project bring my data back?

Yes, as long as you are within the 90-day restore window. Click Restore/Resume on the paused-project screen in the Supabase dashboard; restoration takes a few minutes and the app comes back with data intact. Export a backup immediately afterward so the next pause is not a crisis.

How do I keep a free Supabase project from pausing?

Keep the database active: a few requests a day over the week is typically enough. If real traffic is not reliable, set up a scheduled heartbeat such as a GitHub Actions cron running a trivial query every few days (open-source templates like travisvn/supabase-pause-prevention exist), or upgrade the project to Pro, which does not pause for inactivity.

Sources

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