Pinecone Pricing in 2026: Plans, Limits and Real Costs
Pinecone's Builder plan at $20/month flat fits a solo founder just past the free Starter tier. Standard ($50/month minimum, marked POPULAR) is the upgrade once you need SSO, Dedicated Read Nodes, or the HIPAA add-on. Enterprise's $500/month minimum is overkill until you actually need BYOC or a 99.95% SLA.
Verified 2026-10-19 · official pricing page · Pinecone in the directory
Quick pricing verdict
- Starting price
- Free on Starter; next paid tier is Builder at $20/month flat.
- Free plan
- Starter is free, with up to 5 indexes, 2 GB database storage, 2M write units/mo, 1M read units/mo, and 1 GB egress/mo included; community support only.
- Best plan for most people
- Standard, marked POPULAR. $50/month minimum, then pay-as-you-go; 3-week trial includes $300 credits. Adds Dedicated Read Nodes, RBAC, SSO (SAML 2.0), Backup and Restore.
- Plan to avoid first
- Enterprise, which requires a $500/month minimum and is geared at mission-critical production with BYOC, SCIM, and a 99.95% SLA.
- Biggest hidden cost
- Pay-as-you-go overages on Standard and Enterprise once the included database, assistant, and inference quotas run out, plus the HIPAA add-on at $190/mo.
- Pricing checked
- 2026-10-19, against the official page
Pinecone is a managed vector database with four published tiers (Starter, Builder, Standard, Enterprise) plus a Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) option quoted on request. Starter is free with hard usage caps; Builder is a flat $20/month that loosens those caps; Standard and Enterprise are usage-based with monthly minimums of $50 and $500, respectively.
The page publishes included quotas and overage rates for Database, Assistant, and Inference line items, plus an optional HIPAA add-on at $190/mo. There is no annual pricing shown anywhere; all numbers are quoted per month or per million units.
Plans compared
| Plan | Price | Best for | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free | Trying out and small applications | Up to 5 indexes; 100 namespaces per index; 2 GB database storage; 2M write units/mo; 1M read units/mo; 1 GB egress/mo; 1 project; up to 2 users; AWS only in us-east-1; community Discord support only |
| Builder | $20/month flat | Solo developers and small teams | 10 indexes per project; 1,000 namespaces per index; 10 GB database storage; 5M write units/mo; 2M read units/mo; 10 GB egress/mo; 5 projects; up to 5 users; AWS, Azure, GCP; all available regions; Prometheus and Datadog monitoring; free support, response SLAs available via add-on |
| Standard | $50/month min. usage (3-week trial with $300 credits) | Production applications at any scale | 20 indexes per project; 100,000 namespaces per index; unlimited storage at $0.33/GB/mo; pay-as-you-go for Database, Inference, and Assistant; Dedicated Read Nodes, Import from object storage, Backup and Restore, RBAC, SSO (SAML 2.0), HIPAA add-on, free support |
| Enterprise | $500/month min. usage | Mission-critical production applications | 200 indexes per project; 1,000,000 namespaces per index; unlimited storage; 99.95% uptime SLA; BYOC; Private Endpoints; Customer Managed Encryption Keys; Audit Logs; Service Accounts; SAML roles; SCIM; HIPAA Compliance; Pro support included |
| BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) | Contact Us for Pricing | Organizations needing the highest level of security and control | Zero-access operations (no SSH, VPN, or inbound); outbound-only with auditable trail; public endpoints or private connectivity via AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect, or Azure Private Link; Pro support included |
Source: Pinecone pricing page, checked 2026-10-19.
