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Couchbase Pricing, Plans, and Availability

#6 in Vector Databases

by Couchbase · couchbase.com ↗

Distributed database platform with vector search capabilities for operational AI workloads.

#6Vector DatabasesEnterprise
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Pricing at a glance

◇ Pricing model

Freemium plus usage-based cloud pricing with quote-based enterprise tiers; prepaid credits billed annually upfront and on-demand credits billed monthly in arrears; self-managed and mobile pricing are not publicly disclosed in the supplied documents.

↻ Billing notes

Public Capella pricing supports credit card, cloud marketplace, and prepaid plans. The fee addendum says prepaid credits are payable annually upfront, non-cancelable, and non-refundable, while on-demand credits accrue and are charged automatically, payable monthly in arrears, and can be increased with at least 30 days’ notice. The pricing page also presents quote-request flows for higher tiers and support levels, and Trustradius says no pricing plans are currently listed while a free version and free trial are available.

Plans and pricing

8 tiers

Capella Free

Not publicly disclosed
$0
  • SQL++ (Capella iQ) & key value
  • Search (vector, FTS, geo, ...)
  • Mobile App Services
  • RBAC; scopes & collections
  • Forum support

1 node and 8GB.

Capella Basic

Hourly
from $0.15/hr per node
  • SQL++, search, and indexing
  • RBAC; scopes & collections
  • Single-cluster availability zone
  • Cross data center replication (XDCR)
  • 24-hour backup interval
  • Analytics, Eventing

1-node minimum.

Capella Developer Pro

Hourly
from $0.35/hr per node
  • Basic capabilities, plus multiple cluster availability zones (3 nodes)
  • Up to 1-hour backup interval
  • 8-hour response, 24x7 support
  • 99.99% uptime SLA (multi-node clusters)

1-node minimum.

Capella Enterprise

Hourly
from $0.49/hr per node
  • Basic capabilities, plus multiple cluster availability zones
  • Up to 1-hour backup interval
  • Cluster & App Services auditing
  • Customer-managed encryption keys (KMIP)
  • 30-minute response time, 24x7 support
  • 99.99% uptime SLA

3-node cluster minimum.

Capella AI Data Plane - Developer Pro

Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
  • Agent Catalog access
  • Data Processing Services
  • Vectorization Service
  • AI Functions
  • RBAC
  • 8-hour response, 24x7 support

Quote-only tier on the pricing page.

Capella AI Data Plane - Enterprise

Hourly
from $5.36/hr per node
  • Model Service with NVIDIA's layered AI security
  • Audit logs
  • 30-minute response time, 24x7 support
  • NVIDIA's enterprise-grade support included

Quote-only tier on the pricing page.

Capella Analytics - Developer Pro

Hourly
from $0.61/hr per node
  • Standard and memory-optimized compute
  • Storage: Up to 1TB
  • Backups: Daily, 7-day retention
  • RBAC access
  • Monitoring & reporting
  • Prod: 2/4/8/16/32 nodes (One/Multi AZ)

Quote-based on the page; AWS/GCP/Azure pricing tables show tiered node-count pricing.

Capella Analytics - Enterprise

Hourly
from $0.86/hr per node
  • Standard and memory-optimized compute
  • Storage: Unlimited
  • Backups: Up to 1 hour, 30-day retention
  • RBAC access
  • Monitoring & reporting
  • Prod: 2/4/8/16/32 nodes (One/Multi AZ)

Quote-based on the page; AWS/GCP/Azure pricing tables show tiered node-count pricing.

Add-ons and extras

Cloud marketplace purchasing

Not publicly disclosed

The pricing page says Couchbase accepts cloud marketplace purchasing, including AWS, GCP, and Azure, but no separate marketplace surcharge is publicly listed in the supplied documents.

Prepaid Credits

Not publicly disclosed

The fee addendum explains that prepaid credits are purchased for a subscription term and are non-cancelable and non-refundable. The supplied documents do not publish a standalone dollar price for prepaid credits.

Hidden and indirect costs

Worth budgeting for
⚠  The fee addendum says customers are also responsible for charges from third-party cloud service providers that result from use of the Cloud Service, and those charges may include data transfer fees and fees for additional cloud infrastructure required for certain functionalities. The Capella Analytics section also notes that data transfer fees vary by usage and that, for most customers, they will be less than 10% of the bill, but still part of the total spend.
⚠  The fee addendum states that unused prepaid credits expire at the end of the applicable subscription term and are forfeited with no refund or credit of any kind. It also says on-demand credits are charged automatically upon usage, billed monthly in arrears, and non-cancelable and non-refundable, which can affect buyers who oversize commitments or leave resources running.
⚠  The analytics pricing table shows that pricing can vary by region and by node size, with AWS N. Virginia called out explicitly and pricing may vary by region. That means total cost can change based on deployment footprint, not just the listed base hourly rate.

What buyers actually pay

A small team wants to prototype with Capella before committing budget.

Expected cost$0 for the free tier; trial is available with no credit card required.
Need for more than 1 nodeNeed for more than 8GBUpgrade to paid Capella tiers

A team runs a small production Capella cluster on the Basic tier.

Expected costfrom $0.15/hr per node plus any cloud-provider data transfer or infrastructure fees.
Node countCluster uptime/SLA requirementsBackup interval and availability zone needsData transfer fees

An enterprise buyer needs multi-AZ, auditing, and customer-managed encryption.

Expected costfrom $0.49/hr per node for Capella Enterprise, with some enterprise and AI/Data Plane capabilities quote-only.
3-node minimumAuditingCustomer-managed encryption keys (KMIP)AI Data Plane add-on needs

A buyer is evaluating Capella Analytics for production analytics workloads.

Expected costfrom $0.61/hr per node for Developer Pro or from $0.86/hr per node for Enterprise, plus storage and possible transfer charges.
Compute sizeStorage class and amountBackup retentionRegionData transfer fees

Pricing FAQ

No. The supplied documents publish detailed public pricing for Capella cloud tiers and certain analytics and AI Data Plane tiers, but they do not publish standalone pricing for Couchbase Server or Couchbase Mobile. The Trustradius reference also says Couchbase does not currently have any pricing plans listed at this time, which reinforces that some pricing is quote-based or not fully disclosed. For buyers, that means the public page is useful for getting started, but some deployments still require a quote.

Yes. The pricing page includes a Free Capella tier and links to sign up for free. The developer portal also says you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card right now and get started with your own cluster in a few minutes. That makes it possible to test Couchbase before paying for a paid cluster.

Buyers should plan for cloud-provider charges in addition to Couchbase fees. The fee addendum explicitly says customers are responsible for third-party cloud service provider charges, including data transfer fees and extra cloud infrastructure required for certain functionalities. It also states that prepaid credits expire at the end of the term and that on-demand credits are non-refundable, so commitment sizing matters.

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