Google starts AlloyDB Express, a database made in 2 seconds

Google Cloud started the preview of AlloyDB Express, a new type of AlloyDB, its managed PostgreSQL database. It is for developers and AI coding agents. A user can make a database in less than two seconds. The database pauses when idle and starts again in seconds when a query comes. Google offers a free tier of 50 compute units each month.

How it works

Each test or prototype can have its own isolated database. Administrators set access and network rules one time, and each new database follows them. The service has vector search, use of Gemini models in SQL and plain language to SQL. A one-click upgrade moves a database to full AlloyDB with the data and connection strings not changed.

The prices

• Active compute: $0.115 for each compute unit hour, billed by the second.
• Paused compute: $0.00 for each hour.
• Storage: $0.30 for each GB each month.

What is not known

Google gave no speed tests. The two second time is its own claim. The service is in preview. Google says no other PostgreSQL service has agent features with enterprise security and scale, and it gave no proof.

Insight: Idle agents cost almost nothing in two layers

AWS and UC Berkeley released Infinity in October. It stops an agent that waits for a tool, and about 75,000 agents fit in 8 GB of memory. Express pauses an idle database in the same procedure. This seems to show that agent work comes in bursts, and clouds price by the second for that. Compare the cost for each test, not for each month.