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Chroma vs pgvector: free plans compared

Both are in Dev Infrastructure & AI APIs. Here is what each gives you for free, from the vendors’ pricing pages, with the date we last verified each offer (latest ).

Chroma
Chroma is open-source search infrastructure for AI with a usage-based cloud.
How to get Chroma free
pgvector
pgvector adds vector columns and exact or approximate nearest-neighbor search (HNSW and IVFFlat indexes) to Postgres, so embeddings sit next to your other data with ACID compliance and JOINs. Its licence allows use for any purpose, without fee.
How to get pgvector free
Free plans compared: Chroma, pgvector
ChromaDev Infrastructure & AI APIsTry
pgvectorDev Infrastructure & AI APIsTry
Free plan
  • Free credits
  • $5 in free credits
  • Free forever
  • Free Postgres extension for vector similarity search
How long it's freeFree foreverFree forever
Cheapest paid plan$250/moTeamNot in our data
Commercial useAllowed on the free planAllowed on the free plan
Best forHost & deploy appsAI engineersHost & deploy appsDevelopers who already use Postgres and need vector search, Teams building semantic search without a separate vector database, Apps that keep embeddings and relational data in one place
Limitations
  • Starter has $5 in free credits, then usage-based pricing
  • Starter allows 10 databases and 10 team members, with community Slack support
  • Service pauses when a usage limit is exceeded
  • You install the extension yourself; it needs Postgres 13+
  • Indexed vector columns are limited to 2,000 dimensions
  • Approximate indexes trade some recall for speed
How to get it freeFree account
  1. 1Open trychroma.com/pricing
  2. 2Choose the Starter plan and sign up
  3. 3Create a database; the free credits apply to your usage
Get the free plan 		Self-host
  1. 1Install the pgvector extension on your Postgres server
  2. 2Enable it with CREATE EXTENSION vector in each database
  3. 3Create a vector column, insert embeddings and query nearest neighbors
Get the free plan
Free offer verified

Chroma vs pgvector: common questions

Is Chroma or pgvector free?
Both have a free option. Chroma offers free credits: Free credits on Chroma Cloud; open source free (checked 2026-10-25). pgvector has a free plan: Free Postgres extension for vector similarity search (checked 2026-10-24).
Which free plan includes more?
It depends on what you need; here is what each free plan includes. Chroma: $5 in free credits (source: trychroma.com, checked 2026-10-25). pgvector: Free Postgres extension for vector similarity search (source: github.com, checked 2026-10-24).
How do I get each for free?
Chroma: Open trychroma.com/pricing; Choose the Starter plan and sign up; Create a database; the free credits apply to your usage (checked 2026-10-21). pgvector: Install the pgvector extension on your Postgres server; Enable it with CREATE EXTENSION vector in each database; Create a vector column, insert embeddings and query nearest neighbors (checked 2026-10-24).

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