> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dbhost.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inactive databases

> When DBHost pauses an inactive Free or development database, what happens to your data, and how to start it again.

DBHost runs every database on a shared PostgreSQL host. To keep room for
active projects, Free and development databases that nobody uses are paused.

## When a database is paused

A database is paused when all of these are true:

* it is on the Free plan, or its environment is **development**
* it has had no client connections for 14 days in a row
* DBHost measured connections for the whole period without a gap
* no backup, restore, role or connection-cap change is in progress

Production databases on Pro or Business are never paused for inactivity.
Connections from DBHost itself, such as backups, do not count as use, and
missing measurements never count as inactivity.

## What happens to your data

Nothing is deleted. Data, roles and credentials stay as they are. A paused
database cannot change, so no new scheduled backups are taken and its
existing backups are kept, also past the normal 30-day retention, until it
runs again. The database status becomes `stopped`, and new connections
are refused until you start it.

The API shows why it is stopped:

```json theme={null}
{
  "status": "stopped",
  "pause": {
    "state": "paused_inactive",
    "code": "DATABASE_PAUSED_INACTIVE",
    "inactivityDays": 14,
    "pausedAt": "2026-10-28T03:40:00.000Z",
    "message": "This database was paused after 14 days without connections. ...",
    "howToStart": {
      "dashboard": "/dashboard/<id>",
      "api": {
        "method": "POST",
        "path": "/api/v1/databases/<id>/lifecycle",
        "body": { "action": "start" }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Requests that need a running database return
`409 DATABASE_PAUSED_INACTIVE` with the same instructions.

## Start it again

* Dashboard: open the database and select **Start**
* API: `POST /api/v1/databases/{id}/lifecycle` with `{"action":"start"}`

Starting checks capacity on the shared host first. If it is temporarily full,
you get `503 CLUSTER_CAPACITY_FULL` and the database stays paused and
unchanged; try again later. Any successful start, from the dashboard or the
API, ends the pause. The 14-day count starts over from your next connection.


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