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Zilliz Cloud

Embeddings 5.2/10 Jun 17, 2026

Fully managed, Milvus-powered vector database for AI, RAG, and semantic search, with a perpetual free tier.

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Zilliz Cloud scores 5.2/10 for free value in Embeddings. The main constraint: One Free cluster per organization with 5 GB storage (~1M 768-dim vectors), 2.5M vCUs/month, and up to 5 collections, no credit card required.

Category Embeddings Kind Managed Vector DB Caveats Free cluster is limited to one per org on a shared GCP environment, capped at 5 collections and 2.5M vCUs/month, with reduced rate limits (2 MB/s writes, search nq <= 10, topK <= 1,024) and no SLA. Exceeding the monthly vCU allowance pauses workloads until reset or upgrade. Renewal monthly Card required No Eligibility anyone

Free value score

5.2 / 10
Show the math
Overall 5.2/10
value = 5.2/100
weighted_components_v1
Free value 3.4/10
value = 1.5 $/mo
fixed_log_v1
Search fit 6/10
value = 6/100
policy_score_v1
Access 8.3/10
value = 8.3/100
policy_score_v1

Key metrics

1 tokens/mo Monthly tokens policy_default: Conservative scoring fallback: no renewable monthly token allowance is published in this item.
1 tokens/min Tokens/min policy_default: Conservative scoring fallback: no comparable token throughput allowance is published in this item.
5 GB Storage

What you get

5 GB storage and 2.5M vCUs/month free, perpetually, with no credit card

Fully managed Milvus, the leading open-source vector database, on GCP

Up to 5 collections with AUTOINDEX, hybrid search, and core APIs

Built-in encryption in transit and at rest, plus console-managed backups

Gotchas

  • 5 GB storage per cluster

    The Free cluster is capped at 5 GB of storage, equivalent to roughly 1 million 768-dimensional vectors per cluster.

  • 2.5M vCUs per month

    Read and write operations consume virtual compute units (vCUs); the Free plan includes 2.5 million vCUs per month, after which workloads are throttled/paused until the monthly reset or an upgrade.

  • Up to 5 collections

    A Free cluster allows a maximum of 5 collections (Serverless allows 100).

  • One Free cluster per organization

    Only 1 Free cluster is permitted per organization; you can drop and recreate it but cannot run multiple Free clusters.

  • GCP-only shared environment

    Free clusters run only on Google Cloud in a shared (multi-tenant) environment, with no dedicated compute, auto-scaling, replicas, or VPC peering.

  • 2 MB/s insert/upsert rate

    Free clusters are limited to 2 MB/s for insert and upsert operations, versus 10 MB/s for Serverless.

  • Reduced search limits

    On Free clusters search nq must be <= 10 and topK <= 1,024 entities, and a maximum of 2 shards is allowed per collection.

  • No uptime SLA

    No uptime SLA is offered on the Free plan; SLAs (99.95%+) require Enterprise or higher paid plans.

  • No advanced security/governance

    SSO (SAML), granular RBAC, audit logs, private endpoints, CMEK, and HIPAA eligibility are reserved for paid Enterprise/Business Critical plans.

Sources

  • "A Free cluster is limited to 1 per organization. - A Free cluster includes 5 GB capacity, up to 2.5 million vCUs per month, and up to 5 collections."

    https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/limits

  • "5 GB storage / 2.5M vCUs per month included / Up to 5 collections / Start for Free"

    https://zilliz.com/pricing

  • "Zilliz Cloud offers a free cluster that allows you to use basic vector database features at no cost... 5 GB storage (Enough for 1M 768 dim vectors.) 2.5M vCUs per month, Up to 5 collections. To start, simply register an account on Zilliz Cloud. No payment information is required."

    https://docs.zilliz.com/docs/free-trials

  • "By the end of 2024, Milvus and Zilliz Cloud had over 10,000 global enterprise customers."

    https://cloud.google.com/customers/zilliz
vector-database milvus rag semantic-search embeddings ai managed gcp
Open service Source ← All Embeddings

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