Milvus vs Zilliz: Vector Databases Pricing (2026)
Compare / Milvus vs Zilliz
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Team size
25 seats

Milvus vs Zilliz

Vector Databases pricing comparison · 2026

Milvus pricing ranges from $0–$197/month, while Zilliz ranges from $0–$155/month. Zilliz is typically 21% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.

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See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Milvus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Vector Databases
Side-by-side · live
Milvus
Milvus is an open-source, cloud-native vector database built for scalable AI applications,
verified 17d ago
$1.8K $47K
View pricing →
Zilliz
Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed vector database built on open-source Milvus, operated by
verified 11w ago
$1.8K $47K
View pricing →
Verdict · list-price math · year 1
Zilliz saves $13K vs Milvus · 25 seats
Cheapest $47K
Spread 21%
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Zilliz Cloud Enterprise
$59K/yr
year 1 license · $197/seat
Enterprise
$47K/yr
year 1 license · $155/seat
What buyers actually pay
median, annual
Vendr deal-flow data. The real benchmark, not list price.
Median annual
$1.8K/yr
Vendr · n=3 · limited data
No Vendr data
—
Not in Vendr's deal flow
REF · 01

Sources & confidence

Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.

Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources 11 sourced facts
10 hidden-cost · Vendr median
Last verified 2w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
Sources 25 sourced facts
23 hidden-cost · 1 contract · 1 review platform
Last verified 2mo ago
Confidence Medium confidence
REF · 02

Plans at a glance

Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.

Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 03

Hidden costs

Each cost is severity-ranked, with the dollar range quoted from its source (Vendr, Reddit, TrustRadius, BBB, official docs) — never our estimate.

Beyond the sticker
Severity-ranked, sourced
5 documented
  • Self-Hosting Infrastructure Costs
    $50-$400/month
    2 sources
  • Opaque vCU Pricing Makes Cost Forecasting Difficult
    $99-$1,800/month
    2 sources
  • Extreme Scale Costs on Zilliz Cloud
    $23,000/month
    1 source
  • Infrastructure Costs for Self-Hosted Deployment
    $50-$400/month
    2 sources
  • Scaling Costs at Large Vector Counts
    $1,400-$23,000/month
    2 sources
5 documented
  • Storage Minimums & Suspended Charges
    1 source
  • Idle Compute Charges
    ~$7,000/month
    1 source
  • Data Transfer Fees
    1 source
  • Audit Log Resource Consumption
    1 source
  • Embedding & Inference Fees
    1 source
REF · 05

What users say

Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.

User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
No public ratings yet
Best for
Teams with DevOps capacity who want full control and no cloud costs
Watch out
vCU pricing model is opaque and difficult to estimate costs in advance
G2
4.7out of 5 (65)
Best for
Learning and personal projects
Watch out
Pricing: Some users find the pricing to be high, especially for extensive storage needs or for smaller projects and individual developers.
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Milvus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats). Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges. Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
Vector Databases

Milvus

$0–$197
/month
5 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Vector Databases

Zilliz

$0–$155
/month
4 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →

Milvus and Zilliz are both vector databases competitors. This page compares their list pricing tier by tier so you can see which is cheaper for your workload shape.

Plan-by-Plan Pricing

Plan Milvus Zilliz
Open Source (Self-Hosted) Free /month Free /month
Zilliz Cloud Free Free /month Free /month
Zilliz Cloud Standard $126 /month $155 /month
Zilliz Cloud Enterprise $197 /month Custom
Zilliz Cloud Business Critical Custom —

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Milvus 6 hidden costs

medium
Self-Hosting Infrastructure Costs $50-$400/month
medium
Opaque vCU Pricing Makes Cost Forecasting Difficult $99-$1,800/month
high
Extreme Scale Costs on Zilliz Cloud $23,000/month
medium
Infrastructure Costs for Self-Hosted Deployment $50-$400/month
high
Scaling Costs at Large Vector Counts $1,400-$23,000/month
See all Milvus hidden costs →

Zilliz 23 hidden costs

medium
Storage Minimums & Suspended Charges
high
Idle Compute Charges ~$7,000/month
medium
Data Transfer Fees
low
Audit Log Resource Consumption
critical
Embedding & Inference Fees
See all Zilliz hidden costs →

Continue researching

Milvus

Zilliz

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