As your data volume and query load grow, you scale SurrealDB Cloud to avoid throttling, high latency, or storage exhaustion. Scaling is usually cheaper than repeated outages or emergency firefighting.
Vertical scaling
Vertical scaling means moving to a larger instance type with more CPU, memory, or I/O per node. It is the first response when metrics show sustained high utilisation on a single instance.
Horizontal scaling
Horizontal scaling adds capacity through additional nodes or replicas (where the product and your topology support it), spreading read load or improving availability. Use it when a single machine is no longer economical or you need redundancy beyond one AZ.
When to scale
Signals to scale include CPU pegged near limits, memory pressure, disk growth trending toward limits, connection saturation, and latency SLOs breached under normal traffic. Schedule resizes during maintenance windows when possible; some changes may cause brief reconnects.
How to resize
Change the instance type or replica count from the Cloud console or Surrealist, following any confirmation steps. After scaling, re-check metrics and query performance to validate the new size.