Pick Chroma if
app teams who will run chromadb locally or pay Cloud usage after the Starter credits, and already have an embedding model.
Read the Chroma pageChroma vs Pinecone
Our take
Pick Chroma if app teams who will run chromadb locally or pay Cloud usage after the Starter credits, and already have an embedding model. Pick Pinecone if rAG / search teams who will stay on Starter at $0 (2 GB, 1M read units) while they open a first Assistant, then buy Builder at $20 / month flat or Standard at $50 / month minimum when they need multi-cloud and pay-as-you-go.
Best for
Chroma A retrieval index you own
Pinecone Indexes plus an Assistant you start at $0
Free plan
Chroma $0 · pip install chromadb
Pinecone No free plan
Lowest paid
Chroma Team (Cloud) $250/mo
Pinecone Builder $20
Next step up
Chroma
Pinecone Support add-ons $29
Runs where
Chroma Local or hosted
Pinecone Local or hosted
Watch out
Chroma You bring the embedding bill
Pinecone Starter is a usage cap, not unlimited vectors
Last checked
Chroma 2026-10-22 · trychroma.com/pricing
Pinecone 2026-10-23 · pinecone.io/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Pinecone if
rAG / search teams who will stay on Starter at $0 (2 GB, 1M read units) while they open a first Assistant, then buy Builder at $20 / month flat or Standard at $50 / month minimum when they need multi-cloud and pay-as-you-go.
Read the Pinecone page