Pinecone
Vector & Search · Free + paid
Managed vector database for ML applications
At a glance
- Made by
- Pinecone Systems, Inc.
- Korean
- None (English and a few others only)
- API
- Yes
- Available on
- Web, API
What is Pinecone?
Pinecone describes itself as a fully managed vector database built for AI, where writes become searchable immediately, indexing is automatic, and query speed holds up regardless of scale. Pinecone Database is a search engine for semantic search, knowledge retrieval, and long-term memory for AI agents and applications. It offers full-text, semantic, sparse vector, and hybrid search in a single index, and with server-side integrated embeddings you can upsert and query with text instead of vectors. There are also Pinecone Nexus, a knowledge engine for agents, and the Assistant and Inference products.
- Full-text, semantic, sparse vector, and hybrid search in a single index
- Upsert and query text directly with integrated embeddings
- Metadata filters and reranking
- Per-tenant data separation with namespaces
- Dedicated Read Nodes for high-volume reads
- Backups and deployment in your own cloud (BYOC)
- Integration with AI coding tools such as MCP servers and Claude Code
- SSO, RBAC, CMEK, private networking; SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001 certified
Who uses Pinecone and for what
- Building RAG pipelines for production apps
- E-commerce recommendation engines
- Semantic search over knowledge bases and forum answer bots
Pricing
What you get for free — Yes (Starter: free, up to 5 indexes, up to 2GB storage, up to 2M writes/month, us-east-1 only)
| Plan | Price | Main limits |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0/mo | Up to 5 indexes, 2GB storage, 2M writes/month |
| Builder | $20/mo | Flat rate, 10 indexes per project, 10GB storage, 5M writes/month |
| Standard | $50/mo | $50 monthly minimum usage, pay-as-you-go beyond that, storage $0.33/GB/month, $300 credit for a 3-week trial |
| Enterprise | $500/mo | $500 monthly minimum usage, pay-as-you-go beyond that, 99.95% uptime SLA |
| Bring your own cloud | Contact sales | Contact for pricing |
Checked on the official pages on 2026-10-14. Prices and features can change, so check the official site again before paying. · Official pricing page
AI tools similar to Pinecone (alternatives)
Pinecone vs. alternatives at a glance
| AI | Pricing | Combos on the map | Connected tools | Free | Cheapest monthly | Korean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinecone | Free + paid | 0 | 5 | Yes | $20/mo | No |
| Chroma | Free | 0 | 5 | Yes | $250/mo | No |
| Milvus | Free | 0 | 5 | No | — | — |
| pgvector | Free | 0 | 5 | — | — | — |
| Qdrant | Free | 0 | 5 | Yes | — | No |
3 of these 5 tools have a free plan. Cheapest paid plan: Pinecone ($20/mo).
Combo and connection counts are based on the relationships recorded on AI Galaxy Map (2026-10-26); they are not a quality ranking.
Pinecone on AI Galaxy Map
- One of 12 AI tools in the Vector & Search field.
- Connected to 5 other tools — #1 in its field.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Pinecone for free?
Yes (Starter: free, up to 5 indexes, up to 2GB storage, up to 2M writes/month, us-east-1 only). Prices can change, so check the official site before paying.
What AI can I use instead of Pinecone?
Tools that do the same job, such as Chroma, Milvus, pgvector, Qdrant, are connected to it on the map.
Can I use Pinecone in Korean?
None (English and a few others only)
Sources (official pages)
- https://www.pinecone.io/
- https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/get-started/overview
- https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/
Checked on the official pages on 2026-10-14. Prices and features can change, so check the official site again before paying.