Zilliz Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Zilliz 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, Zilliz offers a freemium plan as of April 2026. The free tier includes 5 features with limits on storage and vcus. Paid plans start at $155/month (Enterprise). Pricing verified from 2 sources by CostBench.
Zilliz offers a freemium model with limited features; upgrade to unlock more.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- 5 GB storage
- 2.5M vCUs per month included
- Up to 5 collections
- Serverless clusters
- Google Cloud only
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- From $155/month (Dedicated)
- 99.95% uptime SLA
- Audit logs and SSO (SAML 2.0)
- Granular RBAC
- Multi-replica and elastic scaling
- Private endpoint and VPC peering
- Enterprise support included
- Multi-cloud: AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
Free Plan Limits
| Limit | Free Plan | Paid Plans |
|---|---|---|
| storage | 5 GB | Unlimited/Higher |
| vcus | 2.5M/month | Unlimited/Higher |
| collections | 5 | Unlimited/Higher |
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like From $155/month (Dedicated) or 99.95% uptime SLA
- 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
- 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 Enterprise Plan Comparison
| Free $0 | Enterprise $155/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 5 included | 8+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Zilliz branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Learning and personal projects | Production AI applications requiring enterprise-grade reliability |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Zilliz free?
Yes, Zilliz offers a freemium plan with 5 core features included. However, there are limits on storage, vcus that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Zilliz's free plan?
Zilliz's free plan includes: 5 GB storage, 2.5M vCUs per month included, Up to 5 collections, Serverless clusters, Google Cloud only. Key limits include storage: 5 GB, vcus: 2.5M/month, collections: 5.
03 What's NOT included in Zilliz's free plan?
The free plan excludes: From $155/month (Dedicated), 99.95% uptime SLA, Audit logs and SSO (SAML 2.0), Granular RBAC, Multi-replica and elastic scaling. You'll also have Zilliz branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Zilliz's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like From $155/month (Dedicated) or 99.95% uptime SLA, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $155/month.
05 Is Zilliz's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Zilliz'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.