This seems like something I should be able to get a definitive answer for just by reading the docs…and yet here I am!
I have a Node.js Twitter bot that currently runs once a day, but it is run from my Windows computer using task scheduler. I’d like to get it off my computer and onto Heroku, but don’t want it racking up any cost. So can Heroku run a lightweight script once a day for free?
Pinging @BenGitter, because I think you did this with your Free Packt notifier last year 
My application makes a request to itself every ten minutes or so, to keep it alive…
Have you tried something like this:
I’ve had Heroku Scheduler running a task daily for the past 4 months and haven’t spent a penny.
I’m planning on using the method suggested in that tutorial, but still unsure what the threshold for free apps is when running scheduled tasks.
As the article says, running a console logged Hello World won’t incur a charge, but I can’t find anywhere what does!
I think I might just pull the trigger on it and then watch it carefully for a few days to see if I get billed at all. I doubt my bot will bankrupt me in a week
Awesome! What task are you scheduling? Is it intensive or pretty simple?
Mine’s pretty small I think, but I’m not a processor, so Indont really know how many ‘dyno hours’ it would accrue.
It’s pretty tame. Here’s the app: Score. Node just refreshes the movie data from time to time. It’s a single HTTP call, and then some database stuff to delete what was there and add the new data. On my local computer, it takes roughly 10 seconds.
Nice app
My script takes less than 10 seconds and only makes a few API calls…that’s a good benchmark. Mine will prob be fine.