Pinecone
pinecone.ioBuild Difficulty: 4/5
A few focused days to build a solid replacement
The vector database to build knowledgeable AI
How to Replace PineconeOverview
Features
54 features across 23 categories
AI Applications(1)
Service for building production-grade chat and agent-based applications
AI Models(2)
Choose from leading hosted embedding models or bring your own vectors
Service providing access to embedding and reranking models hosted on Pinecone infrastructure
API(2)
Administrative APIs for managing resources
REST API for programmatic access to vector database
Access Control(3)
Role-based access control for API keys
Service account management for applications
Role-based access control for users
Authentication(1)
SAML Single Sign-On for enterprise authentication
Compliance(4)
GDPR compliant
HIPAA compliant for healthcare applications
ISO 27001 certified
SOC 2 Type II certified
Core Database(1)
Purpose-built vector database for storing and querying vectors at scale
Data Management(3)
Backup and restore functionality for data protection
Import data from object storage services
Create partitions of your data with namespaces to ensure tenant isolation
Developer Experience(1)
Launch vector databases in seconds
Embedding Models(3)
Embedding model for text encoding
Multilingual embedding model
Sparse embedding model for English text
Infrastructure(3)
Run Pinecone inside your AWS, GCP, or Azure account with zero-access operating model
Fully managed and serverless infrastructure that scales automatically
Resources adjust to meet your demand automatically
Integration(1)
Works with AWS, GCP, Azure and other cloud providers
Management(1)
Web-based console for managing indexes and data
Monitoring(4)
Detailed audit logs for compliance and security
Integration with Datadog for monitoring
Monitoring and metrics for indexes
Prometheus integration for monitoring
Organization(2)
Support for multiple projects per organization
Support for multiple users per account
Performance(1)
Exclusive infrastructure for queries with provisioned nodes reserved for your index
Pricing(1)
Volume discounts through committed use agreements
Reliability(2)
Consistent uptime for critical applications
99.95% uptime SLA guarantee for Enterprise plan
Reranking Models(3)
BGE reranking model
Cohere reranking model
Reranking model for result refinement
SDK(1)
Python client library for Pinecone
Search Relevance(7)
Multi-stage retrieval approach for best-in-class relevance
Get exact keyword match with sparse indexes when semantic search isn't enough
Combine sparse and dense embeddings for more robust and accurate search
Retrieve only vectors that match your metadata filters
Benchmark leading algorithms maximize recall with low latency
Upserted and updated vectors are dynamically indexed in real-time for fresh reads
Add an extra layer of precision with rerankers to boost the most relevant matches
Security(5)
Ability to manage your own encryption keys
Data encrypted at rest for security
Data encrypted in transit for security
Advanced encryption key management
Private networking capabilities for secure connections
Support(2)
Community support channel on Discord
Professional support with response SLAs
Pricing
Starter
- ✓Up to 2GB database storage
- ✓Up to 2M write units/month
- ✓Up to 1M read units/month
- ✓Up to 5 indexes
- ✓100 namespaces per index
- ✓5M embedding tokens/month included
- ✓500 reranking requests/month included
- ✓Dense and sparse index types
- ✓100 assistant documents limit
- ✓1GB assistant storage included
- ✓1.5M assistant input tokens included
- ✓200k assistant output tokens included
- ✓500k context processed tokens included
- ✓Free support via Discord
- ✓Console access
- ✓Index metrics
- ✓1 project
- ✓Up to 2 users
- ✓Community support
- ✓US region only for Assistant
Standard
Popular- ✓Unlimited database storage
- ✓Unlimited write units
- ✓Unlimited read units
- ✓Pay-as-you-go pricing ($4 per million writes, $16 per million reads)
- ✓20 indexes per project
- ✓100,000 namespaces per index
- ✓All embedding models
- ✓All reranking models except cohere-rerank-3.5
- ✓Dedicated Read Nodes (NEW)
- ✓Choose your cloud and region
- ✓Import from object storage
- ✓Multiple projects and users
- ✓SAML SSO
- ✓User and API Key RBAC
- ✓Backup and restore
- ✓Prometheus metrics
- ✓HIPAA add-on available
- ✓Free support included
- ✓Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support
- ✓Unlimited assistant documents per assistant
- ✓Unlimited assistant storage
- ✓Pay-as-you-go for inference and assistant usage
- ✓3-week trial includes $300 credits
- ✓AWS, Azure, GCP availability
- ✓All available regions
- ✓Datadog monitoring
Enterprise
- ✓Everything in Standard
- ✓99.95% uptime SLA
- ✓Private networking
- ✓Customer managed encryption keys
- ✓Audit logs
- ✓Service accounts
- ✓Admin APIs
- ✓HIPAA compliance included
- ✓Pro support included
- ✓200 indexes per project
- ✓100,000 namespaces per index
- ✓All embedding models
- ✓All reranking models
- ✓AWS, Azure, GCP availability
- ✓All available regions
- ✓Unlimited storage and compute
- ✓Pay-as-you-go for database, inference and assistant usage
Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)
- ✓Run Pinecone in your AWS, GCP, or Azure account
- ✓Zero-access operations model
- ✓No SSH, VPN, or inbound access required
- ✓Outbound-only operations with auditable trail
- ✓Pro support included
- ✓Public endpoints or private connectivity
- ✓AWS PrivateLink support
- ✓GCP Private Service Connect support
- ✓Azure Private Link support
Cost Calculator
Keep Paying Pinecone
Build It Yourself
Total Cost Comparison
DIY hosting estimate based on Vercel + Supabase free/pro tiers (~$20/mo). Build time estimated from 54 features at easy complexity.
Build vs Buy
Should you build a Pinecone alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 54 features.
Buy Pinecone
Better ValueBuild Your Own
Buying Pinecone saves ~$55,920 over 3 years vs building.
Estimates based on 54 features and a BuildScore of 4/5. Actual costs vary.
Integrations
11 known integrations