A side project doesn’t need the cheapest paid tier — it needs to stay free. The good news: serverless free tiers in 2026 are generous enough that a real small app can run at $0 forever. Here’s how to pick.
The strongest free tiers
| Platform | Free allowance | Egress | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | 100k req/day (~3M/mo) | $0 | 10 ms CPU/invocation on free |
| AWS Lambda | 1M req + 400k GB-s/mo | ~$0.09/GB | watch API Gateway/NAT |
| Google Cloud Run | 2M req + 360k GiB-s/mo | tiered | free tier in US regions only |
| Azure Functions | 1M req + 400k GB-s/mo | 100 GB free | — |
| Deno Deploy | 1M req + 15 CPU-hours/mo | 20 GB free | JS/TS only |
| Supabase | 500k invocations/mo | shared pool | best if you use Supabase |
Snapshot captured June 2026 — see the full most-generous-free-tier ranking.
How to actually stay free
- Pick a platform with no fixed minimum. Cloudflare Workers free, Lambda, Cloud Run and Azure Functions cost $0 until you exceed the free tier — no $5 or $20/mo entry fee.
- Right-size memory. GB-seconds = memory × duration; the free GB-s allowance stretches much further at 128-256 MB than at 1 GB.
- Mind egress. A side project that serves images or large JSON can blow the hyperscaler egress allowance — Cloudflare Workers charges none, which is why it’s the safest free pick.
- Avoid card-trap trials. The perpetual FaaS free tiers renew monthly; broad cloud “free trial” credits expire. Stay on the former.
What to avoid (for now)
Vercel Hobby is great but hard-capped, and its Pro plan is $20/seat. Railway has no always-free runtime ($5/mo Hobby). Fargate and Fly.io have no free tier. These are fine once you’ve outgrown free — not for a $0 hobby project.
Bottom line
For a side project, start on Cloudflare Workers or AWS Lambda, keep memory low, and watch egress. You’ll likely never see a bill. When you do outgrow free, the calculator and scenarios will tell you what comes next.