What each plan includes
Starter
- Includes
- Pinecone Database On-Demand, Pinecone Inference, Pinecone Assistant; Dense, Sparse, and Full-Text Indexes; Console Metrics; community Discord support; bge-reranker-v2-m3 only
- Missing
- Multiple users beyond 2; multi-cloud or multi-region; Prometheus/Datadog; SSO; RBAC; Dedicated Read Nodes; Backup and Restore; HIPAA; SLA
- Avoid if
- You need anything beyond a single AWS region, single project, or two users, or you need an SLA
- Verdict
- Good enough for an evening of prototyping; stop here only if your workload genuinely fits under 5 indexes and 1 GB egress/mo
Builder
- Includes
- Everything in Starter plus higher database limits, multiple projects and users, all clouds and regions, Prometheus and Datadog monitoring, free support, response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on
- Missing
- Dedicated Read Nodes, RBAC, SSO, Backup and Restore, HIPAA, usage-based scaling, SLA
- Avoid if
- You need SSO for the team, dedicated query capacity, or production-grade compliance posture
- Verdict
- The cheapest path past the Starter caps; flat $20/month means no surprise overages, which is why it suits a solo founder
Standard
- Includes
- Everything in Builder plus pay-as-you-go Database, Inference, and Assistant; Dedicated Read Nodes; Import from object storage; Backup and Restore; RBAC; SSO (SAML 2.0); HIPAA add-on; free support
- Missing
- 99.95% uptime SLA, BYOC, Private Endpoints, Customer Managed Encryption Keys, SCIM, SAML roles, Audit Logs, Service Accounts, Pro support (only available as add-on)
- Avoid if
- You need a contractual uptime SLA or zero-access deployment in your own cloud
- Verdict
- The POPULAR tier and the practical production home for most teams; $300 in 3-week trial credits offsets the $50 minimum while you validate
Enterprise
- Includes
- Everything in Standard plus 99.95% Uptime SLA, BYOC, Private Endpoints, Customer Managed Encryption Keys, Audit Logs, Service Accounts, SAML roles, SCIM, HIPAA Compliance, Pro support included
- Missing
- Nothing published on this tier; higher limits only available on Enterprise (e.g., 200 indexes/project, 1M namespaces/index)
- Avoid if
- Your workload, compliance, and security requirements do not actually demand the named Enterprise-only features
- Verdict
- Worth the $500/month floor only if you need the contractual SLA, BYOC, SCIM, or full HIPAA Compliance; otherwise Standard plus add-ons will do
BYOC
- Includes
- Managed Pinecone running inside your AWS, GCP, or Azure account and VPC; zero-access operations; public or private endpoints via PrivateLink/Private Service Connect/Azure Private Link; Pro support included
- Missing
- Pricing not published
- Avoid if
- You do not have a strict zero-access or in-VPC requirement; Standard or Enterprise will be cheaper and easier
- Verdict
- A bespoke procurement path for regulated buyers; you have to contact sales to learn what it costs
Add-ons, overages, and surprise costs
| Cost item | Trigger | Published amount | Billing behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Database storage overage | Exceeding the included GB on Starter (2 GB) or Builder (10 GB); always applies on Standard and Enterprise | $0.33/GB/mo | Charged per GB-month on top of plan price |
| Database Write Units overage | Exceeding 2M/mo on Starter or 5M/mo on Builder; on Standard and Enterprise when usage exceeds $50/$500 minimum | $4-$4.50 per million (varies by cloud and region) | Billed per million units as usage accrues |
| Database Read Units overage | Exceeding 1M/mo on Starter or 2M/mo on Builder; on Standard and Enterprise past monthly minimum | $16-$18 per million (varies by cloud and region) | Billed per million units as usage accrues |
| Egress overage | Exceeding 1 GB/mo on Starter or 10 GB/mo on Builder; Standard and Enterprise include 100 GB/mo then bill overage | $0.10/GB | Per-GB charge on outsize |
| HIPAA add-on | Adding HIPAA to Standard (Enterprise tier includes HIPAA Compliance) | $190/mo | Monthly add-on; see docs for details |
| Backup import and restore | Importing data from object storage, taking backups, or restoring from backup on Standard and Enterprise | Import $0.25 per GB; Backups $0.10/GB/mo; Restore $0.15 per GB | Per-GB or per-GB/month charges in addition to plan cost |
| Assistant usage | Exceeding Assistant quotas on Standard and Enterprise (Document Limit is unlimited everywhere; tokens/Context/Ingestion units bill separately) | Storage $3/GB/mo; Input Tokens $8 per million; Output Tokens $15 per million; Context Processed Tokens $5 per million; Evaluation Processed Tokens $8 per million; Evaluation Output Tokens $15 per million; Ingestion Units $0.0005/ingestion unit, $0.001/ingestion unit for multi-modal | Pay-as-you-go; included quotas are 500k input / 300k output / 500k context tokens on Starter and 2M / 1M / 2M on Builder |
| Inference usage | Exceeding 5M tokens/mo per embedding model on Starter or 10M tokens/mo on Builder; exceeding 500 requests/mo on bge-reranker-v2-m3 (Starter) or 1,000 requests/mo (Builder) | llama-text-embed-v2 $0.16/M tokens; multilingual-e5-large and pinecone-sparse-english-v0 $0.08/M tokens; bge-reranker-v2-m3 $2/1k requests; pinecone-rerank-v0 and cohere-rerank-4-fast $2/1k rerank units | Pay-as-you-go; only bge-reranker-v2-m3 is included on Starter and Builder; other rerankers are usage-only |
| Cross-region restore | Restoring from a backup across regions on Standard and Enterprise | Cross-region transfer pricing applies (rate not published) | Adds cross-region transfer fees on top of the $0.15 per GB restore fee |
Source: Platform pricing docs, checked 2026-10-19.
Which plan should you choose?
