# Chroma vs Pinecone

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Pinecone

| Attribute | Chroma | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 64.7 (70% (medium)) | 75.1 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 35 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 6,246 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 29,270 | - |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 2,592,643 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A search system enabling simultaneous vector similarity, full-text, and structured metadata queries across large datasets. Deployable as open-source self-hosted infrastructure or managed cloud service with usage-based pricing, supporting multi-tenant workloads and distributed scaling. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"What is Chroma?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Chroma is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $0.01. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Is Chroma free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Chroma supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does Chroma support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Chroma can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Can Chroma be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Chroma. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Chroma not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com","question":"What security certifications does Chroma have?","confidence":0.48},{"answer":"Yes. Chroma is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma","question":"Is Chroma open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"Chroma is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Where is Chroma available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"A hosted vector database platform that enables developers to build AI-powered applications with vector search, retrieval-augmented generation, and semantic matching capabilities. It abstracts away infrastructure complexity with automatic scaling and pay-per-use pricing. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","question":"What is Pinecone?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Pinecone offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $0.10 per egress. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","question":"Is Pinecone free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Pinecone. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Pinecone support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Pinecone, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","question":"Can Pinecone be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 15 integrations for Pinecone, including Azure OpenAI, GitHub CoPilot, Azure Marketplace, Microsoft Marketplace, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and Google Drive, plus 7 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","question":"What does Pinecone integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Pinecone. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Pinecone not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.pinecone.io/security/","question":"What security certifications does Pinecone have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | A search system enabling simultaneous vector similarity, full-text, and structured metadata queries across large datasets. Deployable as open-source self-hosted infrastructure or managed cloud service with usage-based pricing, supporting multi-tenant workloads and distributed scaling. | A hosted vector database platform that enables developers to build AI-powered applications with vector search, retrieval-augmented generation, and semantic matching capabilities. It abstracts away infrastructure complexity with automatic scaling and pay-per-use pricing. |
| features.capabilities | `{"deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":true,"storage_tier":"tiered","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"permissive_oss","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed","metadata_filtering":"pre_filter"}` | `{"ann_index":"HNSW, DiskANN","deployment":"managed","serverless":true,"consistency":"eventual","storage_tier":"tiered","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"proprietary","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"distance_metrics":"cosine","horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed","metadata_filtering":"post_filter"}` |
| integrations.count | - | 8 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Azure OpenAI"},{"name":"GitHub CoPilot"},{"name":"Azure Marketplace"},{"name":"Microsoft Marketplace"},{"name":"AWS","native":true,"category":"cloud_provider","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Google Cloud Platform","native":true,"category":"cloud_provider","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Microsoft Azure","native":true,"category":"cloud_provider","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Google Drive","native":true,"category":"data_source","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Slack","native":false,"category":"communication","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Vercel","native":false,"category":"hosting","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Claude","native":false,"category":"llm","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Datadog","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"Prometheus","native":true,"category":"monitoring","direction":"outbound"},{"name":"GCP","native":true},{"name":"Azure","native":true},{"name":"Cursor","native":false,"category":"ide"},{"name":"Vercel AI SDK","native":true,"category":"development","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| language.primary | Rust | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"Free tier plus metered charges for write, storage, query, and network","features":["10 databases","10 team members","Community Slack"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":2.5,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.33,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0075,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Get up and running quickly with free credits then usage-based pricing","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"databases":"10","free_credits":"$5","team_members":"10"}},{"free":false,"name":"Team","summary":"$250/month with $100 included credits, plus overage metering","features":["100 databases","30 team members","Slack support","SOC II compliance","Volume-based discounts"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":2.5,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.33,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0075,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Scale production workloads with included credits and priority support","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"databases":"100","team_members":"30","monthly_credits":"$100"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing negotiated per deployment","features":["Unlimited databases","Unlimited team members","Dedicated support","Single tenant clusters","BYOC clusters","SLAs"],"description":"Security, scale, and dedicated support for organizations with custom requirements","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Freemium model with usage-based metering. Starter plan free