Zilliz

What it is for

Zilliz Cloud is a hosted Milvus desk: you open Create Cluster, and Free is $0 (5 GB storage). Use it when the job is vector collections you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Zilliz Create Cluster form (Dedicated-02, Performance-optimized, 1 CU / 2 cores, daily backup) from the docs still — not a pricing card. The form itself is ops of Clusters. Zilliz bills storage / CU / GB, not seats.

Key features

• Clusters — a dedicated or serverless Milvus you provision (Create Cluster still; pricing). One cluster. Cover CU, topology (proxy / query / coordinator / data), and backup policy are ops of this.
• Collections — a vector schema you load (docs). A collection, not a cluster. Import jobs sit here.
• Vector search — an ANN query you run (API Playground on the console) (docs). A query, not a collection. Search latency numbers on the pricing page are this card’s meter, not a sixth desk.
• Backups — a snapshot schedule on the cluster ([cover Backup Policy]; docs). A snapshot, not a search. Daily / weekday / custom sit here.
• Roles / users — cluster RBAC (docs). A role, not a backup. Admin / Read-Write / Read-Only built-ins are ops of this.

SDKs and API keys are install. BYOC is a deployment option of Clusters.

Who it's for

Best fit: search teams who will stay on Free at $0 (5 GB) while they create a first cluster, then buy Dedicated from $197 / month when they need the SLA.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from zilliz.com/pricing.

• Free — $0. 5 GB storage. “Start for Free.”
• Serverless — from $0 / month (page print). Dedicated list also shows from $126 / GB / month on the Serverless/Dedicated compare we fetched — confirm which column applies at checkout.
• Dedicated Standard — from $197 / month. 30-day trial.
• Capacity examples (768-d vectors, printed): performance-optimized from $63 per million vectors / month; capacity-optimized from $16; tiered-storage from $5.
• $200 free credits appear on the calculator block.
• Business Critical / Enterprise — Book a demo. Do not invent an Enterprise dollar.

Confirm checkout; taxes follow your location.

Limitations / costs

• Free is 5 GB. A production collection usually wants Dedicated.
• $197 is a starting Dedicated floor, not unlimited CU.
• A vector desk, not a keyword search. For Typesense collections see Typesense. For Qdrant Cloud see Qdrant.

Alternatives

• Qdrant — vector search when you want Qdrant Cloud / the Qdrant binary, not Zilliz CU.
• Weaviate — vector + hybrid search when you want Weaviate Cloud, not Milvus collections.
• Chroma — embedded vectors when you want a local collection, not Zilliz Dedicated.

Official tutorial

Official Zilliz channel video: Explore Zilliz Cloud (oEmbed author: Zilliz). First-party Cloud walkthrough; the docs Create Cluster still is the cover.

Written path: zilliz.com/pricing plus the Create Cluster still.

Website

https://zilliz.com

Repository

https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Zilliz Create Cluster form from the docs still. Dollars checked on zilliz.com/pricing (Free $0 / 5 GB; Dedicated from $197/mo; capacity examples $63 / $16 / $5 per million vectors; $200 calculator credits). Tutorial oEmbed author: Zilliz.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.