diff --git a/src/app/api/health/route.ts b/src/app/api/health/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cf2eb13e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/api/health/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+import { NextResponse } from "next/server";
+import { createServiceClient } from "@/lib/supabase/service";
+
+export const dynamic = "force-dynamic";
+
+const HEADERS = { "Cache-Control": "no-store" };
+
+/**
+ * GET /api/health
+ * Public liveness + database check for status.profullstack.com. One cheap
+ * HEAD select against profiles, capped at 3s. Never returns error details.
+ */
+export async function GET() {
+  try {
+    const { error } = await createServiceClient()
+      .from("profiles")
+      .select("id", { head: true })
+      .limit(1)
+      .abortSignal(AbortSignal.timeout(3000));
+    if (error) throw error;
+    return NextResponse.json({ status: "ok", db: "ok" }, { headers: HEADERS });
+  } catch {
+    return NextResponse.json(
+      { status: "error", db: "down" },
+      { status: 503, headers: HEADERS },
+    );
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/proxy.ts b/src/proxy.ts
index 6af2af55..826edb13 100644
--- a/src/proxy.ts
+++ b/src/proxy.ts
@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@ function getClientIp(request: NextRequest): string {
 }
 
 export async function proxy(request: NextRequest) {
+  // The status page's health check skips the gate, the meter and the session
+  // refresh: it must measure the app, not be billed or throttled by it.
+  if (request.nextUrl.pathname === "/api/health") return NextResponse.next();
+
   // Crawl gateway first: AI training crawlers get 402 Payment Required (or
   // the sales page at /crawl) unless they present a paid pass. People,
   // Googlebot and retrieval crawlers fall through to everything below.