Skip to content
AI.info

Tools

Pinecone vs Qdrant

Pinecone or Qdrant? Their plans monthly and yearly, the capabilities their makers state, security and latest updates, side by side — read from the makers' own pages.

In short

  • Both: Self-hosted, API, Runs models for you, Search over your data
  • Only Pinecone states: Choice of models, Builds agents and workflows
  • Only Qdrant states: Command line, Official SDKs

Pinecone

Pinecone is a managed vector database for semantic search, recommendations, RAG, and AI agent retrieval.

Plans

Starter

Free

  • Pinecone Database On-Demand
  • Pinecone Inference
  • Pinecone Assistant
  • Dense, Sparse, and Full-Text Indexes
  • Console Metrics
  • Community Support via Discord

Builder

  • $20/month flat
  • Everything in Starter
  • Increased usage limits
  • Choose your cloud and region
  • Multiple projects and users
  • Prometheus and Datadog monitoring
  • Includes Free support

Standard

  • $50/month min. usage
  • Everything in Builder
  • Pay-as-you-go for Database On-Demand, Inference, and Assistant Usage
  • Choose your cloud and region
  • Dedicated Read Nodes (DRN)
  • Import from object storage
  • Backup and Restore

Enterprise

  • $500/month min. usage
  • Everything in Standard
  • 99.95% Uptime SLA
  • Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)
  • Private Endpoints
  • Customer Managed Encryption Keys
  • Audit Logs

Bring your own cloud

Price on request

  • Pinecone in your cloud account
  • Zero-access operations – no SSH, VPN, or inbound access required
  • Outbound-only operations with an auditable trail
  • Pro support included

Prices checked 2026-09-24 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

  • Choice of models — “All available models” source
  • Self-hosted — “Bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC) runs Pinecone in your cloud account and VPC.” source
  • API — “Install the plugin in your agent, or call the API directly.” source
  • Runs models for you — “Pinecone Inference” source
  • Builds agents and workflows — “Build production-grade agent-based apps” source
  • Search over your data — “Search, upsert, and rerank from the same index.” source

Security

  • SOC 2 Type II — “Pinecone is SOC2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant (with BAA available upon request), and GDPR-ready.” source
  • SOC 2 — “Pinecone is SOC2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant (with BAA available upon request), and GDPR-ready.” source
  • HIPAA — “Pinecone is SOC2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant (with BAA available upon request), and GDPR-ready.” source
  • Not trained on your data — “Your data remains isolated and protected, and is only used for servicing API calls.” source

Latest updates

About Pinecone

Qdrant

Qdrant is an open-source vector search engine and managed cloud service for semantic search, RAG, recommendations, and AI agents.

Plans

Free Tier

Free

  • Free forever
  • Single Node Cluster
  • 0.5 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 4 GB Disk
  • Free Cloud Inference With Selected Models

Standard Tier

  • from 25$
  • Usage-based pricing
  • Dedicated Resources
  • Flexible Vertical and Horizontal Scaling
  • Highly Available Setups
  • Backup & Disaster Recovery
  • 99.5% Uptime SLA

Prices checked 2026-09-25 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

  • Command line — “API, Terraform, Pulumi, CLI” source
  • Self-hosted — “Open-source DNA with enterprise-grade security and flexibility — run on-prem, hybrid, edge, or move seamlessly to Qdrant Cloud.” source
  • API — “Start with a single API call — scale to advanced control over HNSW, hybrid fusion, reranking, and multi-vector retrieval, all via REST, gRPC, or official clients (Python, JavaScript, etc.).” source
  • Official SDKs — “official clients (Python, JavaScript, etc.).” source
  • Runs models for you — “Generate text and image embeddings and run vector search in Qdrant Cloud — no separate pipeline or infrastructure needed.” source
  • Search over your data — “Deliver context-rich answers with hybrid dense – sparse retrieval, metadata filters, and fresh updates.” source

Security

  • SOC 2 Type II — “Qdrant holds SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certifications.” source
  • SOC 2 — “Qdrant holds SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certifications.” source
  • GDPR — “For deployments subject to GDPR, Qdrant provides a Data Processing Agreement covering data protection and privacy commitments.” source
  • HIPAA — “Qdrant is HIPAA certified and Business Associate Agreement is available for Qdrant Managed Cloud.” source
  • Data kept in the EU — “Data in Qdrant clusters stored only in the cluster's deployment region.” source

Latest updates

  • v1.19.0 (v1.19.0)

    Added 4-bit TurboQuant storage, per-component memory controls, keyword prefix filters, and per-query IDF for sparse search.

  • v1.18.0 (v1.18.0)
  • v1.17.0 (v1.17.0)

    Added relevance feedback, optimization and telemetry APIs, update queue and controls, audit logging, weighted RRF, and upsert modes.

About Qdrant