Cost-efficient large vector corpora
Store/search very large or cold-heavy vector sets without Pinecone-scale bills.
At a glance — Oct 2026
Updated 2026-10-27 · forward this page: /jtbds/cheap-vector-scale#briefScores as of 2026-09-14 (43 days old; Depot marks scores stale after 30 days). The pick is still Depot's current editorial pick; it has not been re-reviewed since. Prices below carry their own dates.
- Depot Pick
- Turbopuffer · 8.23/10 for this job (curated estimate, high confidence)
pricePerf at scale + capability.
- Runner-up
- Qdrant · 8.57/10
Scores higher than the pick on: Capability fit, Latency / reliability, Privacy / data retention, Lock-in risk (higher = worse), Maturity / track record.
- When not to use the pick
- Tiny corpora — pgvector. Need fancy hybrid modules — Weaviate.
- Lock-in / migration
- Runner-up Qdrant has lower stored lock-in risk (3 vs 4.5, 0–10, higher = more lock-in).
- Sourced price (no comparable unit)
Pick: no sourced price in this job's unit (no_sourced_price).
No cheapest SKU (no_comparable_unit_for_job). No price was invented.
- Free option
- No free resource lists this job. A cheap paid SKU is not a free option.
- Failure modes to watch
- Stale retrieval: Store the source URL and the time it was fetched. If a newer canonical page exists, or two stored sources disagree, do not answer from the older one.
Cite: Agent Provider Depot, Depot Pick for cheap-vector-scale: turbopuffer, scores as of 2026-09-14. Agents: GET /api/decide?jtbd=cheap-vector-scale
Turbopuffer
pricePerf at scale + capability.
Pricing (directional): As of 2026-10-24 (turbopuffer.com/pricing, fetched 2026-10-24): Usage-based with plan minimums: launch '$16/month minimum usage', scale '$256/month minimum usage', enterprise '>= $4,096/month' with '35% usage premium'. 'You'll pay for actua…
Lock-in risk: higher = more lock-in (worse). Overall already inverts this dimension.
When your vector bill scares you and much of the corpus is cold, Turbopuffer is the interesting answer.
Quote for Cost-efficient large vector corpora
Depot Pick stays Turbopuffer. Prices below are sourced SKU rows only (as of 2026-10-27). Input and output are not blended. GET /api/quote?jtbd=cheap-vector-scale
Nothing was compared. no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed pickIsPriceWinner is null.
Sourced price unavailable for the Depot Pick. No row in the pricing index.
7 of 7 candidates have no sourced price row. 7 are excluded from the Matching price comparison (none). no comparable sourced unit for this job; chat input $/1M and other units were not borrowed
Runners-up
Qdrant
Depot pick for serious vector workloads with filters. Self-host or Cloud — either way you can leave.
Zilliz (Milvus)
When you're truly at massive scale, Milvus/Zilliz earns its complexity. Don't start here for a chatbot MVP.
Supabase (pgvector)
Depot default for most agent apps under ~25–50M vectors. Don't add Pinecone until Postgres actually hurts.
Upstash Vector
Prototype/edge RAG peer when you already on Upstash. Prefer Qdrant/Pinecone for serious filtered production…
When NOT to use the top pick
Tiny corpora — pgvector. Need fancy hybrid modules — Weaviate.
Full ranking (score table)
Ranked with this JTBD's weights. Scores are curated estimates unless marked otherwise. Agents: prefer /api/decide then this table for tie-breaks.
| # | Provider | Overall | Fit | $/perf | Latency | DX | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supabase (pgvector) | 8.6 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 2026-09-14 |
| 2 | Qdrant | 8.6 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 8.6 | 8.4 | 2026-10-19 |
| 3 | TurbopufferDepot Pick | 8.2 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 2026-09-14 |
| 4 | Upstash Vector | 8.2 | 7.8 | 9.0 | 8.4 | 9.0 | 2026-09-14 |
| 5 | Zilliz (Milvus) | 8.1 | 9.2 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 7.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| 6 | DuckDB (vector/extensions) | 8.0 | 6.0 | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 2026-09-14 |
| 7 | LanceDB | 7.8 | 7.8 | 8.8 | 7.2 | 8.2 | 2026-09-14 |
Score methodology for this job
pricePerf at scale + capability.
capabilityFit: 24%pricePerformance: 18%latencyReliability: 18%developerDx: 16%privacyPosture: 10%lockInRisk: 8%maturity: 6%