# Quickstart with CockroachDB

This page shows you how to use free trial credits to deploy a CockroachDB cluster on CockroachDB Standard (Preview) and use sample code to run your first queries.

## Create a free trial cluster

1. Create a CockroachDB Cloud account. If this is your first CockroachDB Cloud organization, it will be credited with $400 in free trial credits to get you started.
2. On the Get Started page, click Create cluster.
3. On the Select a plan page, select Standard.
4. On the Cloud & Regions page, select a cloud provider (GCP or AWS).
5. In the Regions section, select a region for the cluster. Refer to CockroachDB Cloud Regions for the regions where CockroachDB Standard clusters can be deployed. To create a multi-region cluster, click Add region and select additional regions.
6. Click Next: Capacity.

7. On the Capacity page, keep the Provisioned capacity at the default value of 2 vCPUs.

   Click Next: Finalize.

8. On the Finalize page, name your cluster. If an active free trial is listed in the right pane, you will not need to add a payment method, though you will need to do this by the end of the trial to maintain your organization's clusters.

   Click Create cluster.

   Your cluster will be created in a few seconds and the Create SQL user dialog will display.

## Create a SQL user

The Create SQL user dialog allows you to create a new SQL user and password.

1. Enter a username in the SQL user field or use the one provided by default.
2. Click Generate & save password.
3. Copy the generated password and save it in a secure location.

4. Click Next.

   Currently, all new SQL users are created with admin privileges. For more information and to change the default settings, see Managing SQL users on a cluster.

## Connect to the cluster

Select a language to connect a sample application to your cluster. To connect to your cluster directly from the command line, refer to Connect to a Standard Cluster.

Once you create a SQL user, the Connect to cluster dialog will show information about how to connect to your cluster.

1. Select Java from the Select option/language dropdown.

2. Copy the `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` environment variable command provided and save it in a secure location.

   Note:

   The connection string is pre-populated with your username, password, cluster name, and other details. Your password, in particular, will be provided only once. Save it in a secure place (Cockroach Labs recommends a password manager) to connect to your cluster in the future. If you forget your password, a Cluster Admin can reset it. Refer to: Managing SQL users on a cluster

## Configure the connection environment variable

In a terminal, set the `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` environment variable to the JDBC connection string:

    export JDBC_DATABASE_URL="<jdbc-connection-string>"

The code sample uses the connection string stored in the environment variable `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` to connect to your cluster.

In a terminal set the `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` environment variable to the JDBC connection string:

    $env:JDBC_DATABASE_URL = "<jdbc-connection-string>"

The code sample uses the connection string stored in the environment variable `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` to connect to your cluster.

## Run the Java sample code

1. Clone the `quickstart-code-samples` repo:

       git clone https://github.com/cockroachdb/quickstart-code-samples

2. Navigate to the `java` directory of the repo:

       cd quickstart-code-samples/java

   The code sample in this directory does the following:

   1. Connects to CockroachDB Cloud with the JDBC driver using the JDBC connection string set in the `JDBC_DATABASE_URL` environment variable.
   2. Creates a table.
   3. Inserts some data into the table.
   4. Reads the inserted data.
   5. Prints the data to the terminal.

3. Run the application using `gradlew`:

       ./gradlew run

   The output should look like this:

       > Task :app:run
       Hello world!

       BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 3s
       2 actionable tasks: 2 executed

Once you create a SQL user, the Connect to cluster dialog will show information about how to connect to your cluster.

1. Select General connection string from the Select option dropdown.

2. Open the General connection string section, then copy the connection string provided and save it in a secure location.

   Note:

   The connection string is pre-populated with your username, password, cluster name, and other details. Your password, in particular, will be provided only once. Save it in a secure place (Cockroach Labs recommends a password manager) to connect to your cluster in the future. If you forget your password, a Cluster Admin can reset it. Refer to: Managing SQL users on a cluster

## Configure the connection environment variable

In a terminal set the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable to the connection string:

    export DATABASE_URL="<connection-string>"

The code sample uses the connection string stored in the environment variable `DATABASE_URL` to connect to your cluster.

In a terminal set the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable to the connection string:

    $env:DATABASE_URL = "<connection-string>"

The code sample uses the connection string stored in the environment variable `DATABASE_URL` to connect to your cluster.

## Run the Node.js sample code

1. Clone the `quickstart-code-samples` repo:

       git clone https://github.com/cockroachdb/quickstart-code-samples

2. Navigate to the `node` directory of the repo:

       cd quickstart-code-samples/node

   The code sample in this directory does the following:

   1. Connects to CockroachDB Cloud with the node-postgres driver using the connection string set in the `DATABASE_URL` environment variable.
   2. Creates a table.
   3. Inserts some data into the table.
   4. Reads the inserted data.
   5. Prints the data to the terminal.

3. Install the app requirements:

       $ npm install

4. Run the app:

       $ node app.js

   The output will look like this:

       Hello world!

## Learn more

Now that you have a CockroachDB Standard cluster running, try out the following:

- Build a simple CRUD application in Go, Java, Node.js, or Python.
- Learn CockroachDB SQL.
- Create and manage SQL users.
- Explore our example apps for examples on how to build applications using your preferred driver or ORM and run it on CockroachDB.
- Migrate your existing data.

This page highlights just one way you can get started with CockroachDB. For information on other options that are available when creating a CockroachDB cluster, see the following:

- To create a Self-Hosted cluster, see Start a Local Cluster.
- To create a CockroachDB Advanced cluster, see Quickstart with CockroachDB Advanced.
- To create a CockroachDB Standard cluster with other configurations (e.g., a different cloud provider, region, or provisioned capacity), see Create a CockroachDB Standard Cluster.
- To connect to a CockroachDB Standard cluster with other options (e.g., a different SQL user) and connection methods (with an application or CockroachDB compatible tool), see Connect to a CockroachDB Standard Cluster.