Turbopuffer vs Pinecone
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Turbopuffer and Pinecone built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Turbopuffer if…
Teams that want vector search billed like storage rather than compute — object-storage-backed pricing tends to undercut memory-resident vector databases at rest, especially for large, cold datasets.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Pinecone if…
Teams that want a fully managed vector search product with hybrid search and metadata filtering built in, and don't want to operate the underlying index themselves.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Turbopuffer: The full list of supported similarity metrics matters before committing — that wasn't fully documented in what's sourced here, unlike competitors that publish the complete list.
- Pinecone: Cost predictability at small scale matters more than managed convenience — the $50/month Standard minimum applies before any pay-as-you-go usage starts.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Turbopuffer alternatives · Pinecone alternatives
20 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Turbopuffer 0
Pinecone 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Turbopuffer | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan. | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | No free offer | Free tier |
| Entry paid plan | Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium. | Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum. |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, against a monthly minimum per plan: $16 Launch, $256 Scale, $4,096 or more for Enterprise, which the page also marks with a 35% usage premium. | Usage-based on the Standard plan, with a $50/month minimum before pay-as-you-go charges apply. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | 20 public regions listed in the docs: 10 on AWS, 9 on GCP and 1 on Azure (eastus2); dedicated and BYOC clusters elsewhere on request. | Starter is AWS us-east-1 only. Builder, Standard and Enterprise get all available regions across AWS, Azure and GCP. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $4,096/month). Launch and Scale publish no uptime SLA. | 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $500/month minimum usage). Starter, Builder and Standard publish no uptime SLA. |
| Vector | ||
| Max vector dimensions | 10,752 maximum dimensions for dense vectors; 1,024 maximum dimensions per sparse vector (sparse total dimensions unlimited) | Up to 20000 dimensions per dense vector field (minimum 1), per the create-index schema in API version 2026-07. |
| Similarity metrics supported | Cosine distance is documented as a supported metric (used in the SDK's example code); the full list of supported metrics wasn't confirmed beyond this. | cosine, dotproduct or euclidean, chosen per dense vector field when the index is created. |
| Hybrid search (vector + keyword) | Supported | Supported — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking. |
| Metadata filtering | Exact attribute filters on every query (and/or/not, eq, in, contains, range); the planner combines the attribute index with the ANN index. | Supported — Pinecone indexes metadata so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search. |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | Community Slack and email on Launch, the entry paid plan. Scale adds a private Slack channel with 8-5 hours; Enterprise 24/7. | Community support via Discord on Starter; free support on Builder, the entry paid plan. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type 2 audited for security and availability controls; report and penetration test available on request from the Trust Center. | SOC 2 Type II, audited annually, covering security, availability and confidentiality controls. |
| HIPAA | Customers storing PHI may request a Business Associate Agreement; turbopuffer commits to the HIPAA requirements on business associates. Pricing page lists the HIPAA-ready BAA on the Scale and Enterprise plans, not on Launch. | HIPAA: BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates. |
| GDPR / data residency | Data stays in the region selected unless the customer moves it via the API; GDPR/CCPA Data Processing Addendum offered to all customers. | GDPR: data processing agreements, EU data residency and right-to-erasure support. |
| PCI DSS | Payment card data subject to PCI DSS is Prohibited Data under the terms of service; customers must not use the Service with Prohibited Data. Contractual restriction in the terms of service, not a statement about audit scope. | Master Subscription Agreement forbids using the Services to process credit or debit card numbers, which it defines as Restricted Information. The only carve-out is HIPAA Information where an Order contemplates it and a BAA is executed. |
| Encryption at rest | Customer data always encrypted at rest with AES-256, and in transit with TLS 1.2+; optionally with a customer's own key. | Stored data encrypted with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256). |
| Customer-managed keys | CMEK on the Enterprise plan using keys from the customer's own KMS/EKM; the encryption key is defined at the namespace level. | CMEK using keys you manage in AWS KMS on Pinecone-managed projects; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan. |
| Role-based access control | No built-in row or document-level RBAC; docs say permissions have to be implemented at the user level with query filters. Statement is about row/document-level RBAC; no org-level role model is documented either way. | Role-based access control over users, service accounts and API keys; roles managed in the console or via the Admin API. |
| Private networking / VPC | Private connections from customer VPCs to multi-tenant regions on the Enterprise plan: AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect. | Private Endpoints via AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, up to 10 per project; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Dedicated single-tenancy clusters in further regions, or BYOC clusters inside the customer's own VPC on AWS, GCP or Azure, spun up on request. Pricing page lists Single-Tenancy and BYOC under Deployment on the Enterprise plan only. | Dedicated reserved-compute deployment, plus BYOC: a privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Turbopuffer
- No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan.
