# SurrealDB

A database engine written in Rust that stores documents, graph relations, vectors, time-series and relational tables in one place and queries them all with one SQL-like language (SurrealQL); it runs embedded, on one server, as a cluster, or as a hosted cloud service.

- Category: Backends and databases · by SurrealDB Ltd
- Website: https://surrealdb.com/
- Live data: no
- Checked on the official pages: 2026-10-24

## API

- Official API: yes, docs https://surrealdb.com/docs
- Key needed: yes
- Price: Free tier; limits: Free cloud instance: 0.25 vCPU, 1 GB memory, 1 GB storage; further instances billed by the hour
- Base URL: https://api.surrealdb.com
- Formats: json

## Price and code

- Free tier: not stated; paid from $15.33/month (https://surrealdb.com/pricing)

## Data and license

- License: Business Source License 1.1 (core, becomes Apache 2.0 after at most four years); Apache 2.0 / MIT (SDKs); SurrealDB Cloud terms (https://surrealdb.com/license); covers Self-hosted core may be used, modified and embedded in your own apps, including in production; running it as a database service for third parties needs a commercial licence
- Commercial use OK
- Credit: not stated
- Embedding unclear
- Quote (api_official): "Public HTTP control-plane API for managing SurrealDB Cloud and connecting to instances and contexts." (https://surrealdb.com/llms.txt)
- Quote (api_key): "Bearer JWT auth; the authorization server is https://auth.surrealdb.com." (https://surrealdb.com/llms.txt)
- Quote (api_price): "Pick a plan. Start free, pay for what you use." (https://surrealdb.com/pricing)
- Quote (free_tier_agent_memory): "A free Sandbox plan includes 3M tokens as a one-off grant, and the paid plans are $30 a month (Agent memory Lite, 1M tokens per month)" (https://surrealdb.com/llms.txt)
- Quote (paid_from): "Small | 0.5 | 1 GB | $0.021 | $15.33" (https://surrealdb.com/pricing)
- Quote (commercial): "SurrealDB is free to use in your own applications, in development and production." (https://surrealdb.com/license)
- Quote (license): "The code licensed under the Business Source License is free to use, modify and self-host, including in production, and the source code is freely available. The one thing the licence reserves is running SurrealDB as a database service for third parties" (https://surrealdb.com/license)
- Quote (sdk_license): "Libraries and SDKs, each located in its own distinct repository, are released under either the Apache License 2.0 or MIT License." (https://surrealdb.com/license)
- Quote (mcp): "Hosted MCP server at https://mcp.surrealdb.com for connecting AI tools to SurrealDB Cloud" (https://surrealdb.com/llms.txt)

## Rules for an agent

- Run locally with `docker run --rm -p 8000:8000 surrealdb/surrealdb:latest start` and query SurrealQL over HTTP/WebSocket or an official SDK (Rust, JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, .NET, PHP); the hosted MCP server (streamable HTTP) authenticates with OAuth 2.1 or a personal access token; any docs page returns markdown with `Accept: text/markdown` or a `.md` suffix.
- Self-hosting in your own product is allowed, but do not offer SurrealDB as a database service where third parties manage their own schemas without a commercial licence
- Keep cloud credentials (personal access tokens, JWTs) server-side; record-level permissions apply when clients connect directly

## Agent access

- llms.txt: https://surrealdb.com/llms.txt
- MCP: https://mcp.surrealdb.com

Human page: https://agentgid.com/resources/surrealdb/
Source: AgentGid (agentgid.com). Facts are quoted from the site's own pages; check the license page before you ship.