Chroma

Embedded vector DB + cloud

Free tier + paidSearch, vector & RAGtrychroma.com

What it is

The vector store that runs in-process. pip install chromadb gives a persistent local database with no server to run, and the same client points at Chroma Cloud when you deploy. Cloud adds serverless vector, hybrid and full-text search on a Rust core.

Why it earns a slot

Fastest possible RAG prototype: three lines to a collection, and it embeds your documents with a sensible default model. You get working retrieval before choosing an embedding provider.

Know before you commit

Embedded mode is single-process and not safe under a concurrent web server — run chroma run as a server for that. Collections sometimes need migration across major versions.

Getting started

pip install chromadb

Field notes

0 from the community

Loading notes…

Field check

Unverified

Pricing snapshot

OSS free (Apache 2.0). Chroma Cloud Starter: $0/mo base with $5 free credits, then usage. Team $250/mo + usage with $100 credits. Rates: $2.50 per GiB written, $0.33 per GiB-month stored, $0.0075 per TiB queried, $0.09 per GiB returned.

Snapshots move fast — verify at checkout, and post a field note if it changed.

Drop into your Lovable chat

Evaluate Chroma (https://www.trychroma.com) for this project, then use it only if it fits what we are already building.
Context: Embedded vector DB + cloud. The vector store that runs in-process. pip install chromadb gives a persistent local database with no server to run, and the same client points at Chroma Cloud when you deploy. Cloud adds serverless vector, hybrid and full-text search on a Rust core.
Reviewer notes (general, not written for this codebase): Fastest possible RAG prototype: three lines to a collection, and it embeds your documents with a sensible default model. You get working retrieval before choosing an embedding provider.
Watch out for: Embedded mode is single-process and not safe under a concurrent web server — run chroma run as a server for that. Collections sometimes need migration across major versions.
Pricing: OSS free (Apache 2.0). Chroma Cloud Starter: $0/mo base with $5 free credits, then usage. Team $250/mo + usage with $100 credits. Rates: $2.50 per GiB written, $0.33 per GiB-month stored, $0.0075 per TiB queried, $0.09 per GiB returned.
Setup: pip install chromadb
Rules: treat the notes above as background only. Do not assume a theme, style, layout or feature that is not already in this project — inspect the existing code first and ask me before changing visual direction.

/api/public/tools/chroma

Also in Search, vector & RAG

Algolia

algolia.com

Hosted keyword search API

Free tier + paidSearch, vector & RAG

Free: 10K search requests/mo + 50K records. Grow: $0.50 per 1K searches + $0.40 per 1K records (10K searches / 100K records included). Grow Plus $1.75 per 1K searches. Elevate with NeuralSearch is custom.

Open dossier

Brave Search API

brave.com

Independent web index search API

PaidSearch, vector & RAG

$5/month in free credits applied automatically; no standing free query allowance. Search $5 per 1K requests at 50 QPS. Answers $4 per 1K requests plus $5 per million input/output tokens at 2 QPS. Enterprise custom.

Open dossier

Cloudflare Vectorize

developers.cloudflare.com

Serverless vector DB on Workers

Free tier + paidSearch, vector & RAG

Workers Free: 5M stored vector dimensions, 30M queried dimensions/mo. Workers Paid ($5/mo): 10M stored and 50M queried included, then $0.05 per 100M stored dimensions and $0.01 per million queried dimensions.

Open dossier

Elastic Cloud

elastic.co

Managed Elasticsearch + vector

PaidSearch, vector & RAG

14-day free trial. Cloud Hosted from $99/mo Standard (120GB storage, 2 zones); Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184. Serverless from $0.047 per GB retained/mo, $0.09 per search VCU-hour, $0.14 per ingest VCU-hour.

Open dossier