Milvus Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Milvus costs Free to $155 per month as of April 2026. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Yes, Milvus offers a forever free plan as of April 2026. The free tier includes 5 features with limits on usage. Paid plans start at $99/month (Zilliz Cloud Standard). Pricing verified from 2 sources by CostBench.
Milvus's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Free forever
- Apache 2.0 license
- Full feature set
- Community support
- Docker / Kubernetes deployment
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- Serverless from $0/month or Dedicated from $99/month
- Fully managed vector databases with core APIs
- Backup, restore, and basic monitoring
- Built-in encryption for data in transit and at rest
- Manual scaling to 32 CUs
- AWS and Google Cloud deployment
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like Serverless from $0/month or Dedicated from $99/month or Fully managed vector databases with core APIs
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- 5 GB storage limit
- 2.5M vCUs/month limit
- Up to 5 collections
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Free vs Zilliz Cloud Standard Plan Comparison
| Open Source (Self-Hosted) $0 | Zilliz Cloud Standard $99/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 5 included | 6+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Milvus branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Teams with DevOps capacity who want full control and no cloud costs | Prototypes, testing environments, and non-critical workloads |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Milvus free?
Yes, Milvus offers a forever free plan with 5 core features included. However, there are limits on users and features that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Milvus's free plan?
Milvus's free plan includes: Free forever, Apache 2.0 license, Full feature set, Community support, Docker / Kubernetes deployment. Key limits include basic usage caps.
03 What's NOT included in Milvus's free plan?
The free plan excludes: Serverless from $0/month or Dedicated from $99/month, Fully managed vector databases with core APIs, Backup, restore, and basic monitoring, Built-in encryption for data in transit and at rest, Manual scaling to 32 CUs. You'll also have Milvus branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Milvus's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like Serverless from $0/month or Dedicated from $99/month or Fully managed vector databases with core APIs, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $99/month.
05 Is Milvus's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Milvus's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit. However, feature and usage limits may restrict what you can do without upgrading to a paid plan.