- Pinecone
- Yes
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“turbopuffer pricing launch Includes all database features Deployment Multi-Tenancy Security & Compliance SOC2 report, GDPR-ready DPA Support Community Slack & Email Sign up $16/month minimum usage”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Create your first index for free, then pay as you go when you're ready to scale.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Kind of free offer
- Turbopuffer
- No free offer
- Pinecone
- Free tier
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“turbopuffer pricing launch Includes all database features Deployment Multi-Tenancy Security & Com”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Starter For trying out and for small applications. Start for Free Free [...] Database Storage Up to 2 GB Up to 10 GB Unlimited $0.33/GB/mo”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- Turbopuffer
- Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium.
- Pinecone
- Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Turbopuffer Pricing ↗
“$16/month minimum usage [...] $256/month minimum usage [...] Contact us >= $4,096/month 35% usage premium”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Builder NEW For solo developers and small teams. Get Started $20/month flat [...] Standard POPULAR For production applications at any scale. Start Free Trial $50/month min. usage You'll be charged a minimum of $50/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Turbopuffer
- Usage-based, against a monthly minimum per plan: $16 Launch, $256 Scale, $4,096 or more for Enterprise, which the page also marks with a 35% usage premium.
- Pinecone
- Usage-based on the Standard plan, with a $50/month minimum before pay-as-you-go charges apply.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“$16/month minimum usage [...] $256/month minimum usage [...] >= $4,096/month 35% usage premium”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“You'll be charged a minimum of $50/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
- Turbopuffer
- 20 public regions listed in the docs: 10 on AWS, 9 on GCP and 1 on Azure (eastus2); dedicated and BYOC clusters elsewhere on request.
- Pinecone
- Starter is AWS us-east-1 only. Builder, Standard and Enterprise get all available regions across AWS, Azure and GCP.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Regions ↗
“All Regions Region Location Browser RTT aws - ap-southeast-2 Sydney, Australia [...] gcp - asia-northeast3 Seoul, South Korea [...] azure - eastus2 Virginia, US”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Cloud Availability AWS AWS, Azure, GCP AWS, Azure, GCP AWS, Azure, GCP Region Availability us-east-1 All available regions All available regions All available regions”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Uptime SLA
- Turbopuffer
- 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $4,096/month). Launch and Scale publish no uptime SLA.
- Pinecone
- 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $500/month minimum usage). Starter, Builder and Standard publish no uptime SLA.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“Support Hours 24/7 Support SLA Uptime SLA 99.95% Contact us >= $4,096/month”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“everything in Standard 99.95% uptime SLA Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Private Endpoints Customer Managed Encryption Keys”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Max vector dimensions
- Turbopuffer
- 10,752 maximum dimensions for dense vectors; 1,024 maximum dimensions per sparse vector (sparse total dimensions unlimited)
- Pinecone
- Up to 20000 dimensions per dense vector field (minimum 1), per the create-index schema in API version 2026-07.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Limits ↗
“Max dimensions for dense vectors 10,752 Max total dimensions for sparse vectors Unlimited (seen: 30,522) Max dimensions per sparse vector 1,024”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Create an index - Pinecone Database API reference (2026-07) ↗
“description: The number of dimensions in the dense vectors stored in this field. type: integer format: int32 minimum: 1 maximum: 20000”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Similarity metrics supported
- Turbopuffer
- Cosine distance is documented as a supported metric (used in the SDK's example code); the full list of supported metrics wasn't confirmed beyond this.
