Pinecone Introduces Free Inference API in Public Preview, Expanding Access to AI Capabilities Until July 2024

Between the Apr 1, 2024 and Jul 1, 2024 captures of Pinecone's pricing page, Pulse recorded 15 changes: Pinecone Inference API introduced in Public Preview - free until July 1, 2024, then $0.08/M tokens (included in Starter with up to 5M tokens/mo); Projects limit increased - Standard plan allows up to 20 projects, Enterprise allows up to 100 projects (vs 1 project in Starter); Single sign-on (SSO) added to Enterprise plan; Namespace limit per index increased - Standard plan offers up to 10,000 namespaces per index, Enterprise offers up to 100,000 namespaces per index (vs previous Public Preview limit); Removed promotional $100 usage credits offer that expired June 1, 2024; Prometheus metrics support added to Enterprise plan; Enterprise tier serverless Read Units pricing increased from $8.25 to $16.50 per 1M Read Units (100% increase); Starter FREE plan introduced with up to 2GB storage (300k 1,536-dim vectors), 2M Write Units per month, 1M Read Units per month, 1 project, up to 5 indexes, and up to 100 namespaces per index; Pod-Based Indexes introduced as an alternative to Serverless Indexes, available in Standard (starting at $0.096/hr) and Enterprise (starting at $0.144/hr) plans; Enterprise tier serverless Write Units pricing increased from $2.00 to $4.00 per 1M Write Units (100% increase); Enterprise plan introduced for mission-critical production applications with serverless writes at $4.00 per 1M Write Units (2x Standard), reads at $16.50 per 1M Read Units (2x Standard), SSO, Prometheus metrics, and Private Link support; Standard plan introduced for production applications at any scale with unlimited serverless storage at $0.00045 per GB/Hour, unlimited writes starting at $2.00 per 1M Write Units, unlimited reads starting at $8.25 per 1M Read Units, and pod-based indexes starting at $0.096/hr; Private Link support added to Enterprise plan (Public Preview); Pinecone transitioned from serverless-only Public Preview pricing (pay-per-use calculator) to structured tiered plans with Starter FREE, Standard, and Enterprise tiers; Free tier introduced with Starter plan - includes 2GB storage (300k 1,536-dim vectors), 2M Write Units per month, 1M Read Units per month, up to 5 indexes, up to 100 namespaces per index, and up to 5M tokens/mo for Pinecone Inference API. Pulse files it as a pricing change (feature added, limit increase, discount removed, price increase, new plan, package change, freemium change) with an upward direction. Pulse's latest capture (Oct 3, 2026) lists Builder at $20, Standard at $4 Write Units (M) + $0.15 Restore from Backup (GB), Enterprise at $0.1 GB egress per month + $500 subscription, HIPAA Compliance at $190 and Developer Support at $29.

Pinecone's previous recorded change was "Pinecone Transitions to Serverless Usage-Based Pricing, Restructuring Free Tier and Removing All Previous Plans" (Q1 2024). Pinecone has been tracked since 2023-12-22.

In the same window Qdrant and Elastic also changed their Data & Analytics pricing pages. Those moves are listed further down, and the Pulse Agent can compare them side by side.