Node.js on Railway
Railway publishes its own guide for deploying Node.js.
JavaScript runtime used to run servers and build tooling outside the browser.
What Node.js needs.
Every host claims to run Node.js, so the claim on its own decides nothing. These are the things Node.js actually requires from the platform underneath it, and what Railway publishes about each. Railway documents 4 of the 4.
Persistent processes
Supported
A long-running process is the point: WebSocket connections, in-memory caches and job queues all die with it. A host that only runs functions cannot keep one alive.
Sources (1) →Sources ↓
- Services — Railway Docs ↗
“Persistent services: Services that are always running. Examples include web applications, backend APIs, message queues, database services, etc.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Max request duration
15 minutes while data keeps transferring; closed after 5 minutes with no data transferred. Websocket connections are exempt and can stay open indefinitely.
Anything the process does inside a request — a large upload, a slow query, a streamed response — is bounded by this ceiling.
Sources (1) →Sources ↓
- Specs & Limits — Railway Docs ↗
“HTTP requests can run for up to 15 minutes if data keeps transferring (for example, keep-alive heartbeats), and are otherwise closed after 5 minutes with no data transferred. [...] Websocket connections are exempt from these duration and inactivity limits, and can stay open indefinitely, even while idle.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Docker deployment
Supported
Node apps routinely need a system binary the platform's buildpack does not ship. A Dockerfile is the escape hatch when they do.
Sources (1) →Sources ↓
- Railway Dockerfiles ↗
“Use a Dockerfile to instruct Railway how to build a service.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Scales to zero
Limited
An always-on process bills while idle. Scaling to zero removes that cost and adds a cold start to the next request instead.
Sources (1) →Sources ↓
- Serverless (App Sleeping) | Railway Docs ↗
“Serverless allows you to increase the efficiency of resource utilization on Railway and may reduce the usage cost of a service, by ensuring it is running only when necessary. [...] When Serverless is enabled for a service, Railway automatically detects inactivity based on outbound traffic. [...] Inactivity is sampled on an interval rather than measured continuously, so in practice a service sleeps somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes after its last outbound traffic. [...] Slept services still consume a slot on Railway's infrastructure.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
What Railway documents.
Railway publishes its own guide for deploying Node.js.
In this guide, you'll learn how to deploy a Node.js and Express.js API to production using Railway.
Sources (1) →Sources ↓
- Deploy Node.js & Express API with Autoscaling, Secrets, and Zero Downtime | Railway Guides ↗
“In this guide, you'll learn how to deploy a Node.js and Express.js API to production using Railway.”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
What it costs to run there.
- Entry paid plan
- $5 / month (Hobby)
- Pricing model
- Plan fee that includes an equivalent usage credit
- When you exceed a cap
- Billed automatically: on the Hobby plan ($5/month, includes $5 of resource usage) usage above the included amount is charged as a delta on top of the subscription — no throttling or suspension is documented
- Regions
- 4 regions: California, Virginia, Amsterdam, Singapore
Sources (3) →Sources ↓
- Railway plans ↗
“Hobby Plan: For indie hackers and developers to build and deploy personal projects — $5/month”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Pricing Plans | Railway Docs ↗
“If your total resource usage exceeds $5 in any given billing period, you will be charged the delta”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
- Railway regions ↗
“US West Metal — California, USA; US East Metal — Virginia, USA; EU West Metal — Amsterdam, Netherlands; Southeast Asia Metal — Singapore”
Read 2026-09-05 · official docs
Whether it suits you.
Teams that want a plan fee which doubles as usage credit, and deploy services straight from a Dockerfile without managing servers. The $5 Hobby fee comes back as $5 of resource usage.
Consider something else if…
You need to run in a region outside California, Virginia, Amsterdam or Singapore.
Visit Railway documentation