Milvus vs Zilliz: Vector Databases Pricing (2026)
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Team size
25 seats

Milvus vs Zilliz

Vector Databases pricing comparison · 2026

Milvus pricing ranges from $0–$197/month, while Zilliz ranges from $0–$197/month. Both products are similarly priced at comparable tiers.

Visit
See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Milvus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Vector Databases
Side-by-side · live
Milvus
Milvus is an open-source, cloud-native vector database built for scalable AI applications,
verified 5w ago
$1.8K $59K
View pricing →
Zilliz
Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed vector database built on open-source Milvus, operated by
verified 9d ago
$1.8K $59K
View pricing →
Verdict · list-price math · year 1
Milvus saves $0 vs Zilliz · 25 seats
Cheapest $59K
Spread 0%
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
Zilliz Cloud Enterprise
$59K/yr
year 1 license · $197/seat
Enterprise
$59K/yr
year 1 license · $197/seat
What buyers actually pay
median, annual
Vendr deal-flow data. The real benchmark, not list price.
Median annual
$1.8K/yr
Vendr · n=3 · limited data
No Vendr data
—
Not in Vendr's deal flow
REF · 01

Sources & confidence

Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.

Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources 11 sourced facts
10 hidden-cost · Vendr median
Last verified 1mo ago
Confidence Medium confidence
Sources 25 sourced facts
23 hidden-cost · 1 contract · 1 review platform
Last verified 1w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
REF · 02

Plans at a glance

Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.

Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 03

Hidden costs

Each cost is severity-ranked, with the dollar range quoted from its source (Vendr, Reddit, TrustRadius, BBB, official docs) — never our estimate.

Beyond the sticker
Severity-ranked, sourced
5 documented
  • Self-Hosting Infrastructure Costs
    $50-$400/month
    2 sources
  • Opaque vCU Pricing Makes Cost Forecasting Difficult
    $99-$1,800/month
    2 sources
  • Extreme Scale Costs on Zilliz Cloud
    $23,000/month
    1 source
  • Infrastructure Costs for Self-Hosted Deployment
    $50-$400/month
    2 sources
  • Scaling Costs at Large Vector Counts
    $1,400-$23,000/month
    2 sources
5 documented
  • Storage Minimums & Suspended Charges
    1 source
  • Idle Compute Charges
    ~$7,000/month
    1 source
  • Data Transfer Fees
    1 source
  • Audit Log Resource Consumption
    1 source
  • Embedding & Inference Fees
    1 source
REF · 05

What users say

Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.

User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
No public ratings yet
Best for
Teams with DevOps capacity who want full control and no cloud costs
G2
4.7out of 5 (65)
Best for
Learning and personal projects
Watch out
Pricing: Some users find the pricing to be high, especially for extensive storage needs or for smaller projects and individual developers.
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Milvus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Zilliz pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats). Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges. Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
Vector Databases

Milvus

$0–$197
/month
5 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Vector Databases

Zilliz

$0–$197
/month
4 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →

Milvus and Zilliz 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 Milvus Zilliz
Open Source (Self-Hosted) Free /month Free /month
Zilliz Cloud Free Free /month Free /month
Zilliz Cloud Standard $126 /month $197 /month
Zilliz Cloud Enterprise $197 /month Custom
Zilliz Cloud Business Critical Custom —

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Milvus 6 hidden costs

medium
Self-Hosting Infrastructure Costs $50-$400/month
medium
Opaque vCU Pricing Makes Cost Forecasting Difficult $99-$1,800/month
high
Extreme Scale Costs on Zilliz Cloud $23,000/month
medium
Infrastructure Costs for Self-Hosted Deployment $50-$400/month
high
Scaling Costs at Large Vector Counts $1,400-$23,000/month
See all Milvus hidden costs →

Zilliz 23 hidden costs

medium
Storage Minimums & Suspended Charges
high
Idle Compute Charges ~$7,000/month
medium
Data Transfer Fees
low
Audit Log Resource Consumption
critical
Embedding & Inference Fees
See all Zilliz hidden costs →

Continue researching

Milvus

Zilliz

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