How to Scale Apps in App Platform

Validated on 3 Mar 2026 • Last edited on 10 Mar 2026

App Platform is a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that deploys applications from Git repositories or container images. It automatically builds, deploys, and scales components while handling all underlying infrastructure.

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Scaling your app allows its infrastructure to match its workload. You can manually scale or autoscale resources as demand changes. For example, if traffic spikes and performance slows, you can add containers to handle the increased load.

There are two types of scaling:

  • Horizontal scaling adds or removes containers and distributes the workload across them. App Platform offers both fixed and automatic (autoscaling) options.
  • Vertical scaling increases a container’s memory or CPU. App Platform only supports fixed vertical scaling, which must be configured manually in the DigitalOcean Control Panel, API, or CLI.
Note

App Platform scaling applies to runtime resources, such as containers, CPU, and memory used while your app is running. Build-time resources are managed separately.

XL build resources (8 CPUs and 20 GiB of memory during builds) are now enabled by default for all apps and do not require configuration or scaling.

Autoscaling automatically adds or removes containers based on workload. This is useful for apps with high but inconsistent traffic. Autoscaling monitors the average CPU usage across all containers. If usage exceeds the specified threshold, additional containers can be added. If usage falls below the threshold, containers can be removed.

Traffic is distributed based on the number of requests each container is handling, not by CPU alone. This means a container may still receive new requests even if it’s near 100% CPU usage. To improve traffic distribution, consider increasing the minimum container count or lowering the CPU threshold to scale earlier.

Scale an App Using the API or CLI

You can scale an app to a fixed size or configure autoscaling for an app by updating the app’s spec and then submitting the updated spec via the app update command or API endpoint

Scale App to a Fixed Size

To scale an app to a fixed container size and number of containers, update the instance_count or instance_size_slug fields of the component in your app’s spec and then submit the new spec.

You can set instance_count between 1 and 250. This limit applies to both fixed scaling and autoscaling. If you need more instances, consider using a larger instance size or contact support.

 1- environment_slug: node-js
 2  git:
 3    branch: main
 4    repo_clone_url: https://github.com/digitalocean/sample-nodejs.git
 5  http_port: 8080
 6  instance_count: 2
 7  instance_size_slug: apps-s-1vcpu-1gb
 8  name: sample-nodejs
 9  run_command: yarn start
10  source_dir: /

Configure Autoscaling

To configure autoscaling, add the autoscaling object to the app’s spec and then configure the following fields:

  • min_instance_count. The minimum number of containers the app can scale down to. Use a value of 1 or higher.
  • max_instance_count. The maximum number of containers the app can scale up to. Use a value up to 250.
  • metrics. This object contains the metrics that the app uses to determine whether to scale up or down. Currently, CPU usage is the only supported metric.

For example, the following app’s scales a service component called “web” to a minimum of two containers and a maximum of five containers when the average CPU usage across the component’s containers exceeds or drops below 70%.

 1name: example-app
 2services:
 3- name: web
 4  github:
 5    repo: digitalocean/sample-golang
 6    branch: master
 7  autoscaling:
 8    min_instance_count: 2
 9    max_instance_count: 5
10    metrics:
11      cpu:
12        percent: 70
How to Scale an App Using the DigitalOcean CLI
  1. Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
  2. Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
  3. Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account. 
    doctl auth init
  4. Finally, run doctl apps update. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details: 
    doctl apps update <app id> [flags]
    The following example updates an app with the ID f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6 using an app spec located in a directory called /src/your-app.yaml. Additionally, the command returns the updated app’s ID, ingress information, and creation date: 
    doctl apps update f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6 --spec src/your-app.yaml --format ID,DefaultIngress,Created
How to Scale an App Using the DigitalOcean API
  1. Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
  2. Send a PUT request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/apps/{id}.

