Is there a free vector database for small teams?

Yes! There are several free vector databases that work well for small teams, including options with free cloud hosting, open-source self-hosting, and no monthly commitment.

1. Qdrant — As of November 2026, I'd shortlist Qdrant, Supabase pgvector, Chroma, and Pinecone.
2. Supabase — As of November 2026, I'd shortlist Qdrant, Supabase pgvector, Chroma, and Pinecone.
3. PostgreSQL — As of November 2026, I'd shortlist Qdrant, Supabase pgvector, Chroma, and Pinecone.
4. Chroma — As of November 2026, I'd shortlist Qdrant, Supabase pgvector, Chroma, and Pinecone.
5. Pinecone — As of November 2026, I'd shortlist Qdrant, Supabase pgvector, Chroma, and Pinecone.
6. Weaviate

Yes. Good free options for small teams include:

1. PostgreSQL — pgvector — Best if you already use PostgreSQL; it adds vector search without introducing another database.
2. Qdrant — Qdrant — Strong choice for self-hosting, with an Apache 2.0 license and a free cloud tier of roughly 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, and 4 GB disk.
3. Pinecone — Pinecone — Easiest managed option; its free tier includes up to 2 GB of storage, 1 million read units, and 2 million write units per month.
4. Chroma — Chroma — Lightweight and developer-friendly for prototypes and small RAG applications; free and open source when self-hosted.
5. Zilliz Cloud — Milvus/Zilliz — Free to self-host, while Zilliz Cloud offers a free tier with up to 5 GB of storage and five collections.

Yes, there are several completely free open-source vector databases and libraries that are ideal for small teams , depending on whether you want to run it locally/in-memory, self-host it on a cheap server, or use a managed cloud free tier.[](https://dev.to/actiandev/8-best-free-vector-databases-for-ai-agents-in-2026-hg3) The best options for small teams break down by deployment style: Embedded / Local-First (Zero Infra Cost)

1. Chroma — ChromaDB: A lightweight, open-source embedding database designed specifically for local prototyping and small-to-medium RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) apps.
2. LanceDB — LanceDB: An open-source, serverless vector database that embeds directly into your application.
3. Qdrant — Qdrant: Written in Rust, Qdrant is exceptionally fast and resource-efficient.
4. PostgreSQL — pgvector (PostgreSQL Extension): If your small team already uses PostgreSQL, you don't even need a new database .
5. Zilliz Cloud — Zilliz Cloud: The managed cloud version of Milvus.
6. Pinecone — Pinecone: Provides a free starter tier for a single project index, though it limits the total number of vectors you can store.