Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best Vector Databases (2026)
The cheapest vector databases is Chroma at $0/mo. 7 offer a free tier (Chroma, MongoDB Atlas Vector Search, Pinecone). This page compares 7 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
7 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: Chroma at $0/mo (Starter).
- Typical paid price: from $5/mo, median $22.50/mo, up to $250/mo — across 6 with published pricing.
- Free tier: Chroma, MongoDB Atlas Vector Search, Pinecone, Qdrant Cloud, Redis Cloud, Supabase (pgvector), Weaviate.
- HIPAA-ready: MongoDB Atlas Vector Search, Pinecone, Qdrant Cloud, Redis Cloud, Supabase (pgvector), Weaviate.
- Tracked: 7 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.
Comparison
| # | Vector Database | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chroma | $0/mo Starter | Yes | No | Yes | Developer-first teams building RAG prototypes quickly with open-source tooling | trychroma.com |
| 2 | MongoDB Atlas Vector Search | $0/mo M0 Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Teams already on MongoDB Atlas wanting vector search without a separate DB | mongodb.com |
| 3 | Pinecone | $0/mo Starter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Production RAG applications needing fully managed serverless scale | pinecone.io |
| 4 | Qdrant Cloud | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | High-performance production workloads requiring low-latency ANN search | qdrant.tech |
| 5 | Redis Cloud | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Real-time AI applications requiring sub-millisecond vector query latency | redis.io |
| 6 | Supabase (pgvector) | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full-stack apps needing vector search co-located with Postgres relational data | supabase.com |
| 7 | Weaviate | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Multi-tenant SaaS applications needing per-customer data isolation | weaviate.io |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest vector databases?
Chroma has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Starter), as of 2026-06-15.
How much does vector databases cost per month?
Across the 6 vector databases with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $22.50/mo, ranging from $5/mo to $250/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 7 also offer a free tier.
Which vector databases have a free plan?
Chroma, MongoDB Atlas Vector Search, Pinecone, Qdrant Cloud, Redis Cloud, Supabase (pgvector), Weaviate offer a free tier.
Which vector databases support HIPAA?
MongoDB Atlas Vector Search, Pinecone, Qdrant Cloud, Redis Cloud, Supabase (pgvector), Weaviate state HIPAA support (a BAA). Always confirm current scope with the vendor.
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How we compiled this
Published self-serve USD pricing collected directly from each vendor's official pricing page via WebFetch, accessed 2026-06-14. Telephony fields (minutesIncluded, callsIncluded, overagePerMin, overagePerCall) are null on every plan — non-telephony vertical. Pinecone: all four pricing points (Builder $20, Standard $50 min, Enterprise $500 min, HIPAA add-on $190) confirmed via two separate fetches of pinecone.io/pricing. Weaviate: four-tier structure (Free $0, Flex $45, Plus $280, Premium $400) confirmed on two fetches of weaviate.io/pricing; HIPAA confirmed as 'Enterprise Cloud on AWS'. Qdrant Cloud: pricing page at qdrant.tech/pricing renders JS-only — no USD amounts are published on the public page; the site directs users to a JS calculator at cloud.qdrant.io/calculator which also did not yield amounts; Free tier resource specs (0.5 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 4GB Disk) confirmed; paid tiers marked null per methodology. MongoDB Atlas Vector Search: dedicated search node hourly rates ($0.12–$3.26/hr) confirmed from mongodb.com/pricing; Vector Search runs on dedicated S20–S80 search nodes separate from standard cluster tiers; M0 Free and Flex cluster pricing also confirmed. Chroma: Starter ($0 + usage), Team ($250/mo + usage), Enterprise (custom) confirmed from trychroma.com/pricing; usage unit rates ($2.50/GiB write, $0.33/GiB/mo storage, $0.0075/TiB query) confirmed. Redis Cloud: Free ($0), Essentials (from $5/mo at $0.007/hr), Pro (from $200/mo at $0.014/hr) confirmed from redis.io/pricing; vector search is included in Redis Search feature, no separate cost. Supabase (pgvector): Free ($0), Pro ($25/mo), Team ($599/mo), Enterprise (custom) confirmed from supabase.com/pricing; pgvector/vector search is a built-in Postgres extension included at no extra cost. Zilliz Cloud: pricing page at zilliz.com/pricing is fully JS-rendered and returned only a page title on all fetch attempts; no USD amounts could be verified from the official page or any accessible documentation URL; excluded to avoid fabrication. Benchmark estimate source (benchmark.vectorview.ai/vectordbs.html) used as corroboration reference for realistic workload costs where noted.
Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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