Chroma
- Starter · freeMonth
- Team · $250Month
- Enterprise · contact salesContract
Chroma vs Pinecone
Side-by-side published prices, limits and sources. Not a quality ranking. The vendor page remains authoritative.
When to pick which
Chroma: Chroma Cloud offers serverless vector, full-text, and metadata search. Starter costs $0 plus usage with $5 starter credits; Team costs $250 plus usage with $100 credits. Entry: Free plan; first paid plan: Team. Pinecone: Pinecone is a serverless vector database for AI applications, RAG pipelines, and real-time retrieval. Hybrid and semantic search, namespaces, Pinecone Assistant, and sparse and dense vectors are supported. Entry: Free plan; first paid plan: Builder. The deciding factors are the actual workflow and the published plan and usage terms.
Differences at a glance
- Free access: Chroma as Free plan; Pinecone as Free plan.
- Paid entry in the catalog: Chroma Team; Pinecone Builder. Amounts are in the table and follow the price region.
- Chroma: Vector, full-text, and metadata search
- Chroma: Starter and Team plus usage
- Pinecone: Serverless vector database for real-time retrieval in AI applications and RAG pipelines
- Pinecone: Free Starter account: 2 GB storage, 5 million vectors, unlimited queries
| Criterion | Chroma | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| Free access | Free plan | Free plan |
| Paid from | Team · $250Month | Builder · $20Month |
Published plans by vendor
Each vendor separately. The same row does not mean the same plan. Prices follow the selected price region.
Pinecone
- Starter · freeMonth
- Builder · $20Month
- Standard · $50Month
- Enterprise · $500Month/Contract
Chroma
Chroma Cloud offers serverless vector, full-text, and metadata search. Starter costs $0 plus usage with $5 starter credits; Team costs $250 plus usage with $100 credits.
Usage charges are $2.50 per GiB written, $0.33 per GiB-month stored, $0.0075 per TiB queried, and $0.09 per GiB returned.
Pinecone
Pinecone is a serverless vector database for AI applications, RAG pipelines, and real-time retrieval. Hybrid and semantic search, namespaces, Pinecone Assistant, and sparse and dense vectors are supported.
Starter is free with 2 GB, 5 million vectors, and unlimited queries. Standard charges usage-based on read units, write units, and stored vectors. CMEK and PrivateLink are available in higher tiers.
Official sources
Chroma
- Chroma pricing (trychroma.com)
- Chroma pricing (docs.trychroma.com)
Pinecone
- Pinecone pricing (pinecone.io)
- Pinecone (docs.pinecone.io)
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Chroma or Pinecone?
The cheaper paid entry is Pinecone at $20, against $250 for Chroma. That is the vendor's list price; regional prices can differ.
Can Chroma and Pinecone be tried for free?
Chroma: Free plan. Pinecone: Free plan.
Where are the vendors of Chroma and Pinecone based?
Chroma: Chroma Inc., USA. Pinecone: Pinecone Systems, Inc., USA.
Are Chroma and Pinecone listed in the same category?
Chroma is listed under the “Development & Code” category, Pinecone under “Development & Code.”
How many pricing tiers do Chroma and Pinecone offer?
Chroma documents 3 plans, Pinecone documents 4 plans, each with price, billing period, and included features.
Where do the price and product details for Chroma and Pinecone come from?
For Chroma and Pinecone, prices, limits, and product details are each based on the current official vendor page. Missing values stay marked as not published rather than being estimated.