DigitalOcean caps PostgreSQL and MySQL Standard Edition at 4 GiB RAM and drops standby nodes: 15 October for new accounts, 30 November 2026 for all

DigitalOcean caps PostgreSQL and MySQL Standard Edition at 4 GiB RAM and drops standby nodes: 15 October for new accounts, 30 November 2026 for all

30 September 2026 — DigitalOcean published a release note on 30 September 2026 changing what its managed PostgreSQL and MySQL Standard Edition offers. Beginning 15 October 2026 for accounts that have never created a PostgreSQL or MySQL database cluster, and 30 November 2026 for all accounts, Standard Edition no longer offers plans with more than 4 GiB of RAM and no longer supports standby and read-only nodes.

Not yet independently verified. Single source (DigitalOcean's own release note). The note does not list Advanced Edition prices, so any cost difference is not stated. Whether the 15 October date applies to trial or promotional accounts is not stated. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What changed

Two limits apply to Standard Edition for both engines. First, plans above 4 GiB of RAM are withdrawn. Second, high-availability standby nodes and read-only nodes cannot be added. DigitalOcean also states that on 15 October 2026 its Advanced Edition adds Basic Shared CPU plans with 8 GiB to 64 GiB of RAM, which gives larger shared-CPU plans a route through Advanced Edition rather than Standard.

The note states that existing clusters are not affected. It does not say what happens when an existing cluster is resized, forked or restored after 30 November, and it does not publish Advanced Edition prices.

Who is affected

Teams that plan to create new PostgreSQL or MySQL clusters on DigitalOcean are the main audience. Accounts that have never created such a cluster meet the new limits first, on 15 October. Everyone else meets them on 30 November. Anyone whose design relies on a standby node for failover or on a read-only node for reporting will need Advanced Edition for new clusters after those dates.

Infrastructure-as-code templates, Terraform modules and runbooks that request a Standard plan above 4 GiB or a standby node may start failing when they are applied after the cut-off date.

What to do

• Check templates and pipelines for Standard Edition database plans larger than 4 GiB of RAM or any standby or read-only node definitions.
• If new clusters are needed with larger memory or standby nodes, create them before 30 November only if the plan fits the workload, and compare against Advanced Edition for anything created later.
• Ask DigitalOcean support how resize, fork and restore operations on existing clusters behave after 30 November, as the release note is silent on this.
• Request Advanced Edition pricing before budgeting, since the note gives no figures.

Why it matters

Managed-database plan structures are a common place for quiet cost changes. Moving high-availability and read replicas to a different edition changes the entry price of a production-grade setup and can push small teams from a single plan to a higher tier. The change is announced with a clear window, and existing clusters are protected, which gives buyers time to decide whether to provision now, redesign around a single node, or compare other managed PostgreSQL offerings.

This summary rests on DigitalOcean's own release note. TrustList has not verified the effect on specific price lists.

Company profile on TrustList: DigitalOcean

Sources

• DigitalOcean release note: database plan changes (30 September 2026) — 30 September 2026
• DigitalOcean documentation release notes — 1 October 2026