Pinecone vs Milvus
Vector Databases pricing comparison · 2026
Pinecone pricing ranges from $0–$500/month, while Milvus ranges from $0–$155/month. Pinecone is typically 35% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
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Pinecone and Milvus are both vector databases competitors. This page compares their list pricing tier by tier so you can see which is cheaper for your workload shape.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Pinecone | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free /month | Free /month |
| Standard | $50 /month | Free /month |
| Enterprise | $500 /month | $99 /month |
| Zilliz Cloud Enterprise | — | $155 /month |
| Zilliz Cloud Business Critical | — | Custom |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
Pinecone
7 scenarios$0/month
Solo Developer / Prototype
$50/month ($600/year)
Small Team / Production App
$500/month ($6,000/year base)
Enterprise Deployment
Milvus
5 scenarios~$50/month (VPS only)
Developer / Prototype (Self-Hosted on VPS)
$0
Small Production (Zilliz Cloud Free + Standard)
free → $99/month on Zilliz Cloud Standard
~$400/month (infrastructure only)
Mid-Scale Production (Self-Hosted Milvus)
Market Intelligence
Pinecone
- Median annual cost
- $900
- Based on
- 3 deals
Milvus
- Median annual cost
- $450
- Based on
- 8 deals