cURL

Using cURL:

curl -X PUT \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
"https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/apps/{id}" \
-d '{"alerts":[{"rule":"DEPLOYMENT_FAILED"},{"rule":"DOMAIN_FAILED"}],"domains":[{"domain":"example.com","type":"PRIMARY","zone":"example.com"}],"envs":[{"key":"API_KEY","scope":"RUN_AND_BUILD_TIME","type":"SECRET","value":"EV[1:zqiRIeaaYK/NqctZDYzy6t0pTrtRDez8:wqGpZRrsKN5nPhWQrS479cfBiXT0WQ==]"}],"features":["buildpack-stack=ubuntu-22"],"ingress":{},"name":"example-app","region":"nyc","services":[{"autoscaling":{"max_instance_count":4,"metrics":{"cpu":{"percent":70}},"min_instance_count":2},"git":{"branch":"main","repo_clone_url":"https://github.com/digitalocean/sample-nodejs.git"},"internal_ports":[8080],"log_destinations":[{"name":"your_log_consumer_name","open_search":{"endpoint":"logs.example.com:12345","basic_auth":{"user":"doadmin","password":"1234567890abcdef"},"index_name":"example-index","cluster_name":"example-cluster"}}],"name":"sample-nodejs","run_command":"yarn start","source_dir":"/"}]}'

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))
req = {
"spec": {
    "name": "web-app-01",
    "region": "nyc",
    "domains": [
        {
            "domain": "app.example.com",
            "type": "DEFAULT",
            "wildcard": True,
            "zone": "example.com",
            "minimum_tls_version": "1.3",
        }
    ],
    "services": [],
    "static_sites": [
        {
            "cors": {
                "allow_origins": [
                    {"exact": "https://www.example.com"},
                    {"regex": "^.*example.com"},
                ],
                "allow_methods": [
                    "GET",
                    "OPTIONS",
                    "POST",
                    "PUT",
                    "PATCH",
                    "DELETE",
                ],
                "allow_headers": ["Content-Type", "X-Custom-Header"],
                "expose_headers": ["Content-Encoding", "X-Custom-Header"],
                "max_age": "5h30m",
                "allow_credentials": False,
            },
            "routes": [{"path": "/api", "preserve_path_prefix": True}],
        }
    ],
    "jobs": [
        {
            "name": "api",
            "gitlab": {
                "branch": "main",
                "deploy_on_push": True,
                "repo": "digitalocean/sample-golang",
            },
            "image": {
                "registry": "registry.hub.docker.com",
                "registry_type": "DOCR",
                "repository": "origin/master",
                "tag": "latest",
            },
            "dockerfile_path": "path/to/Dockerfile",
            "build_command": "npm run build",
            "run_command": "bin/api",
            "source_dir": "path/to/dir",
            "envs": [
                {
                    "key": "BASE_URL",
                    "scope": "BUILD_TIME",
                    "type": "GENERAL",
                    "value": "http://example.com",
                }
            ],
            "environment_slug": "node-js",
            "log_destinations": {
                "name": "my_log_destination",
                "papertrail": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mypapertrailendpoint.com"
                },
                "datadog": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mydatadogendpoint.com",
                    "api_key": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789",
                },
                "logtail": {
                    "token": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
                },
               "open_search": {
                    "endpoint": "https://myopensearchendpoint.com:9300"
                    "index_name": "logs"
                    "basic_auth": {
                        "user": "doadmin",
                        "password": "password"
                    }
                },
            },
            "instance_count": 2,
            "instance_size_slug": "apps-s-1vcpu-0.5gb",
            "kind": "PRE_DEPLOY",
        }
    ],
    "workers": [
        {
            "name": "api",
            "gitlab": {
                "branch": "main",
                "deploy_on_push": True,
                "repo": "digitalocean/sample-golang",
            },
            "image": {
                "registry": "registry.hub.docker.com",
                "registry_type": "DOCR",
                "repository": "origin/master",
                "tag": "latest",
            },
            "dockerfile_path": "path/to/Dockerfile",
            "build_command": "npm run build",
            "run_command": "bin/api",
            "source_dir": "path/to/dir",
            "envs": [
                {
                    "key": "BASE_URL",
                    "scope": "BUILD_TIME",
                    "type": "GENERAL",
                    "value": "http://example.com",
                }
            ],
            "environment_slug": "node-js",
            "log_destinations": {
                "name": "my_log_destination",
                "papertrail": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mypapertrailendpoint.com"
                },
                "datadog": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mydatadogendpoint.com",
                    "api_key": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789",
                },
                "logtail": {
                    "token": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
                },
               "open_search": {
                    "endpoint": "https://myopensearchendpoint.com:9300"
                    "index_name": "logs"
                    "basic_auth": {
                        "user": "doadmin",
                        "password": "password"
                    }
                },
            },
            "instance_count": 2,
            "instance_size_slug": "apps-s-1vcpu-0.5gb",
        }
    ],
    "functions": [
        {
            "cors": {
                "allow_origins": [
                    {"exact": "https://www.example.com"},
                    {"regex": "^.*example.com"},
                ],
                "allow_methods": [
                    "GET",
                    "OPTIONS",
                    "POST",
                    "PUT",
                    "PATCH",
                    "DELETE",
                ],
                "allow_headers": ["Content-Type", "X-Custom-Header"],
                "expose_headers": ["Content-Encoding", "X-Custom-Header"],
                "max_age": "5h30m",
                "allow_credentials": False,
            },
            "routes": [{"path": "/api", "preserve_path_prefix": True}],
            "name": "api",
            "source_dir": "path/to/dir",
            "alerts": [
                {
                    "rule": "CPU_UTILIZATION",
                    "disabled": False,
                    "operator": "GREATER_THAN",
                    "value": 2.32,
                    "window": "FIVE_MINUTES",
                }
            ],
            "envs": [
                {
                    "key": "BASE_URL",
                    "scope": "BUILD_TIME",
                    "type": "GENERAL",
                    "value": "http://example.com",
                }
            ],
            "gitlab": {
                "branch": "main",
                "deploy_on_push": True,
                "repo": "digitalocean/sample-golang",
            },
            "log_destinations": {
                "name": "my_log_destination",
                "papertrail": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mypapertrailendpoint.com"
                },
                "datadog": {
                    "endpoint": "https://mydatadogendpoint.com",
                    "api_key": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789",
                },
                "logtail": {
                    "token": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"
                },
               "open_search": {
                    "endpoint": "https://myopensearchendpoint.com:9300"
                    "index_name": "logs"
                    "basic_auth": {
                        "user": "doadmin",
                        "password": "password"
                    }
                },
            },
        }
    ],
    "databases": [
        {
            "cluster_name": "cluster_name",
            "db_name": "my_db",
            "db_user": "superuser",
            "engine": "PG",
            "name": "prod-db",
            "production": True,
            "version": "12",
        }
    ],
    “vpc”: {
        “id”: “c22d8f48-4bc4-49f5-8ca0-58e7164427ac”,
    }
}
update_resp = client.apps.update(id="bb245ba", body=req)

