Skip to main content
aibizhub
Structured methodology As of 2026-05-25

How Embeddings DB Cost works

What the tool assumes, what data it pulls from, and what it cannot tell you.

Education · General business information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Editorial standards Sponsor disclosure Corrections

1. Scope

Computes monthly cost across four vector DB options (Pinecone Standard, Postgres+pgvector managed, LanceDB on R2, Turbopuffer) using vendor public pricing snapshots as of 2026-05, including the Pinecone $50/mo and Turbopuffer $64/mo plan minimums that bind at typical workloads.

2. Inputs and outputs

Inputs

  • vectorCount number
  • dim number
  • queriesPerDay number
  • ingestPerDay number

Outputs

  • vendors

    Per-vendor monthly cost in USD with brief sourcing notes.

  • cheapestVendor

    Vendor name with the lowest monthlyCost.

  • storageGb

    vectors × dim × 4 bytes × 1.25 / 1 GB.

Engine source: src/lib/embeddings-db-cost/engine.ts

3. Formula / scoring logic

storage_bytes = vectors × dim × 4 × 1.25
queries_mo = queries_day × 30
ingest_mo = ingest_day × 30
then per-vendor list pricing applied

4. Assumptions

  • Float32 storage. Quantized indices (int8, binary) cut storage 2–32× and aren't modeled.
  • Replication / backup costs excluded.
  • LanceDB self-hosted compute (CPU/RAM) excluded — only object-storage and op costs are in.

5. Data sources

6. Known limitations

  • Vendor pricing changes; re-check if the as-of date has aged 60+ days.
  • Workload-fit factors (latency, recall, namespacing) are not modeled — pure cost only.

7. Reproducibility

Input
1M vectors, dim 1536, 50k queries/day, 5k ingest/day.

Expected output
storageGb ≈ 7.15; Pinecone $50 (plan minimum), Postgres+pgvector $35, LanceDB $7.53, Turbopuffer $64 (plan minimum); cheapest LanceDB at $7.53. Pinecone and Turbopuffer print their plan floors because metered usage is below the minimum at this workload.

8. Change log

  • 2026-05-08 methodology first published. Pricing snapshot 2026-04.
  • 2026-05-25 Refreshed to 2026-05 rates; Pinecone $50/mo and Turbopuffer $64/mo plan minimums now modeled (the floor binds at typical workloads).

Worked example

Run live against the same engine this site ships (/engines/embeddings-db-cost.js). The inputs and outputs below are recomputed on every build and independently re-verified in CI — they are never hand-authored.

Input

tool
embeddings_db_cost
vector_count
1000000
dim
1536
queries_per_day
50000
ingest_per_day
5000

Output

vendors[0].vendor
Pinecone
vendors[0].monthlyCost
50
vendors[0].notes
Pinecone Standard 2026-05: ~$16/M read units, $4/M write units, $0.33/GB-mo, $50/mo plan minimum. Queries approximated as read units.
vendors[1].vendor
Postgres+pgvector
vendors[1].monthlyCost
35
vendors[1].notes
DigitalOcean managed Postgres baseline ($35/mo, includes 25GB; $0.20/GB-mo overage). Self-hosted equivalent.
vendors[2].vendor
LanceDB
vendors[2].monthlyCost
7.53
vendors[2].notes
LanceDB on Cloudflare R2 list pricing 2026-04: $0.015/GB-mo, $4.50/M ops. Self-hosted compute not included.
vendors[3].vendor
Turbopuffer
vendors[3].monthlyCost
64
vendors[3].notes
Turbopuffer 2026-05: Launch tier $64/mo minimum; metered $0.10/GB-mo, $0.04/M reads, $2/M writes above the floor.
cheapestVendor
LanceDB
cheapestMonthlyCost
7.53
storageGb
7.15

Frequently asked questions

What does the Embeddings DB Cost calculate?
Computes monthly cost across four vector DB options (Pinecone Standard, Postgres+pgvector managed, LanceDB on R2, Turbopuffer) using vendor public pricing snapshots as of 2026-05, including the Pinecone $50/mo and Turbopuffer $64/mo plan minimums that bind at typical workloads.
What inputs does the Embeddings DB Cost need?
It takes 4 inputs: vectorCount, dim, queriesPerDay, ingestPerDay. Outputs returned: vendors, cheapestVendor, storageGb.
What formula does the Embeddings DB Cost use?
The exact computation is: storage_bytes = vectors × dim × 4 × 1.25; queries_mo = queries_day × 30; ingest_mo = ingest_day × 30; then per-vendor list pricing applied
Can I verify the Embeddings DB Cost with a worked example?
Yes. With 1M vectors, dim 1536, 50k queries/day, 5k ingest/day. the tool returns storageGb ≈ 7.15; Pinecone $50 (plan minimum), Postgres+pgvector $35, LanceDB $7.53, Turbopuffer $64 (plan minimum); cheapest LanceDB at $7.53. Pinecone and Turbopuffer print their plan floors because metered usage is below the minimum at this workload.
Where does the Embeddings DB Cost get its benchmark data?
Reference data is sourced from: Pinecone pricing (as of 2026-05); Cloudflare R2 pricing (as of 2026-05); DigitalOcean Managed Databases pricing (as of 2026-05); Turbopuffer pricing (as of 2026-05).
What can the Embeddings DB Cost not tell me?
Known limitations: Vendor pricing changes; re-check if the as-of date has aged 60+ days. Workload-fit factors (latency, recall, namespacing) are not modeled — pure cost only.