Does FastAPI Work With Supabase?
FastAPI and Supabase work seamlessly together—use FastAPI to build your API backend and Supabase as your PostgreSQL database with built-in authentication and realtime features.
Quick Facts
How FastAPI Works With Supabase
FastAPI and Supabase integrate naturally because FastAPI is database-agnostic and Supabase exposes a standard PostgreSQL connection string. You connect to Supabase using any Python PostgreSQL driver (psycopg2, asyncpg, SQLAlchemy) and use Supabase's REST API or realtime subscriptions alongside your FastAPI endpoints. The developer experience is excellent: leverage FastAPI's async capabilities with asyncpg for non-blocking database queries, use Supabase's built-in JWT authentication to verify tokens in FastAPI middleware, and optionally use Supabase's auto-generated REST API for simple CRUD operations while handling complex logic in FastAPI. For realtime features, you can subscribe to Supabase's WebSocket events from your FastAPI background tasks or emit updates through WebSocket connections. The architecture typically looks like: FastAPI routes → async database queries (via asyncpg to Supabase PostgreSQL) → Supabase Auth for user management → optional Supabase realtime for live updates. This combination scales well and keeps concerns separated.
Best Use Cases
FastAPI + Supabase with Authentication
pip install fastapi uvicorn supabase python-dotenv asyncpgfrom fastapi import FastAPI, Depends, HTTPException
from supabase import create_client, Client
import os
url = os.getenv("SUPABASE_URL")
key = os.getenv("SUPABASE_KEY")
supabase: Client = create_client(url, key)
app = FastAPI()
async def get_current_user(token: str):
try:
user = supabase.auth.get_user(token)
return user
except:
raise HTTPException(status_code=401, detail="Invalid token")
@app.get("/posts")
async def get_posts(user = Depends(get_current_user)):
response = supabase.table("posts").select("*").eq("user_id", user.id).execute()
return response.data
@app.post("/posts")
async def create_post(title: str, user = Depends(get_current_user)):
response = supabase.table("posts").insert({"title": title, "user_id": user.id}).execute()
return response.data[0]Known Issues & Gotchas
JWT token verification requires manual implementation—Supabase doesn't auto-verify tokens in FastAPI
Fix: Create a FastAPI dependency using PyJWT to verify Supabase tokens from the Authorization header, or use the Supabase Python client library's built-in auth helpers
Supabase's realtime requires WebSocket connections, which adds complexity if you need fallbacks
Fix: Use polling as a fallback for older clients, or implement a message queue (Redis) between FastAPI and your realtime consumers
Row-level security (RLS) policies in Supabase require proper JWT claims—misconfigured claims bypass security
Fix: Always verify tokens in FastAPI middleware and ensure Supabase RLS policies are enabled; test with psql to validate policies work as expected
Connection pooling issues when scaling—Supabase has connection limits that FastAPI apps can exceed
Fix: Use PgBouncer or Supabase's connection pooling feature, implement connection pooling in SQLAlchemy (pool_size, max_overflow)
Alternatives
- •Django + Django REST Framework with PostgreSQL (more batteries-included, slower to develop APIs)
- •Node.js/Express with Supabase (faster development for real-time, different ecosystem)
- •Serverless (AWS Lambda/Firebase Cloud Functions) with Supabase (managed infrastructure, less control)
Resources
Related Compatibility Guides
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