- Pinecone
- cosine, dotproduct or euclidean, chosen per dense vector field when the index is created.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Turbopuffer documentation ↗
“distance_metric="cosine_distance"”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
- Create an index - Pinecone Database API reference (2026-07) ↗
“The distance metric used for similarity search. Possible values: `cosine`, `dotproduct`, or `euclidean`.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Hybrid search (vector + keyword)
- Turbopuffer
- Supported
- Pinecone
- Supported — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Hybrid Search — turbopuffer docs ↗
“To improve search quality, multiple strategies can be used together. This is commonly referred to as hybrid search. turbopuffer supports vector search and BM25 full-text search.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone documentation ↗
“To get the best of both, use hybrid search — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
Metadata filtering
- Turbopuffer
- Exact attribute filters on every query (and/or/not, eq, in, contains, range); the planner combines the attribute index with the ANN index.
- Pinecone
- Supported — Pinecone indexes metadata so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Query documents ↗
“Exact filters for attributes to refine search results for. Think of it as a SQL WHERE clause. [...] When combined with a vector, the query planner will automatically combine the attribute index and the approximate nearest neighbor index for best performance and recall.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone documentation ↗
“Pinecone indexes metadata for filtering, so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
Support on entry paid plan
- Turbopuffer
- Community Slack and email on Launch, the entry paid plan. Scale adds a private Slack channel with 8-5 hours; Enterprise 24/7.
- Pinecone
- Community support via Discord on Starter; free support on Builder, the entry paid plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“Support Community Slack & Email Private Slack Channel Support Hours 8-5 [...] Support Community Slack & Email Private Slack Channel Support Hours 24/7”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Community Support via Discord [...] Prometheus and Datadog monitoring Includes Free support Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
SOC 2
- Turbopuffer
- SOC 2 Type 2 audited for security and availability controls; report and penetration test available on request from the Trust Center.
- Pinecone
- SOC 2 Type II, audited annually, covering security, availability and confidentiality controls.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer undergoes System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 audits of the design and operational effectiveness of security and availability controls. You can request a copy of the latest SOC 2 report and Penetration Test from our Trust Center”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“SOC 2 Type II Annual audits. Controls for security, availability, and confidentiality.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
HIPAA
- Turbopuffer
- Customers storing PHI may request a Business Associate Agreement; turbopuffer commits to the HIPAA requirements on business associates. Pricing page lists the HIPAA-ready BAA on the Scale and Enterprise plans, not on Launch.
- Pinecone
- HIPAA: BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customers who wish to store protected health information (PHI) in turbopuffer may request a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with turbopuffer, under which turbopuffer commits to compliance with the requirements of HIPAA on business associates that store and process PHI.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“HIPAA BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Turbopuffer
- Data stays in the region selected unless the customer moves it via the API; GDPR/CCPA Data Processing Addendum offered to all customers.
- Pinecone
- GDPR: data processing agreements, EU data residency and right-to-erasure support.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customer data inserted into one region remains in that region, except when requested by the customer via the turbopuffer API. [...] turbopuffer provides a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) for all customers to enable compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“GDPR Data processing agreements, EU data residency, and right-to-erasure support.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
PCI DSS
- Turbopuffer
- Payment card data subject to PCI DSS is Prohibited Data under the terms of service; customers must not use the Service with Prohibited Data. Contractual restriction in the terms of service, not a statement about audit scope.
- Pinecone
- Master Subscription Agreement forbids using the Services to process credit or debit card numbers, which it defines as Restricted Information. The only carve-out is HIPAA Information where an Order contemplates it and a BAA is executed.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer terms of service ↗
“credit, debit, or other payment card data subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards [...] Customer must not use the Service with Prohibited Data or for High Risk Activities”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Master Subscription Agreement ↗
“Customer must not use the Services to process any Restricted Information. [...] “ Restricted Information ” means the following categories of Personal Information: (a) patient, medical, or other protected health information regulated by the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“ HIPAA Information ”); (b) credit, debit, bank account, or other financial account numbers”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- Turbopuffer
- Customer data always encrypted at rest with AES-256, and in transit with TLS 1.2+; optionally with a customer's own key.