with $5 credits; Team plan $250/month plus metered charges with $100 included credits; Enterprise with custom pricing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:06:40.719Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.0075,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"Free","features":["Dense, Sparse, and Full-Text Indexes","Console Metrics","Community Support via Discord","USA region only"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For trying out and for small applications","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"egress":"1GB/mo","indexes":"5","storage":"2GB","namespaces":"100 per index","read_units":"1M/mo","write_units":"2M/mo","input_tokens":"500k/mo","output_tokens":"300k/mo","reranking_requests":"500/mo","inference_embedding_tokens":"5M/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Builder","summary":"$20/month flat","features":["Everything in Starter","Increased usage limits","Multiple projects and users","Any cloud and region","Prometheus and Datadog monitoring","Free support, with response SLAs via Developer/Pro support add-on"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":20,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For solo developers and small teams","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"egress":"10GB/mo","indexes":"10 per project","storage":"10GB","namespaces":"1,000 per index","write_units":"5M/mo","output_tokens":"1M/mo","reranking_requests":"1,000/mo","inference_embedding_tokens":"10M/mo"}},{"free":false,"name":"Standard","summary":"$50/month minimum + usage-based. 3-week free trial with $300 credits.","features":["Everything in Builder","Unlimited storage","Pay-as-you-go Database On-Demand, Inference, and Assistant usage","Dedicated Read Nodes","Import from object storage","Backup and Restore","RBAC","SSO (SAML 2.0)","HIPAA add-on available"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":50,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","unit":"storage","amount":0.33,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"million"},"kind":"metered","unit":"write_units","amount":4,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"million"},"kind":"metered","unit":"read_units","amount":16,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","unit":"egress","amount":0.1,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"For production applications at any scale","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"indexes":"20 per project","storage":"Unlimited","namespaces":"200 per index"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"$500/month minimum + usage-based","features":["Everything in Standard","99.95% Uptime SLA","Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC)","Private Endpoints","Customer Managed Encryption Keys","Audit Logs","Service Accounts","SAML roles","SCIM","HIPAA Compliance included"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":500,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"For mission-critical production applications","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"indexes":"200 per project","uptime_sla":"99.95%"}},{"free":false,"name":"Bring Your Own Cloud","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["Pinecone runs in customer's cloud account and VPC","Zero-access operations – no SSH, VPN, or inbound access","Outbound-only operations with auditable trail","AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect, or Azure Private Link"],"description":"For organizations requiring the highest level of security and control","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"HIPAA add-on","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":190,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free tier available. Paid plans from $20/month; production plans $50–$500/month minimum plus usage-based charges.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-09-03T18:00:54.251Z","freeTrialDays":21,"startingPrice":{"amount":20,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | mid |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":20,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/latest","date":"2025-04-01T23:29:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"latest"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.9","date":"2026-05-05T05:55:40Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.4","date":"2026-05-05T04:47:11Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/foundation-cli-v0.1.0-alpha.3","date":"2026-05-01T00:44:16Z","type":"prerelease","version":"foundation-cli-v0.1.0-alpha.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.8","date":"2026-04-16T23:35:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.7","date":"2026-04-08T07:49:29Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.3","date":"2026-04-08T04:25:36Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.6","date":"2026-04-07T03:01:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.2","date":"2026-04-04T15:46:18Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.5","date":"2026-03-10T09:30:59Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.3","date":"2026-03-07T19:07:43Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.2","date":"2026-02-27T19:50:12Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.1","date":"2026-02-19T20:01:23Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.1","date":"2026-02-19T19:30:48Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.0","date":"2026-02-09T08:47:05Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.0","date":"2026-02-09T05:36:21Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.4.1","date":"2026-01-14T19:19:18Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.3.1","date":"2026-01-13T21:17:59Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.4.0","date":"2025-12-24T02:59:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.3.0","date":"2025-12-24T01:22:45Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.3.0"}]` | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.95 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | - | `[{"name":"SOC 2 Type II","level":"Type II","status":"active"}]` |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.1 | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://www.pinecone.io/security/ |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=chromadb&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | - |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

| Capability | Chroma | Pinecone |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Managed |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | - | HNSW, DiskANN |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | - | cosine |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | Pre-filter | Post-filter |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | - | - |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Tiered | Tiered |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-tenancy (namespaces / collections / tenants) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Horizontal scale | Sharded / distributed | Sharded / distributed |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | Eventual |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Proprietary |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Dedicated DBMS | Dedicated DBMS |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-09-21T03:45:40.309Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*