Supabase Cloud Data Export for Free Accounts (working as December 2025)

A practical solution for exporting data from Supabase free-tier projects when standard export methods are unavailable.

The Challenge

Supabase free accounts face several data export limitations:

1. IPv6-only database connections - Direct PostgreSQL connections fail on many systems (especially Docker on Windows)
2. No Just-In-Time Recovery - Database backups require a paid plan
3. Limited UI export options - The dashboard provides minimal export functionality
4. Connection pooler restrictions - Some projects encounter "Tenant or user not found" errors

These constraints make it difficult to export your own data, even though you own it.

The Solution

This project uses the Supabase Management API to extract data directly through authenticated API calls. This approach:

• Works reliably regardless of IPv6 connectivity issues
• Requires only your API token (no direct database connection needed)
• Extracts complete database structure and data
• Generates both JSON and SQL formats for flexibility

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• requests library (pip install requests)
• Supabase API Token (from https://supabase.com/dashboard/account/tokens)
• Your Project ID (from your project URL: https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/{PROJECT_ID})

Getting Your API Token

1. Visit https://supabase.com/dashboard/account/tokens
2. Click "Generate new token"
3. Give it a descriptive name
4. Copy the token (starts with sbp_)

Usage

1. Set environment variables:

   export SUPABASE_PROJECT_ID="your-project-id"
   export SUPABASE_API_TOKEN="sbp_your_api_token_here"

2. Run the script:

   python extract_supabase_data_template.py

3. Find your exports in the backups/ folder:

   • supabase_complete_backup_{project_id}_{timestamp}.json - Complete JSON backup
   • supabase_schema_dump_{project_id}_{timestamp}.sql - SQL dump with schema and data

What Gets Exported

Data Type	Description
Tables	All tables in public schema with full data
Schemas	Column definitions, types, defaults, constraints
Auth Users	User accounts from auth.users (excluding passwords)
Storage Buckets	Bucket configurations
Storage Objects	File metadata (not actual files)
Functions	Custom database functions
Triggers	Database triggers
RLS Policies	Row Level Security policies
Indexes	Table indexes
Foreign Keys	Foreign key relationships

API Details

The script uses the Supabase Management API endpoint:

POST https://api.supabase.com/v1/projects/{project_id}/database/query
Authorization: Bearer {api_token}
Content-Type: application/json

{"query": "SELECT * FROM your_table"}

Note: This endpoint returns HTTP 201 for successful queries (not 200).

Limitations

• Storage files (actual binary content) are not downloaded - only metadata
• Very large tables may timeout (120 second limit per query)
• Rate limits may apply for very large databases

Troubleshooting

"Error executing query: 401"

• Your API token is invalid or expired. Generate a new one from the dashboard.

"Error executing query: 404"

• Project ID is incorrect. Verify it matches your project URL.

Timeout errors

• For very large tables, modify the script to use pagination with LIMIT and OFFSET.

Files

• extract_supabase_data_template.py - Main extraction script (use this for public sharing)
• backups/ - Output directory for backup files

Author

Jimmy Lin