ChromaDB vs Pinecone (2026)
A detailed comparison of ChromaDB and Pinecone covering features, pricing, platform support, and more.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | ChromaDB | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source embedding database | Yes | No |
| Simple Python/JS API | Yes | No |
| Metadata filtering | Yes | Yes |
| Local and server modes | Yes | No |
| Multi-modal embeddings | Yes | No |
| Automatic embedding generation | Yes | No |
| Managed vector database | No | Yes |
| Serverless architecture | No | Yes |
| Hybrid search | No | Yes |
| Real-time indexing | No | Yes |
| Multi-tenancy support | No | Yes |
Pricing Comparison
| Detail | ChromaDB | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free Tier Details | Fully open source, self-hosted is free | Starter plan with 2GB storage and 1M vector reads/month |
| Starting Price | Free | Free |
| Plan 1 | Cloud (coming soon): $0/month | Standard: $70/month |
| Plan 2 | — | Enterprise: $0/month |