kitio.aiPinecone vs Upstash Vector
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Pinecone starts at $20/mo and Upstash Vector starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
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
- Per-request pricing
- DiskANN search
- Metadata filtering
- Hybrid indexes
- Built-in embeddings
| Feature | Pinecone | Upstash Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Managed serverless vector database for search and RAG | Serverless vector database with per-request pricing and a free tier |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | See pricing page |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Pinecone | Upstash |
| Based in | United States | United States |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
|
|
Both offer: Metadata filtering.
Pricing compared
Pinecone starts at $20/mo and Upstash Vector starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
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
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
Upstash Vector
- Scales to zero cost
- Simple REST API
- Free daily allowance
- Not built for huge datasets
- Fewer advanced features
- Latency depends on region
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 Upstash Vector if you want:
- Scales to zero cost
- Simple REST API
- Free daily allowance
Watch out: not built for huge datasets.
Pinecone vs Upstash Vector FAQ
What is the difference between Pinecone and Upstash Vector?
Pinecone: Managed serverless vector database for search and RAG. Upstash Vector: Serverless vector database with per-request pricing and a free tier. Both are models & apis tools.
Is Pinecone or Upstash Vector cheaper?
Pinecone starts at $20/mo and Upstash Vector starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Do Pinecone and Upstash Vector have free plans?
Pinecone: Yes. Upstash Vector: Yes.
Who makes Pinecone?
Pinecone is made by Pinecone, based in United States.
Who makes Upstash Vector?
Upstash Vector is made by Upstash, based in United States.
Which should I choose, Pinecone or Upstash Vector?
Choose Pinecone if you value no infrastructure to manage and scales to billions of vectors. Choose Upstash Vector if you value scales to zero cost and simple rest api.