Pricing Overview
Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed vector database built on open-source Milvus, and its pricing reflects a usage-based model designed to scale from hobby projects to enterprise AI workloads. What stands out is the generous permanent free tier and the dual compute model: serverless clusters that bill per virtual compute unit (vCU), and dedicated clusters that provide isolated resources at a fixed monthly rate. The free plan requires no credit card and includes 5 GB of storage with 2.5 million vCUs per month. Paid serverless usage starts at $4 per million vCUs with storage at $0.04 per GB per month, while dedicated clusters begin at $99 per month. Enterprise dedicated plans start at $155 per month, adding SLA guarantees and advanced security controls. As of January 2026, Zilliz cut storage pricing by 87%, dropping from $0.30 to $0.04 per GB per month across all clusters.
Plan Comparison
Zilliz Cloud offers four main tiers, each targeting a different stage of the AI development lifecycle. The table below summarizes the key differences.
| Feature | Free | Standard | Enterprise | Business Critical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $0 | From $0 (Serverless) / $99 (Dedicated) | From $155 (Dedicated) | Custom quote |
| Storage Included | 5 GB | Pay-as-you-go | Pay-as-you-go | Pay-as-you-go |
| vCUs Included | 2.5M/month | Usage-based ($4/M vCUs) | Usage-based ($4/M vCUs) | Usage-based |
| Collections | Up to 5 | Up to 100 (Serverless) | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Uptime SLA | None | None | 99.95% | 99.99% |
| Cloud Providers | Google Cloud | AWS, Google Cloud | AWS, Google Cloud, Azure | All major clouds |
| Security | Basic encryption | Encryption in transit and at rest | SSO (SAML 2.0), granular RBAC, audit logs | CMEK, full-path encryption, HIPAA-eligible |
| Support | Community | Standard | Enterprise support included | Priority support with rapid incident response |
| Networking | Shared | Shared | Private endpoint, VPC peering | Private endpoint, VPC peering |
| Scaling | Fixed | Auto-scaling (Serverless) | Multi-replica, elastic scaling | Global cluster with disaster recovery |
The Free tier works well for learning and prototyping with up to 5 collections on Google Cloud. Standard opens up multi-cloud deployment and offers both serverless and dedicated compute options, with a 30-day free trial for dedicated clusters. Enterprise is the most popular tier for production AI applications, delivering private networking and a 99.95% uptime SLA. Business Critical targets regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government with HIPAA eligibility and a 99.99% uptime SLA.
Hidden Costs and Considerations
The biggest cost variable with Zilliz is vCU consumption. Both read and write operations consume vCUs, and heavy indexing or re-indexing workloads can spike usage unexpectedly. Data egress fees apply when moving vectors between cloud regions or providers. Storage costs for historical or rarely accessed vectors accumulate without proper data lifecycle management. We recommend monitoring vCU usage closely during the first month on a serverless plan, since workloads with unpredictable traffic patterns can produce billing surprises. Index rebuild operations during schema changes also generate substantial compute charges that are easy to overlook.
Cost Estimates by Team Size
These estimates assume typical RAG or semantic search workloads on serverless clusters with storage at $0.04 per GB per month and compute at $4 per million vCUs.
- Solo developer or prototype (under 1 GB, light queries): The free tier covers this entirely at $0 per month. Once you exceed 5 GB or 2.5M vCUs, expect $7 to $20 per month on the serverless Standard plan.
- Small team (5 engineers, 10-50 GB): A serverless Standard cluster typically runs $65 to $99 per month depending on query volume. Teams needing consistent performance should consider a dedicated Standard cluster starting at $99 per month.
- Mid-size team (20 engineers, 100+ GB, production workload): An Enterprise dedicated cluster starting at $155 per month is the right fit. With multi-replica scaling, VPC peering, and enterprise support, realistic monthly costs range from $155 to $200 depending on storage and vCU consumption.
How Zilliz Pricing Compares
Zilliz positions itself at the mid-market price point among vector databases, but its performance-to-cost ratio is where it pulls ahead. The Cardinal search engine delivers up to 10x faster vector retrieval compared to self-hosted Milvus, and the 87% storage price reduction in January 2026 makes it one of the most cost-effective managed options available.
| Tool | Pricing Model | Starting Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zilliz | Freemium + Usage-Based | $0 (Free tier) / $99/mo (Dedicated) | Teams wanting managed Milvus with enterprise security and multi-cloud |
| Pinecone | Usage-Based | $0 (Free tier) / $0.15/hr per pod | Teams prioritizing simplicity with minimal configuration |
| ChromaDB | Usage-Based | $0 (Free tier) / $5/mo | Developers building lightweight embedding applications |
| Qdrant | Freemium | $0 (Free tier) | Teams wanting open-source flexibility with optional managed hosting |
Compared to Pinecone, which scales up to $500 per month on higher tiers, Zilliz caps its listed Enterprise pricing at $155 per month for dedicated clusters. ChromaDB is cheaper for small workloads but lacks the enterprise-grade features like SSO, RBAC, and private networking that Zilliz provides. Qdrant offers strong open-source flexibility, but its managed cloud pricing is less transparent. For teams running production AI applications at scale, we think Zilliz offers the strongest combination of performance, security features, and cost predictability in the vector database market.