How to migrate from Neon to Prisma Postgres

This guide walks you through migrating data from Neon to Prisma Postgres using pg_dump and pg_restore.

Prerequisites

A Neon database connection URL
A Prisma Data Platform account

PostgreSQL CLI tools (pg_dump, pg_restore) version 17

If you don't have them installed, install PostgreSQL 17 client tools:

# macOS
brew install libpq
brew link --force libpq

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install postgresql-client-17

# Windows (via installer)
# Download from https://www.postgresql.org/download/windows/
# Select "Command Line Tools" during installation

Make sure your PostgreSQL tools match the Prisma Postgres version

Prisma Postgres runs PostgreSQL 17. Run pg_dump --version or pg_restore --version to confirm.

1. Create a new Prisma Postgres database

Log in to Prisma Data Platform and open the Console.
In a workspace of your choice, click New project.
Name your project, then click Get started under Prisma Postgres.
Select a region and click Create project.

Once provisioned, get your direct connection string:

Click the API Keys tab in your project's sidenav.
Click Create API key, give it a name, and click Create.
Copy the connection string starting with postgres:// — you'll need this in step 3.

2. Export data from Neon

Copy a non-pooled connection string from Neon (disable Connection pooling) and ensure it includes sslmode=require:

postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@YOUR-NEON-HOST/DATABASE?sslmode=require

Export the connection string as an environment variable. Use single quotes so that special characters in your password (like !, $, or #) are not interpreted by the shell:

export NEON_DATABASE_URL='postgresql://USER:PASSWORD@YOUR-NEON-HOST/DATABASE?sslmode=require'

Then run:

pg_dump \
  -Fc \
  -d "$NEON_DATABASE_URL" \
  -n public \
  -f neon_dump.bak

3. Import data into Prisma Postgres

Export your direct connection string from step 1 as an environment variable:

export PRISMA_POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL='postgres://...'

Then restore:

pg_restore \
  --no-owner \
  --no-acl \
  -d "$PRISMA_POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL" \
  neon_dump.bak

The --no-owner and --no-acl flags skip Neon-specific role assignments that don't exist in Prisma Postgres.

You can safely ignore the warning schema "public" already exists. The public schema is pre-created in every Prisma Postgres database, so the CREATE SCHEMA public command from the dump is redundant. Your data is still imported correctly.

To validate the import, open Prisma Studio from the Studio tab in your project, or run:

npx prisma studio

4. Update your application

Already using Prisma ORM

Update DATABASE_URL in your .env file:

.env

DATABASE_URL="postgres://USER:PASSWORD@db.prisma.io:5432/?sslmode=require"

Then regenerate Prisma Client:

npx prisma generate

See the Prisma ORM with Prisma Postgres quickstart for driver adapter configuration and best practices.

Not yet using Prisma ORM

Follow Add Prisma ORM to an existing project to introspect your database, generate a schema, and migrate your queries.

Neon