6 best vector databases for RAG in 2026

01

PineconeBest managed

Managed vector database for RAG and semantic search

Stores embeddings and queries them by similarity, with keyword search and metadata filters alongside the vector index. Aimed at teams building RAG or agent retrieval without running their own database.

02

QdrantBest free cloud tier

Open-source vector database in Rust, with managed cloud clusters

Stores and searches vectors with metadata filters applied during HNSW traversal. Apache-2.0 to self-host; Qdrant Cloud adds managed clusters on AWS, GCP or Azure.

03

WeaviateBest hybrid search

Open-source vector database with hybrid vector and keyword search

Stores objects and their vectors together, so vector similarity search can be combined with keyword filtering in one query. Self-host under BSD 3-Clause, or run it managed on Weaviate Cloud.

04

ChromaBest to start with

Open-source vector database with a hosted serverless option

Stores embeddings and runs vector, full-text, regex and metadata search over them. Self-host the Apache 2.0 database, or hand it to Chroma Cloud, which reached general availability in August 2025.

Stores and searches embeddings for AI retrieval, with metadata filtering and hybrid search. Deployment ranges from a pip-installable library to a Kubernetes-native distributed cluster.

06

LanceDBBest embedded option

Open-source multimodal lakehouse with vector and full-text search

Keeps embeddings and raw data in one table on object storage, and runs vector or full-text queries with SQL filters over that same table.