Chroma Pricing in 2026: Plans, Limits and Real Costs
Chroma Cloud uses usage-based pricing on top of a flat monthly subscription. The Starter plan is free with usage fees, while Team costs $250/month plus usage, and Enterprise is custom. Most solo builders start on Starter.
Verified 2026-09-01 · official pricing page · Chroma in the directory
Quick pricing verdict
- Starting price
- $0/month + usage (Starter)
- Free plan
- Starter at $0/month with $5 in free credits, then usage-based
- Best plan for most people
- Starter for getting started; Team at $250/month + usage once workloads are production
- Plan to avoid first
- Enterprise (Custom pricing, dedicated support) — overkill until scale or compliance is required
- Biggest hidden cost
- Write and storage compounding at $2.50/GiB written and $0.33/GiB stored per month, which can dwarf the subscription
- Pricing checked
- 2026-09-01, against the official page
Chroma Cloud lists a flat monthly subscription per tier and charges separately for writes, storage, queries, and network egress. The Starter tier is $0/month with $5 in free credits, and every action after that is metered.
Team costs $250/month plus usage with $100 in included credits, unlocks 100 databases and 30 team members, and adds Slack support and SOC II. Enterprise is custom and adds unlimited databases, dedicated support, single-tenant and BYOC clusters, and SLAs.
Plans compared
| Plan | Price | Best for | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0/month + usage | Getting up and running quickly with $5 in free credits | 10 databases, 10 team members, Community Slack |
| Team | $250/month + usage | Scaling production use cases with $100 credits, SOC II, and Slack support | 100 databases, 30 team members, Slack support, SOC II |
| Enterprise | Custom | Organizations needing security, scale, dedicated support, and SLAs | Unlimited databases, unlimited team members, dedicated support, single-tenant clusters, BYOC clusters, SLAs, volume-based discounts |
Source: Chroma pricing page, checked 2026-09-01.
What each plan includes
Starter
- Includes
- $0/month, $5 in free credits, 10 databases, 10 team members, Community Slack, usage-based metering on writes, storage, queries, and network
- Missing
- Slack support, SOC II, dedicated support, BYOC, SLAs, volume discounts; over 10 databases or 10 team members
- Avoid if
- You need SOC II, larger team access, or higher database limits
- Verdict
- Free entry point that is fine for prototypes; usable costs grow with writes and stored data
Team
- Includes
- $250/month, $100 credits, 100 databases, 30 team members, Slack support, SOC II, plus the same usage-based metering
- Missing
- Dedicated support, single-tenant clusters, BYOC clusters, SLAs, volume-based discounts; over 100 databases or 30 team members
- Avoid if
- You have not yet validated that the workload is production-worthy, or you cannot absorb the $250/month floor plus usage
- Verdict
- Right tier once the workload is real and SOC II matters to customers
Enterprise
- Includes
- Custom pricing, unlimited databases, unlimited team members, dedicated support, single-tenant clusters, BYOC clusters, SLAs, volume-based discounts
- Missing
- Self-serve pricing transparency (must contact sales)
- Avoid if
- You are a solo founder without compliance procurement needs
- Verdict
- Pick only when security review, scale, or contractual SLAs are a hard requirement
Add-ons, overages, and surprise costs
| Cost item | Trigger | Published amount | Billing behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writes | Per GiB written | $2.50 | Billed every time data is ingested; the page's example shows 13 GiB written producing $34 |
| Storage | Per GiB stored per month | $0.33 | Recurring monthly charge that scales with retained vectors and metadata; example shows 80 GiB producing $27/month |
| Queries | Per TiB queried | $0.0075 | Charged on data scanned per query; example shows 10.0M queries producing $19 |
| Network egress | Per GiB returned | $0.09 | Adds to query cost; the calculator lists '+0.09/GiB out' alongside the per-TiB query rate |
Source: Platform pricing docs, checked 2026-09-01.
Which plan should you choose?
- Solo founder prototyping an AI app with small datasets
- Starter — $0/month with $5 in free credits keeps early costs near zero; usage charges only start once real data and queries flow
- Team shipping to paying customers who request SOC II
- Team — $250/month + usage unlocks 100 databases, 30 seats, Slack support, and SOC II without sales conversations
- Company with security review, custom cluster, or contractual SLA needs
- Enterprise — Custom pricing covers unlimited databases and seats, single-tenant or BYOC clusters, dedicated support, and SLAs
Frequently asked questions
- Do unused credits rollover to the next month?
- The page lists this as a Pricing FAQ but does not publish the answer on the captured text.
- What payment methods do you accept?
- The page lists this as a Pricing FAQ but does not publish the answer on the captured text.
- Can I change my plan in the middle of a billing cycle?
- The page lists this as a Pricing FAQ but does not publish the answer on the captured text.
- What happens if I exceed my plan's usage limits?
- The page lists this as a Pricing FAQ but does not publish the answer on the captured text.
- Can I export my data if I decide to leave?
- The page lists this as a Pricing FAQ but does not publish the answer on the captured text.
What we read
Every figure on this page was extracted from the vendor's own pricing page at the moment below. The text is reproduced so you can check our reading against what they publish today.
Source captured 2026-09-01 08:34 UTC
Products Docs Research Resources Pricing 27k Log in Sign up Simple, usage-based pricing. Just like the rest of Chroma Cloud. Chroma Cloud enables fast, scalable, & serverless vector, full-text, and metadata search across terabytes of data. The open-source search infrastructure for AI. Get started for free Usage-based pricing Starter plan per month + $5 in free credits $0 Write per GiB written $2.50 Storage per GiB per month $0.33 Query per TiB queried $0.0075 Network per GiB returned $0.09 Pricing calculator Usage Parameters Vector: 1536 Doc: 8192 bytes Metadata: 64 bytes Collections × 500 Written $2.50/GiB 1.0M docs (13GiB) $34 Stored $0.33/GiB 6.0M docs (80GiB) $27 Queried $0.0075/TiB +0.09/GiB out 10.0M queries (4qps) $19 Usage total per month $79 Plans Starter $0/month + usage Get up and running quickly. Free credits then usage-based pricing. Sign up $0 + usage 10 databases 10 team members Community Slack Team $250/month + usage Scale your production use cases. $100 credits then usage-based pricing. Get started $250 + usage 100 databases 30 team members Slack support SOC II Volume-based discounts Enterprise Custom For organizations prioritizing security, scale, support, and confidence. Get in touch Hidden Custom pricing Unlimited databases Unlimited team members Dedicated support Single tenant clusters BYOC clusters SLAs Pricing FAQs Do unused credits rollover to the next month? What payment methods do you accept? Can I change my plan in the middle of a billing cycle? What happens if I exceed my plan's usage limits? Can I export my data if I decide to leave? Learn more on the Cloud documentation -> © 2026 Product Database Sync Enterprise Package Search MCP Docs Status Contact Follow GitHub X YouTube Company About Changelog Careers Legal Privacy Terms Security DPA
Pricing change log
What moved since we started tracking this page, newest first. A price that changes silently is the failure mode of every other pricing guide.
- 2026-09-01First published, extracted from https://www.trychroma.com/pricing.