Pinecone drops Starter 1M token promo, gates cross-region restore to paid tiers
What happened
Between the Oct 2, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026 captures of Pinecone's pricing page, Pulse recorded 2 changes: New Cross-region restore row in database comparison table: not available on Starter or Builder; Standard and Enterprise list 'Cross-region transfer pricing applies'; Starter plan Assistant Input Tokens promo removed: 'Promo: 1M/mo, try Pinecone Marketplace' dropped; Starter back to 500k/mo included. Pulse files it as a pricing change (discount removed, feature added) with an upward direction. The current page 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.
It lands 4 days after Pinecone's previous change, "Pinecone raises Enterprise namespaces per index limit tenfold to 1M" (Sep 29, 2026). Before that Pulse recorded "Pinecone launches Nexus, an agent knowledge engine, via request-only trial" (Sep 21, 2026), "Pinecone: Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) added to Enterprise plan" (Jul 17, 2026) and "Pinecone adds egress pricing: $0.10/GB overage past 100GB on top plans" (Jul 6, 2026). Pinecone has been tracked since 2023-12-22.
In the same window Elastic, Zilliz, Redis, Weaviate and Chromatic also changed their Data & Analytics pricing pages. Those moves are listed further down, and the Pulse Agent can compare them side by side.
- Starter · DiscountRemoved
BeforeStarter plan Assistant Input Tokens promo
AfterNot listed
- Starter, Builder, Standard · FeatureFeature added
New Cross-region restore row in database comparison table: not available on Starter or Builder; Standard and Enterprise list 'Cross-region transfer pricing applies'
| Plan | Field | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Discount | Starter plan Assistant Input Tokens promo | Not listed | Removed |
| Starter, Builder, Standard | Feature | New Cross-region restore row in database comparison table: not available on Starter or Builder; Standard and Enterprise list 'Cross-region transfer pricing applies' | Feature added | |
Values as written on Pinecone's public pricing page in the two captures Pulse compared; where the page states no number, the cells give the wording before and after.
Evidence
The two captures Pulse comparedFull-page captures of Pinecone's pricing page (pinecone.io) from Oct 2, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026; the change is marked in the lower part of the page, where the Starter plan Assistant Input Tokens promo no longer appears.
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Pinecone, the last 90 days
Full history- Oct 3, 2026improvedPinecone drops Starter 1M token promo, gates cross-region restore to paid tiers · this change
- Sep 29, 2026improvedPinecone raises Enterprise namespaces per index limit tenfold to 1M
- Sep 21, 2026packagingPinecone launches Nexus, an agent knowledge engine, via request-only trial
- Jul 17, 2026improvedPinecone: Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) added to Enterprise plan
- Jul 6, 2026packagingPinecone adds egress pricing: $0.10/GB overage past 100GB on top plans
Across Data & Analytics in the same window
All Data & Analytics changes- ElasticSep 14Elastic splits out new Elasticsearch Vector Database product tile
- ZillizSep 7Zilliz: Added free community Slack support to Free & Standard plans
- RedisSep 7Redis: Pro plan swaps auto-tiering for Data Integration (RDI)
- WeaviateJul 27Weaviate: Premium plan SLA lowered (99.95% → 99.9%)
- ChromaticJul 20Chromatic relabels snapshots as "billed," trims Pro's overage pricing bullet
Questions about this change
Did Pinecone raise prices in October 2026?
No list-price increase was recorded between Oct 2, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026. The change Pulse detected was a pricing change: discount removed, feature added.
What changed on Pinecone's pricing page between Oct 2, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026?
Starter discount: Starter plan Assistant Input Tokens promo → Not listed, removed; New Cross-region restore row in database comparison table: not available on Starter or Builder; Standard and Enterprise list 'Cross-region transfer pricing applies'. Pulse compared the captures it took on Oct 2, 2026 and Oct 3, 2026; the before/after table above lists each item as written on the page.
How often does Pinecone change its pricing?
Pulse recorded 4 other pricing-page changes for Pinecone in the 90 days before this one; the previous change was "Pinecone raises Enterprise namespaces per index limit tenfold to 1M" on Sep 29, 2026; Pinecone has been tracked since 2023-12-22.