Pinecone
Pinecone is a fully managed vector database for AI workloads, available through web and API access.
What Pinecone is
Pinecone is a fully managed vector database for AI workloads, available through web and API access. It is intended for semantic search, recommendations, and retrieval-augmented generation. The database supports dense, sparse, and full-text indexes, metadata filters, and namespaces. Pinecone says indexing is automatic and writes become searchable within seconds. Listed integrations include LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI, Cohere, Databricks, Snowflake, and Airbyte. The free Starter plan has limits including one project, up to two users, five indexes, and 100 namespaces per index. Builder costs $20 a month; Standard costs $50 a month minimum applied to usage, with further usage charged pay-as-you-go. Pinecone says it encrypts data at rest and in transit and supports API-key roles and RBAC. It lists SOC 2 Type II certification, HIPAA compliance with a BAA available on request, and GDPR readiness. The TypeScript SDK is intended for server-side use because browser use can expose API keys.
Good
- Supports dense, sparse, and full-text indexes.
- Writes become searchable within seconds, according to Pinecone.
- Integrates with LangChain, LlamaIndex, and OpenAI.
- Encrypts data at rest and in transit.
- Starter plan includes up to five indexes.
Watch out
- TypeScript SDK is intended for server-side use only.
- Starter is limited to one project and two users.
- Standard has a $50 monthly minimum applied to usage.
Who it suits
Pinecone suits teams building AI applications that need vector search, recommendations, or retrieval-augmented generation. Its web and API access, integrations, and multiple index types support varied implementation needs.
Verdict
Pinecone combines managed vector search with features for AI application workflows, including metadata filtering and a broad integration list. Check the Starter limits and plan billing structure, and keep TypeScript SDK usage server-side to avoid exposing API keys.
Plans and prices
From Pinecone's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Builder | $20 a month | Everything in Starter · increased usage limits · selectable cloud and region · multiple projects/users · Prometheus and Datadog monitoring · free support · flat monthly |
| Standard | $50 a month | Everything in Builder · selectable cloud and region · dedicated read nodes · object-storage import · backup/restore · RBAC · SAML SSO · HIPAA add-on · free support · minimum monthly usage, then pay-as-you-go; 3-week trial includes $300 credits |
| Enterprise | $500 a month | Everything in Standard · 99.95% uptime SLA · BYOC · private endpoints · customer-managed encryption keys · audit logs · service accounts · SAML roles · SCIM · HIPAA compliance · Pro support · minimum monthly usage, then pay-as-you-go |
| Starter | Free | Dense, sparse and full-text indexes · console metrics · community Discord support · up to 5 indexes · 100 namespaces/index · 2 GB storage · 2M write units/month · 1M read units/month |
| Bring your own cloud (BYOC) | Priced on request | Runs in your cloud account and VPC · Pro support included · Contact Pinecone for pricing |
The facts
Each one read from Pinecone's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- API
- Pinecone exposes REST and gRPC APIs for index administration and vector or document operations.checked 15 Oct 2026
- BYOC deployment
- BYOC runs Pinecone in a customer's cloud account and VPC using outbound-only operations and private connectivity options.checked 15 Oct 2026
- CLI installation
- The Pinecone CLI can be installed on macOS or Linux with an install script or Homebrew cask.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Compliance
- Pinecone states that it is SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant with a BAA available on request, and GDPR-ready.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Documentation depth
- Documentation includes conceptual guides, API references, SDK references, production checklists, import guidance and release notes.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Full-text search
- Full-text search adds BM25 ranking, Lucene syntax, fuzzy matching and text-match filters, with tokenization and stemming for 18 languages.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Hybrid search
- Pinecone supports combined dense semantic and sparse keyword retrieval in the same database.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Indexing
- Pinecone says indexing is automatic and writes become searchable within seconds.checked 30 Sep 2026
- Integrations
- The partner ecosystem covers AI and machine-learning tools, search, cloud infrastructure and services integrations.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Licence
- The database platform is proprietary closed-source hosted software rather than an open-source product.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: data residency
- GitShowcase lists the lack of an on-premises option as a problem for some data-residency cases.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: deployment constraints
- G2 feedback identifies lack of local or fully on-premises deployment, eventual consistency and metadata constraints as trade-offs.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: learning curve
- G2 reviewers report that embeddings, dimensions, indexes, namespaces and similarity-search concepts take time for newcomers to learn.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Marketplace capabilities
- Microsoft Marketplace highlights filtering, live index updates, hybrid keyword boosting, APIs, SDKs and Pinecone Assistant.checked 15 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Browser SDK limitation
- Pinecone's TypeScript SDK documentation says the SDK is intended for server-side use only because browser use can expose API keys.checked 30 Sep 2026
The company
- Company founded
- Pinecone was founded in 2019 by Edo Liberty.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company headquarters
- LinkedIn lists New York, New York as headquarters and the company size as 51–200 employees.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company legal name
- The registered company name is Pinecone Systems, Inc.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Company profile
- Crunchbase classifies Pinecone as a private New York AI infrastructure and database company with 101–250 employees.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2019checked 28 Sep 2026
- Headquarters
- New York City, New York, United Stateschecked 28 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
- Limit: cost visibility
- G2 reviewers say pricing becomes difficult to predict as vectors, storage and query volume grow and request clearer usage estimates.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: scale cost
- GitShowcase reviewers report that costs can rise sharply at hundreds of millions of vectors compared with self-hosting.checked 15 Oct 2026
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