HYPERTENANCY

Dedicated computeFull isolation.

Give each user, customer, or AI agent a dedicated instance — fully isolated, independently sized, and scaled to zero when idle.

Scale Vertically and Horizontally

Manage DuckDB compute instances by user, then add read scaling replicas for read-heavy workloads.

We were able to identify specific organizations, and even better, specific users, who need more compute. We can scale individually for each one, so we get a much faster UX without paying to scale an entire cluster.
Josh Nakka
Co-Founder @ Pricemedic

A More Flexible Compute Model

How It Works

One Duckling per user, scaled independently

Hypertenancy allows you to manage compute instances independently for sub-second query performance with dramatically lower costs. Provision Pulse instances for your agents, speedy Standards for your most important app users, or a Mega for that backfill — you'll only pay for what you use.

Sandboxed for AI Agents

Agents can generate SQL without running amok. Hypertenancy sandboxes each agent's compute, so a runaway query can't blow up your bill or take down your warehouse.

Scale out for read-heavy workloads

Attach read-scaling replicas to individual compute instances to handle read-heavy workloads from agentic applications and business intelligence tools. Scale instances independently with as many replicas as you need.

Stop paying for idle resources

With other warehouses, you provision for peak and pay for that capacity always. Using hypertenancy, you get a serverless architecture built for real-world workloads.

Manage programmatically

Create service accounts and provision compute programmatically via our REST API. Each user-internal or end-user-gets a dedicated duckling that spins up on first query and scales to zero when idle. No cluster scaling or tuning required.

FAQS

What is Hypertenancy?

Hypertenancy provisions a dedicated DuckDB instance (Duckling) per user or customer, providing full compute isolation. Unlike traditional multi-tenant warehouses that share a single cluster, each tenant's queries run on isolated compute — heavy workloads from one tenant cannot impact others. Read more in the customer-facing analytics documentation.

What sizes of Compute Instances are available?

MotherDuck compute instances are called Ducklings. Each Duckling operates as a single-node instance of DuckDB, offering sub-second query performance without the network latency of distributed query engines. Ducklings are independently sized: Pulse, Standard, Jumbo, Mega, Giga.

How do I manage Compute Instances in my application?

MotherDuck provisions ducklings automatically per service account. Create a service account for each customer, generate read/write tokens, and connect using md:<database> connection strings. Your app uses tokens to route queries; MotherDuck handles instance lifecycle, scaling, and spin-down.

What is Read Scaling?

Read scaling allows you to provision read replicas for use in read-heavy workloads, like concurrent use of business intelligence tools. This feature provides high availability and performance, while maintaining your ability to separately provision read/write instances.

Bring your architecture to the Duck side

Deploy sandboxed agents, built responsive applications, or simply power up your data stack with sub-second queries for every user.