Vector databases Pricing Comparison
20 providers compared by pricing model, free tiers, hosting options, and headquarters. Last updated May 2026.
15 with free tiers ยท 14 open source ยท 6 self-hostable ยท 3 European
| Provider | Pricing Model | Starting Price | Free Tier | Hosting | Open Source | HQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-per-use | $250/mo (Team) | — | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Free + Usage Based | — | — | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | ~$16/mo | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | Free tier, ~$65/mo paid | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | — | — | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | — | — | ✓ | ๐จ๐ณ China | |
| Pay-per-use | $50/mo | ✓ | Cloud | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | ~$25/mo | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | |
| Freemium | Free | ✓ | — | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | Free | ✓ | — | ✓ | ๐ธ๐ฌ Singapore | |
| Pay-per-use | Contact sales | — | Cloud | ✓ | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| Freemium | — | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐ณ๐ด Norway | |
| Pay-per-use | $45/mo | ✓ | Cloud + Self-hosted | ✓ | ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands | |
| — | — | ✓ | — | — | ๐บ๐ธ United States |
Providers with free tiers
These vector databases providers offer free credits, free tiers, or open-source self-hosting options to get started without upfront costs.
Vector search and kNN queries built into the established Elasticsearch platform
A one-stop platform for building production ready LLM applications connected ...
Meta's open-source library for efficient similarity search and dense vector c...
Use your data to increase relevance with vector search.
Show all 15 providers with free tiers
The SQL Vector Database for Scalable AI.
Build remarkable GenAI applications fast, with lower cost, better performance...
From: $50/mo
Powering the next generation of AI applications with advanced and high-perfor...
From: ~$25/mo
Serverless vector and full-text search engine built on object storage for cos...
Open-source search and serving engine combining vector search, keyword search...
Weaviate is an open source, AI-native vector database that helps developers c...
From: $45/mo
A Widely-Adopted Vector Database.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest vector database?
For small workloads, several options are free: pgvector runs inside any PostgreSQL instance you already pay for, FAISS is an in-memory library with zero hosting cost, and Chroma is open-source and embeddable. Among managed services, Supabase Vector bundles pgvector into its free tier, and Cloudflare Vectorize includes 5M stored dimensions per month at no cost. For larger workloads, pricing models vary (per-dimension, per-query, per-GB), so the comparison table above is worth checking against your expected volume.
Which vector database is best for RAG?
It depends on scale and infrastructure. For prototyping or single-node RAG, Chroma or pgvector are common choices because they require no additional infrastructure. For production RAG with millions of vectors, Qdrant, Weaviate, and Milvus all offer managed cloud services with filtering, hybrid search, and high availability. Pinecone is fully managed and avoids self-hosting entirely. Turbopuffer offers a cost-optimized option by storing vectors on object storage.
Which vector databases are open source?
Qdrant (Apache 2.0), Milvus (Apache 2.0), Chroma (Apache 2.0), Weaviate (BSD-3), LanceDB (Apache 2.0), and pgvector (PostgreSQL license) are all open-source and can be self-hosted. FAISS is open-source (MIT) but is a library, not a database. Use the "Open source" filter above for the full list.
Can I use PostgreSQL as a vector database?
Yes. The pgvector extension adds vector similarity search to any PostgreSQL instance. It supports exact and approximate nearest neighbor search (IVFFlat and HNSW indexes), cosine/L2/inner product distance, and works with standard SQL. Supabase Vector and Neon both offer managed PostgreSQL with pgvector pre-installed. The trade-off vs. purpose-built vector databases is query performance at very large scale (tens of millions of vectors).
What is the difference between a vector database and a vector library?
A vector library like FAISS runs in-process, stores vectors in memory, and does not handle persistence, updates, or concurrent access on its own. A vector database like Qdrant, Milvus, or Weaviate provides a server with an API, persistent storage, real-time inserts and deletes, filtering, and replication. Libraries are faster for batch offline workloads. Databases are necessary when your application needs to serve live queries or update embeddings continuously.
Are there European vector database providers?
Qdrant is headquartered in Germany and offers EU-hosted managed cloud. Weaviate is based in the Netherlands. Both can be self-hosted in any region. For a PostgreSQL-based approach, any EU-hosted PostgreSQL provider with pgvector (Supabase EU region, Neon, or self-managed) keeps data inside the EU.
How to choose an inference API provider
The right provider depends on workload type, latency requirements, and budget. Most providers use pay-per-token pricing for LLMs and per-second GPU billing for custom models. Token-based pricing varies by model, so the cheapest provider for one model may not be cheapest for another.
Free tiers are useful for prototyping but often come with rate limits. For production, compare per-token costs for your specific model, cold start latency, rate limits, and whether the provider supports the models you need.
Teams with data residency requirements should check hosting options and provider headquarters. European providers like Qdrant, Vespa, Weaviate keep data within EU jurisdiction. See the full European AI Infrastructure directory. Self-hostable options like chroma and LanceDB give full control over data location.
For a deeper analysis, read AI Inference API Providers Compared on the blog. Pricing changes frequently, so verify current rates on each provider's website. Submit a correction.
See how these tools fit into a full stack
Browse all Vector databases tools or explore the full AI Infrastructure Landscape.
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