databases (core)⏱10 minutes
Get Started with Neon
Quick Summary
“Serverless Postgres with branching and scale-to-zero”
Best for: Startups and solo developers who want serverless Postgres with a generous free tier and instant database branching for staging environments
Time to first integration: 10 minutes
📋Prerequisites
- ✓Node.js 18+ installed
- ✓A Neon account — sign up here
- ✓An existing project (Next.js, React, or Node.js recommended)
Setup Steps
4 steps1
1
Create a database
Create a project at neon.tech and copy the connection string.
2
2
Set DATABASE_URL
Add the Neon connection string as an environment variable.
bash
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@ep-xxx.neon.tech/dbname3
3
Connect
Use the serverless driver on the edge, or node-postgres/Prisma on a server.
typescript
import { neon } from '@neondatabase/serverless'
const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL)4
4
Query
Run SQL directly or point your ORM at DATABASE_URL.
typescript
const rows = await sql`SELECT * FROM users`Related Guides
Setting up a full stack? Check out these complementary guides.