- Pinecone
- Stored data encrypted with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customer data and usage data is always encrypted in transit with TLS1.2+. Customer data is always encrypted at rest with AES-256”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Security overview - Pinecone Docs ↗
“Pinecone encrypts stored data using the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) encryption algorithm.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Customer-managed keys
- Turbopuffer
- CMEK on the Enterprise plan using keys from the customer's own KMS/EKM; the encryption key is defined at the namespace level.
- Pinecone
- CMEK using keys you manage in AWS KMS on Pinecone-managed projects; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer offers support for customer managed encryption keys (CMEK), allowing customers on the Enterprise plan to ensure their data is encrypted using keys from their Key Management System (KMS)/Enterprise Key Manager (EKM). [...] the encryption key is defined at the namespace level.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Configure CMEK - Pinecone Docs ↗
“CMEK allows you to encrypt your data using keys that you manage in your cloud provider's key management system (KMS). Pinecone supports CMEK using Amazon Web Services (AWS) KMS. [...] A Pinecone Enterprise plan”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- Turbopuffer
- No built-in row or document-level RBAC; docs say permissions have to be implemented at the user level with query filters. Statement is about row/document-level RBAC; no org-level role model is documented either way.
- Pinecone
- Role-based access control over users, service accounts and API keys; roles managed in the console or via the Admin API.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Permissions ↗
“Permissions in turbopuffer currently have to be implemented at the user-level with filters, as turbopuffer [...] provide built-in mechanisms for row/document-level RBAC.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Security overview - Pinecone Docs ↗
“Pinecone uses role-based access controls (RBAC) to manage access to resources. Service accounts, API keys, and users are all principals [...] You can manage roles in the Pinecone console or programmatically with the Admin API.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- Turbopuffer
- Private connections from customer VPCs to multi-tenant regions on the Enterprise plan: AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect.
- Pinecone
- Private Endpoints via AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, up to 10 per project; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer supports private network connections between customer VPCs and our multi-tenant regions [...] This feature is available to customers on the Enterprise plan. AWS regions use AWS PrivateLink GCP regions use GCP Private Service Connect”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Configure Private Endpoints - Pinecone Docs ↗
“This page describes how to create and use Private Endpoints to connect to Pinecone through AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, keeping your traffic private from the public internet. [...] A Pinecone Enterprise plan [...] Private Endpoints are configured at the project-level and you can add up to 10 endpoints per project.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- Turbopuffer
- Dedicated single-tenancy clusters in further regions, or BYOC clusters inside the customer's own VPC on AWS, GCP or Azure, spun up on request. Pricing page lists Single-Tenancy and BYOC under Deployment on the Enterprise plan only.
- Pinecone
- Dedicated reserved-compute deployment, plus BYOC: a privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Regions ↗
“In addition to these public clusters, we run dedicated clusters in various other regions for single-tenancy customers and in any region inside your VPC in AWS, GCP and Azure (BYOC). We can spin up dedicated or BYOC clusters in hours upon request”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“Dedicated Reserved compute for predictable performance. Ideal for consistent throughput requirements. [...] BYOC Database A privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud account. Data never leaves your VPC”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Turbopuffer or Pinecone?
Turbopuffer: Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium.
Pinecone: Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum.
Free tier: Turbopuffer or Pinecone?
Turbopuffer: No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan.
Pinecone: Yes
Should I choose Turbopuffer or Pinecone?
Pick Turbopuffer if Teams that want vector search billed like storage rather than compute — object-storage-backed pricing tends to undercut memory-resident vector databases at rest, especially for large, cold datasets.
Pick Pinecone if Teams that want a fully managed vector search product with hybrid search and metadata filtering built in, and don't want to operate the underlying index themselves.
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