Google has launched AlloyDB Express in preview, a PostgreSQL database offering for developers and AI coding agents. Google says a database can be ready in under two seconds and will automatically pause after 15 minutes without activity. A new query wakes it in seconds.
Developers can create a database through the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI, REST API, MCP or Terraform. Google says each test or prototype can have an isolated database, while administrators can apply identity, network and organization policies centrally.
Google adds AI tools inside the database
AlloyDB Express supports vector search with pgvector HNSW and Google's ScaNN index. According to Google, developers can also access Gemini models from SQL to generate embeddings and use functions for filtering, ranking and summarization. AlloyDB Studio and natural language APIs can turn plain English questions into SQL queries.
Google says connections block incoming traffic until explicitly allowed. Internal workloads can connect through Private Service Connect or private DNS. Access controls include Google Cloud IAM, VPC Service Controls and PostgreSQL roles.
Compute charges stop when a database pauses
Active compute costs $0.115 per Compute Unit hour, billed by the second. Google says paused compute costs nothing, while used storage costs $0.30 per GB-month. The free tier includes 50 Compute Units each month.
Google says users can upgrade an existing Express database to AlloyDB in one click, retaining its data, schemas, users and connection strings. The upgrade adds options including high availability, read replicas and disaster recovery. AlloyDB Express is available now in preview through the Google Cloud console.
