Daily

Get warned before a free Render database expires

A week before a free Postgres database's expiry date, you get one email naming it.

Runs: Daily
Apps: Render
AI: Not needed
Access: read (the key has full access)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every day at 10am check my Render Postgres databases and email me once if any of them expires within the next 7 days.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Free Postgres databases on Render are meant for trying things out, and they expire after a set period. The deadline is easy to forget: a side project quietly runs on one for weeks, and then the database is gone with its data. If the expiry email is missed or buried, a prototype or small app loses everything with no way back.

Every day, ClickRuntime lists the Postgres instances in your Render account, keeps any whose expiration date is within the next 7 days, and sends one alert for each database. It remembers which databases it has warned about, so you get a single clear heads-up rather than seven days of the same message.

It is a good safeguard for developers who run several small projects and cannot track each expiry date in their head.

What you get out of it

Data is not lost to a forgotten date
A week of warning leaves enough time to export a backup or move to a paid instance. Without it, expiration can destroy a project that you cared about. Rebuilding lost data costs far more than a quick backup.
You decide to upgrade or let go
The warning forces a decision while there is still time. You can pay to keep the project, migrate to another host, or knowingly let it lapse. Either choice is fine when it is a conscious one.
Several projects are covered at once
Developers with many experiments cannot remember each expiry. One alert per database means every project gets attention, even those you stopped thinking about. Nothing depends on your memory. Forgotten side projects get the same care as the main one.
Backups happen on your schedule
Seven days is enough to run a dump and verify it in calm conditions. Doing that under pressure on the last day leads to mistakes. Calm backups are reliable backups.
No more reliance on buried emails
Expiry notices sent to an old address or lost in a crowded inbox are easy to miss. An alert in the place you actually read makes sure the message is seen.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every day ClickRuntime lists your Render Postgres databases.
It looks for free ones that expire within the next seven days.
You get one email per database naming it and its expiry date, without daily repeats.

Before it runs live

Connect Render

What you get

RunsDaily

Get warned before a free Render database expirestoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Postgres expiryRender Postgres acme-staging-db expires 2026-10-24

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Render steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

get_warned_before_a_free_postgres_database_expires.pyexample

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify, state

RENDER = "https://api.render.com/v1"

def render(path, **params):
    resp = http.get(f"{RENDER}{path}", params=params, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('RENDER_API_KEY')}"})
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    soon = datetime.now(timezone.utc) + timedelta(days=7)
    alerted = set(state.get("alerted") or [])
    for item in render("/postgres", limit=100):
        db = item["postgres"]
        if not db.get("expiresAt") or db["id"] in alerted:
            continue
        expires = datetime.fromisoformat(db["expiresAt"].replace("Z", "+00:00"))
        if expires < soon:
            notify.email_me(f"Render Postgres {db['name']} expires {expires:%Y-%m-%d}",
                            "Upgrade it to a paid instance or export the data before it is deleted.")
            alerted.add(db["id"])
    state.set("alerted", list(alerted))
    return {"alerted": len(alerted)}

FAQ

Common questions

Why does Render expire free Postgres databases?

Render offers free databases for testing and limits how long they last so that resources are not tied up by abandoned projects. The exact period is set by Render and has changed over time, so the expiresAt value returned by the API is what the alert uses.

What happens to the data after expiry?

Once a free database expires, Render may delete it after a grace period, and the data cannot be recovered. That is why the warning matters. Take a backup with pg_dump, or upgrade the instance to a paid plan before the date.

Does it work for paid databases or other Render services?

Paid Postgres instances do not expire, so they will not trigger the alert. It only matches databases with an expiration date set. Other services have no such date, so the alert applies to free Postgres databases specifically.

What permissions does it need?

read (the key has full access). Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Weekly