Scale an App Using the Control Panel

You can scale an app to a fixed size or configure autoscaling using the DigitalOcean Control Panel.

Scale an App to a Fixed Size Using the Control Panel

To scale an app to a fixed size, go to the Apps page, select your app, then click the Settings tab. Select the component you want to scale. In the Resource Size section, click Edit.

In the Containers field, increase or decrease the number of containers as needed.

The Resource Size section of the Settings page, showing the Containers field.

When finished, click Save. The app redeploys with the updated configuration.

Configure Autoscaling for an App Using the Control Panel

To configure autoscaling for an existing app, go to the Apps page, select your app, then click the Settings tab. Select the component you want to configure autoscaling for. In the Resource Size section, click Edit.

Autoscaling is only available for apps with a dedicated CPU plan. If your app isn’t using one, select the Instance size menu, choose a dedicated CPU plan, and then click Set containers to autoscale. This opens the autoscaling settings:

  • Minimum Containers: The minimum number of containers the app can scale down to.
  • Maximum Containers: The maximum number of containers the app can scale up to.
  • CPU Threshold: The average CPU usage across all running containers that triggers scaling.
The Resource Size section of the Settings page, showing the autoscaling options.

Set your autoscaling parameters. The estimated Monthly App Cost updates and displays a range based on the app running at its minimum number and maximum number of containers for a full month.

When finished, click Save. This automatically triggers a redeployment if necessary.

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