Sequelize connection pool idle connections persist despite pool.min=0

Goal: Configure Sequelize’s connection pool so that idle database connections are released during periods of low traffic to minimize hosting costs.

Constraint: Setting pool.min to 0 allows all idle connections to close, but may introduce latency spikes when traffic suddenly increases because new connections must be created up to pool.max. Keeping a small pool.min (e.g., 1) reduces acquisition latency but retains idle connections that continue to incur cost.

Uncertainty: There is no consensus on the optimal pool.min value or the corresponding pool.idle timeout for low‑traffic applications, and the trade‑off between cost savings and latency impact remains unresolved.

• What latency penalty occurs when pool.min=0 versus pool.min=1 during a traffic burst?
• How does the pool.idle setting influence the cost‑latency trade‑off when pool.min is set to 0?
• Are there measurable cost differences in typical cloud‑provider DB pricing when idle connections are kept versus released?