kitio.aiPinecone vs Chroma
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Pinecone has the lower starting price: about $20 a month, against $250 for Chroma.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Serverless indexes
- Hybrid dense and sparse search
- Metadata filtering
- Hosted embeddings and rerank
- pg_pinecone extension
- Simple Python and JS API
- Built-in embeddings
- Metadata filtering
- Full-text search
- Chroma Cloud
| Feature | Pinecone | Chroma |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Managed serverless vector database for search and RAG | Open-source embedding database for building RAG apps quickly |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $250/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Pinecone | Chroma |
| Based in | United States | United States |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
|
|
Both offer: Metadata filtering.
Pricing compared
Pinecone has the lower starting price: about $20 a month, against $250 for Chroma.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
4 plans
Starter
Free
- Up to 2 GB storage
- 2M write, 1M read units/mo
- AWS only
Builder
$20/mo
- Flat monthly price
- Up to 10 GB storage
- Multiple projects and users
Standard
$50/mo
- Minimum usage, then pay as you go
- 3-week trial with $300 credits
- Backup and restore
Enterprise
$500/mo
- Minimum usage, then pay as you go
- 99.95% uptime SLA
- Private endpoints, audit logs
3 plans
Starter
Free
- Plus usage, $5 free credits
- 10 databases
- 10 team members
Team
$250/mo
- Plus usage, $100 credits
- 100 databases
- 30 team members
- SOC II, Slack support
Enterprise
Contact sales
- Configurable billing
- Volume-based discounts
Prices in USD, checked Oct 28, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
Pinecone
- No infrastructure to manage
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Free starter tier
- Monthly minimum on paid plans
- Closed-source core service
- Costs grow with heavy reads
Chroma
- Very easy to start
- Default in many tutorials
- Free open-source version
- Fewer enterprise features
- Large-scale tuning is limited
- Cloud product is newer
Which one should you choose?
Choose Pinecone if you want:
- No infrastructure to manage
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Free starter tier
Watch out: monthly minimum on paid plans.
Choose Chroma if you want:
- Very easy to start
- Default in many tutorials
- Free open-source version
Watch out: fewer enterprise features.
Pinecone vs Chroma FAQ
What is the difference between Pinecone and Chroma?
Pinecone: Managed serverless vector database for search and RAG. Chroma: Open-source embedding database for building RAG apps quickly. Both are models & apis tools.
Is Pinecone or Chroma cheaper?
Pinecone has the lower starting price: about $20 a month, against $250 for Chroma.
Do Pinecone and Chroma have free plans?
Pinecone: Yes. Chroma: Yes.
Who makes Pinecone?
Pinecone is made by Pinecone, based in United States.
Who makes Chroma?
Chroma is made by Chroma, based in United States.
Which should I choose, Pinecone or Chroma?
Choose Pinecone if you value no infrastructure to manage and scales to billions of vectors. Choose Chroma if you value very easy to start and default in many tutorials.