# 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.