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

Weaviate vs Zilliz

Vector Databases pricing comparison · 2026

Weaviate pricing ranges from $0–$400/month, while Zilliz ranges from $0–$155/month. Weaviate is typically 42% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.

Visit
See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Weaviate pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Vector Databases
Side-by-side · live
Weaviate
Weaviate pricing starts at $45/month for the Flex plan and $400/month for the Premium plan
verified 7d ago
$7.3K $47K
View pricing →
Zilliz
Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed vector database built on open-source Milvus, operated by
verified 11w ago
$7.3K $47K
View pricing →
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Usage-based
$0.00465 per 1M dimensions
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
$7.3K/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 13 sourced facts
9 hidden-cost · 3 contract · Vendr median
Last verified 1w ago
Confidence Limited 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
4 documented
  • Multi-Axis Usage Scaling
    10-50% of base license costs
    2 sources
  • Embedding Model Choice Drives Infrastructure Cost
    10-100% of base license costs
    2 sources
  • Scaling Costs with Vector Count and Dimensions
    $369-$3,000
    3 sources
  • Infrastructure Overhead for Self-Hosting
    $50-$200
    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 · 04

Contract terms

The fine print, surfaced. Green = buyer-friendly. Each clause backed by a quoted source.

Weaviate
Zilliz
Auto-renewal
—
—
Cancellation
—
any time for pay-as-you-go via AWS Marketplace
Commitment
—
Free tier offers 5 GB storage, 2.5 million vCUs per month, and up to 5 collections; Serverless and Dedicated models are pay-as-you-go.
Price escalation
$369-$3,000
—
Can downgrade
—
—
Based on 4 verified sources (Vendr · TrustRadius · BBB)
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
Permanent free tier for exploration and prototyping
Watch out
Managed cloud pricing becomes expensive at scale — $3,000/month for 50M high-dimensional vectors
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 Weaviate 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

Weaviate

$0–$400
/month
3 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Vector Databases

Zilliz

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

Weaviate 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 Weaviate Zilliz
Free Free /month Free /month
Flex $45 /month Free /month
Premium $400 /month $155 /month
Business Critical — Custom

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Weaviate 4 hidden costs

medium
Multi-Axis Usage Scaling 10-50% of base license costs
medium
Embedding Model Choice Drives Infrastructure Cost 10-100% of base license costs
high
Scaling Costs with Vector Count and Dimensions $369-$3,000
medium
Infrastructure Overhead for Self-Hosting $50-$200
See all Weaviate 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 →

Contract Terms

Term Weaviate Zilliz
Auto-renewal — —
Cancellation — any time for pay-as-you-go via AWS Marketplace
Minimum commitment — Free tier offers 5 GB storage, 2.5 million vCUs per month, and up to 5 collections; Serverless and Dedicated models are pay-as-you-go.
Price escalation $369-$3,000 —

Continue researching

Weaviate

Zilliz

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