are you connecting to it over the public network?

The database and the web app are both in the same project on Railway

I'm just connecting to the db with the DATABASE_URL var

you are using the public network then, thus you are subjecting yourself to egress fees

connect to the database via the private network, there is no network costs for service to service communication over the private network

this one: DATABASE_PRIVATE_URL?

correct

I tried using that var but it didn't work

please provide error messages

hang on, let me have another go

Just keep getting this:

django.db.utils.OperationalError: could not translate host name "postgres.railway.internal" to address: Name or service not known

does your service in question have a volume?

yeah, it's got one

then you will need to prefix the start command with a 3 second sleep

python manage.py migrate && python manage.py collectstatic --no-input && gunicorn jobsite.wsgi

how can I change this?

sleep 3; python manage.py migrate && python manage.py collectstatic --no-input && gunicorn jobsite.wsgi

Alright, that's got it working, thanks!

no problem!

I'll just have to keep an eye on the costs and see if they come back down now

there is no network costs for service to service communication over the private network, so if your egress costs go up, it's something else