- Solo founder prototyping in one project, AWS
- Starter — Free tier covers one project, two users, 5 indexes, and 2 GB of database storage, with inference and assistant quotas included
- Solo founder with multiple projects or non-AWS regions
- Builder — Flat $20/month removes surprise overages, unlocks 5 projects, 5 users, all clouds, all regions, and Prometheus/Datadog monitoring
- Team running real production traffic that may exceed included quotas
- Standard — Pay-as-you-go on database, inference, and assistant; adds Dedicated Read Nodes, RBAC, SSO (SAML 2.0), Backup and Restore, and a $300 trial credit
- Team that needs SSO plus HIPAA without the $500/month minimum
- Standard + HIPAA add-on — SSO (SAML 2.0) is included on Standard; HIPAA is a $190/mo add-on rather than a $500/month floor
- Regulated buyer who needs contractual uptime, zero-access deployment, or SCIM
- Enterprise — Only Enterprise publishes 99.95% Uptime SLA, BYOC, Private Endpoints, Customer Managed Encryption Keys, SCIM, and HIPAA Compliance, with Pro support included
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Pinecone actually cost to start?
- Starter is free. Builder is $20/month flat. Standard is $50/month minimum then pay-as-you-go. Enterprise is $500/month minimum then pay-as-you-go. BYOC is Contact Us for Pricing.
- Is there a free trial on the paid plans?
- Standard offers a free trial: a 3-week trial includes $300 credits.
- What is the difference between Builder and Standard?
- Builder is $20/month flat with fixed included usage. Standard is $50/month minimum then pay-as-you-go, and adds Dedicated Read Nodes, Import from object storage, Backup and Restore, RBAC, SSO (SAML 2.0), and a HIPAA add-on.
- How do I add HIPAA?
- On Standard, HIPAA is an add-on at $190/mo (See docs for details). On Enterprise, HIPAA Compliance is included.
- What does BYOC include and cost?
- BYOC runs Pinecone inside your AWS, GCP, or Azure account and VPC with zero-access operations (no SSH, VPN, or inbound), outbound-only with auditable trail, public endpoints or private connectivity via AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect, or Azure Private Link, and Pro support included. Pricing is Contact Us for Pricing.
- Which clouds and regions are supported on each tier?
- Starter is AWS only in us-east-1. Builder, Standard, and Enterprise run on AWS, Azure, and GCP across all available regions.
- Can I get a discount by committing to more usage?
- Yes, through Committed Use Contracts: 'The larger your usage commitments, the greater the benefits—unlock bigger discounts and support. Contact Us.'
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 2026-10-19 08:21 UTC
This website utilizes technologies such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as for analytics, personalization, and targeted advertising. Cookie Policy Accept Deny Non-Essential Manage Preferences Pinecone Bring Your Own Cloud is Now Generally Available - Read the announcement Dismiss Products Enterprise Customers Resources Pricing Contact Log in Start for free PRICING Start free, scale effortlessly Pinecone runs on fully managed infrastructure that scales with you. Start building today with product and support plans tailored to your needs. ALSO AVAILABLE ON YOUR CLOUD MARKETPLACE AWS GCP Microsoft Starter For trying out and for small applications. Start for Free Free View included usage Pinecone Database On-Demand Pinecone Inference Pinecone Assistant Dense, Sparse, and Full-Text Indexes Console Metrics Community Support via Discord Example Starter Plan workloads Builder NEW For solo developers and small teams. Get Started $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 Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on Standard POPULAR For production applications at any scale. Start Free Trial $50/month min. usage You'll be charged a minimum of $50/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go. 3 week trial includes $300 credits 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 RBAC SSO (SAML 2.0) HIPAA add-on Includes Free support Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on Enterprise For mission-critical production applications. Get Started Request Trial $500/month min. usage You'll be charged a minimum of $500/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go. 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 Pro support included Estimate your costs with our pricing calculator Compare Plans Bring your own cloud For organizations requiring the highest level of security and control Get Started Contact Us for Pricing 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 Bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC) runs Pinecone in your cloud account and VPC. Pinecone does not need SSH, VPN, or inbound network access to operate the system. You can use public endpoints or private-only connectivity via AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect, or Azure Private Link. What you can build on the Starter plan Recommendation engine Given an e-commerce site with: 50K products 10KB metadata per product Using 1024 dimensions embeddings Starter plan gives you: ~ 44K recommendations per day ~ 2K product updates per day Semantic search Given a knowledge base of: ~ 30K documents 20KB document size on average Using 1024 dimensions embeddings Starter plan gives you: ~ 15k searches per day ~ 660 document updates per day Forum answering bot (RAG) Given a user forum with: ~ 10 categories 5KB post size on average Using 1024 dimensions embeddings Starter plan gives you: ~ 130K category-scoped chats per day ~ 3K messages indexed per day Disclaimer: Examples are illustrative only, not quotes or binding offers. Database usage only; excludes Inference (embeddings/reranking) and Assistant usage, as well as initial data import. Subject to change. Explore products On-Demand Docs The foundation for knowledgeable AI. Backed by distributed object storage for scalable, highly available serverless indexes. View Pricing DRN Docs Dedicated Read Nodes. Exclusive infrastructure for queries, with provisioned nodes reserved for your index – no noisy neighbors, no shared queues, no read rate limits
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.
- 2026-10-19First published, extracted from https://www.pinecone.io/pricing/.