> Two connection strings, which one to use, and the settings that matter. # Connecting You get two connection strings. They reach the same database. ``` postgresql://booking_owner:…@ep-little-morning-b130w8eo-pooler.c-5.eu-central-1.aws.neon.tech/booking?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require postgresql://booking_owner:…@ep-little-morning-b130w8eo.c-5.eu-central-1.aws.neon.tech/booking?sslmode=require&channel_binding=require ``` | | Use it for | |---|---| | **Pooled** (`-pooler`) | Your application. Anything serverless, edge, or with many short-lived connections | | **Direct** | Migrations, `psql`, and anything holding one long connection | ## Why two Postgres allocates a process per connection, and a small compute allows a few hundred. A serverless application opens one per invocation, so a traffic spike becomes `too many clients already` at exactly the moment you least want it. The pooled endpoint puts PgBouncer in front, so thousands of client connections share a few real ones. The cost is that it is in transaction pooling mode: session-level state does not survive between statements. In practice that means `LISTEN`/`NOTIFY`, advisory locks held across statements, and some migration tools do not work through it — which is what the direct endpoint is for. **Use pooled unless something breaks.** Then use direct for that one thing. ## Examples ```js node-postgres import { Pool } from "pg"; const pool = new Pool({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL }); const { rows } = await pool.query("select now()"); ``` ```js postgres.js import postgres from "postgres"; const sql = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL); const rows = await sql`select now()`; ``` ```bash psql psql "$DATABASE_URL_DIRECT" ``` Any Postgres client works — this is not an API of ours with a driver to learn. Prisma, Drizzle, Sequelize, SQLAlchemy, ActiveRecord and `psql` all connect to it the way they connect to any Postgres. On a runtime with no TCP sockets — Cloudflare Workers, some edge functions — use a driver that speaks Postgres over HTTP. `@neondatabase/serverless` is the one that matches the host below, and it takes the same connection string. ## Who runs the machine The hostname says `neon.tech`, and rather than dress that up: **the Postgres underneath is Neon**, resold by us. We create it, set its limits, meter it and put it on your bill; they run the hardware. It is listed among our [subprocessors](/privacy) with everyone else. Worth knowing because of what it means for you rather than for us: - **It is not a fork.** Standard Postgres 18, standard extensions, standard wire protocol. Nothing here is a dialect you would have to unlearn. - **You can leave.** `pg_dump` against the direct string is a complete copy, and it restores into any Postgres anywhere. Nothing about this is a lock-in designed to be hard to undo. - **Your account is with us.** One invoice, one support conversation, one place that owes you an answer when a query is slow. ## TLS is not optional Both strings carry `sslmode=require` and `channel_binding=require`, and the server refuses anything less. Do not strip them. A client that cannot do channel binding can drop that parameter; `sslmode` stays. ## Keep it in an environment variable The string contains a password. It belongs in your platform's secret store, not in a repository, and it is worth reading [replacing the password](/docs/data-api/credentials) before the first time somebody pastes it into a chat window.