Pinecone vs Zilliz: Vector Databases Pricing (2026)
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Team size
25 seats

Pinecone vs Zilliz

Vector Databases pricing comparison · 2026

Pinecone pricing ranges from $0–$500/month, while Zilliz ranges from $0–$155/month. Pinecone is typically 35% 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 Pinecone pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Vector Databases
Side-by-side · live
Pinecone
Pinecone pricing starts at $0 on the Starter plan, which provides managed vector database
verified 27d ago
$900 $47K
View pricing →
Zilliz
Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed vector database built on open-source Milvus, operated by
verified 16d ago
$900 $47K
View pricing →
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Usage-based
$0.33 per GB month
see vendor pricing for volume tiers
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
$900/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
9 hidden-cost · 1 contract · Vendr median
Last verified 3w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
Sources No structured sources
Last verified 2w 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
  • Opaque Per-Query Pricing Based on Index Dimensions and Result Count
    10-25% of license costs
    3 sources
  • Unexpected High Bills from Misunderstood Pricing Model
    10-30% of license costs
    2 sources
  • Costs Escalate Sharply for Write-Heavy Workloads at Scale
    $1,500-$2,000/month
    1 source
  • 40KB Metadata Cap Per Vector
    5-15% of license costs
    1 source
  • Vendor Lock-In Due to Proprietary Managed-Only Architecture
    5-15% of license costs
    2 sources
No hidden costs documented
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
Prototypes, evaluation, small projects
Watch out
Pricing considered expensive compared to alternatives such as Qdrant, Weaviate, and self-hosted pgvector
No public ratings yet
Best for
Learning and personal projects
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Pinecone 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

Pinecone

$0–$500
/month
3 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Vector Databases

Zilliz

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

Pinecone 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 Pinecone Zilliz
Starter Free /month Free /month
Standard $50 /month Free /month
Enterprise $500 /month $155 /month
Business Critical — Custom

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Pinecone

Zilliz

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